Flinders Quartet at Montsalvat – Musical Friends

Can music describe a person?

Flinders Quartet explores this with new pieces by Eötvös, Singh, and Nicolas, and Borodin’s second quartet.

Mendelssohn famously said, ‘It’s not that music is too imprecise for words, but too precise…’. Flinders Quartet has always loved this quote and decided to explore this idea by pairing two composers, Melody Eötvös and Rishin Singh, living on opposite sides of the world in a musical letter writing project. The premise being that one composer begins the conversation by writing a short section, which is sent to the other composer who absorbs the music and writes a short section in return. Flinders Quartet are, in effect, the go-between.

Natalie Nicolas’ By the Tide of the Moon captures the strength and beauty of Aida Tuciute, a Lithuanian Olympic swimmer with a love of ocean swimming; while Borodin’s second quartet depicts the love of his wife and their first three glorious months of marriage spent in Heidelberg. The themes of love, letter writing, and communication through music are counterbalanced with the crystalline brilliance of Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor, which celebrates the sheer joy of music for music’s sake alone.

Artists

Elizabeth Sellars Violin
Wilma Smith Violin
Helen Ireland Viola
Zoe Knighton Cello

Program

Natalie Nicolas
By the Tide of the Moon – World premiere

Commissioned by Andrew Domasevicius-Zilinskas for Flinders Quartet and dedicated to Aida Tuciute, and her beautiful kinship with the ocean.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K.546

Melody Eötvös / Rishin Singh
The Letter Writing Project – World premiere

Commissioned by Flinders Quartet with the support of Kim Williams AM and FQ Syndicate #6.

Alexander Borodin
String Quartet No.2 in D

Please note: This is an offsite concert, taking place at Montsalvat in Eltham. 

Melbourne Recital Centre is the authorised ticket seller for Flinder's Quartet events at Montsalvat.

Click here to learn more about Montsalvat.