6. Main Evening Concert
Saariaho’s ‘Terra Memoria’ is dedicated ‘for those departed’. She wrote: 'I feel when writing for a string quartet that I'm entering into the intimate core of musical communication.' Saariaho died two years ago and this profound quartet helps us remember her and the works she left behind for us. Janáček’s ‘Intimate Letters’ tells the story of the great unconsummated love that consumed and inspired him in his last years, where to the consternation of most but not all viola players he replaces the viola with the viola d’amore with its extra resonating strings. Few violists have the courage to present this quartet as the composer intended creating a whole new sound world. Barry Douglas, who also performed in our very first Festival back in 1996, plays Schubert’s tremendous A minor Sonata composed exactly 200 years ago, famous for its slow movement variations that Schubert himself was especially pleased about. During its composition Schubert was unable to afford his own piano and had to visit a friend who had one and would signal by opening or closing his curtains whether Schubert was welcome to come and play it or not. Under such restrictions were some of the greatest work in the canon composed. Barry Douglas has recently recorded all the great Schubert Sonatas.
