In Memoriam

by Thibault Perrine

for accordion and string quintet, after Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7

duration: 7 min / commissioned by Félicien Brut

creation : January 2020, at the Festival “La Folle Journée de Nantes” – Nantes (FRANCE)
with the Quatuor Hermès and Édouard Macarez

recording : album “NEUF” published in November 2020 by Mirare
with the Quatuor Hermès and Édouard Macarez

« April 12th, 1945. On the evening of his life, old Richard Strauss put an end to one of his last masterpieces, Les Métamorphoses, a sort of twilight lament of almost half an hour entrusted to 23 soloists strings, like so many voices from a great lamentation choir. On the last page, a quote from Beethoven’s Funeral March from the Symphony n°3, and the words “IN MEMORIAM! added by hand… As if, on the ruins of civilization, after more than twelve years of Nazism and the final collapse of his country, Strauss had felt the need to recall here what had brought art to the highest and German culture, in the early hours of romanticism, when the humanism of a Goethe or a Schiller still seemed to be able to change the world.

In Memoriam… Composed from elements taken from the Allegretto from Beethoven’s symphony n°7 (the other funeral march) to celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth, at a time when barbarism seems more than ever to take over our old continent that we thought was safe from wars, this piece is a modest tribute to the victims of modern barbarism, here embodied by an incessant knell and the eight notes of an obstinate motif. Eight notes, like so many letters of the name of a place that has forever become a symbol of suffering, atrocity, mourning… »

Thibault Perrine

In Memoriam is a 7-minute piece for accordion, string quartet and double bass. Freely inspired by the second movement of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, composed for the NEUF programme, it is recorded on the album of the same name released in November 2020 on the label Mirare.