Paul Novak,
winning composer of the 2022 call for scores
Paul Novak - @Acadia Mezzofanti
Since 2022, Lontano Quartet have maintained a special relationship with the American composer Paul Novak : winner of the first call for compositions launched by the quartet, he won the first place among nearly 400 applications from around the world:
his string quartet "a string quartet is like a flock of birds ", thus obtains to be recorded by the quartet to appear in the album "La Montagne magique".
The same year, Paul Novak was also awarded the Audience Prize at the Festival des Musicales d'Assy.
A collaboration for a new quartet: " gardensongs "
Buoyed by this meeting and the success of this first collaboration, the Lontano commissioned Paul Novak to create a new quartet, "gardensongs" , to be created in the summer of 2024 :
In this work, where we find Novak's own sound palette, the motif of nature is once again summoned with the image of a "magical" garden, a condensation of a nocturnal and wild life in which dance and the delicious beauty of timbres triumph.
"gardensongs" is commissioned in honor of Pia and Milena Chakraverti, and was made possible by the generous support of Meenakshi Chakraverti.
P. Novak "gardensongs" (extrait)
Paul Novak, "gardensongs" - Quatuor LONTANO (live)
"a string quartet is like a flock of birds" : écho
A powerful motif of the composer's imagination, nature was already at the heart of the quartet " a string quartet is like a flock of birds": the virtuoso ballet of the birds in flight innervated the composition, following an alternation of "dances" and "meditations", of flight and rest.
The power of this poetic and pictorial vision of the string quartet led the Lontano to collaborate with visual artist Yukao Nagemi.
