Paramyth 1 - 3 / 3 String Quartets

“Paramyth 1-3” is a string quartet cycle composed over the years on commission for various festivals and for three different ensembles. From the outset, it was clear to Clemens Gadenstätter that the individually composed pieces were intended to form a cycle as a whole. Several years after the individual premieres, the entire cycle was performed for the first time by the Arditti Quartet on October 9, 2020. The conceptual starting point of “Paramyth 1-3” is fundamental human activities that can be performed or imagined, but are less desired to be experienced, such as flaying, slitting, and tearing. Three paintings in particular illustrate these aspects in a distinctive way: Tiziano’s “The Flaying of Marsyas,” Matthias Grünewald’s Crucifixion panel from the Isenheim Altarpiece, and Francis Bacon’s study after Velázquez’s portrait of Pope Innocent X. “Paramyth 1-3” is the musical setting of these three experiences and their condensation in art. Clemens Gadenstätter (* 1966) is an Austrian composer and conductor who has received commissions from many major institutions and ensembles, including the Berlin Music Biennale, the Salzburg Festival, Südwestrundfunk (Donaueschingen Music Days 2001, 2005, 2012), and the ORF. The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974 that focuses on 20th- and 21st-century music. Hundreds of compositions have been dedicated to the quartet by renowned composers such as Benjamin Britten, John Cage, and György Ligeti.