Après l’Orage

by Thomas Enhco

for accordion and string quintet, accordéon et quintette à cordes, after Beethoven’s Piano Sonata opus 111

duration : 4 min 30 / 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

« Opus 111, the last of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, is also one of his latest works for the piano ; it is often considered as his “Farewell to the piano”. That’s why I wanted to pay tribute to him in this very different instrumentation, accordion and string quintet.

I chose to focus on the theme of the second movement, Arietta, a pure and simple melody in C major from which Beethoven wrote six monumental variations of an immense rhythmic and thematic richness.

I imagined that we are at the end of Beethoven’s life, his deafness is now total and his song is peaceful and bright, like a rainbow after the storm, when the sun breaks through the last drops rain, and cold and hot at the same time.

I kept the measure at nine beats (three times three) and I played with the rhythm and the « carrure » (superposition of 3 and 4 on the strings), over which the accordion distorts and shifts the pattern to as the harmony changes, then plays lyrical variations as if he were improvising.

The central part, which highlights the quartet, is in A minor as the second theme of Arietta, and makes fit three cells of three, like Russian dolls : a « carrure » by three measures, each measure with three beats, each beat divided into three eighth notes. It’s a faint echo of the thunderstorm as it rolls away on the horizon.

The harmonics of the strings, at the beginning and the end, evoke this scintillating and fragile light, like a glass harmonica which would accompany the song of the accordion. »

Thomas Enhco

Après l’Orage is a piece for accordion, string quartet and double bass lasting 4’30 minutes. Freely inspired by Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Sonata opus 111, composed for the programme NEUF, it is recorded on the album of the same name released in November 2020 on the label Mirare.