NOVO Quartet II

Jüri Reinvere's Four Quartets 3. & 4.

& Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor for piano and string quartet

For many, the thundering cascade that opens Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor immediately conjures images of the wild landscapes of Western Norway. Few opening bars in music history are more famous. 

In Per Tengstrand’s arrangement for piano and string quartet, however, the familiar notes sound different. Grieg’s immortal melodies and harmonies remain, but the sound is stripped back and vulnerable. In these more intimate surroundings, one of Grieg’s greatest hits may reveal a new, inner landscape. 

Nature also plays a central role in Estonian composer Jüri Reinvere’s Four Quartets, written between 2011 and 2024. Reinvere sets his own poetry within a distinctive and colourful sound world, with each quartet connected to a physical place. In the third, the sounds and views of the Swiss Alpine village of Iet form the backdrop to a lyrical journey from the creation of the world into eternity. 

Reinvere drew inspiration from T. S. Eliot, who wrote his poems Four Quartets in the shadow of the Second World War. Like Eliot’s cycle, Reinvere’s work is both a celebration of life and a profound reflection on existence. 

The fourth quartet moves to an urban setting full of contradictions. Prospekt Mira, or Peace Avenue, is both a grand boulevard and a metro station in Moscow. Here, reality and illusion, conflict and cooperation, war and peace come into focus. Recordings from Red Square enter the soundscape, giving these themes an inescapable contemporary resonance.  

Yet Reinvere’s distinctive work reaches beyond the immediate brutalities of war, viewing them against the vast scale of eternity. And perhaps, somewhere within it, there are glimpses of hope. 

The first and second quartets can be heard the previous evening in the same hall.

Bus to Troldsalen

Reserve a free seat on the bus to Troldsalen when purchasing your concert ticket. The bus departs one hour before the concert starts from the Tourist Information Centre, Strandkaien 3 in Bergen city centre, and returns to the city centre after the concert.

Contributors

• NOVO Quartet
  Kaya Kato Møller violin
  Nikolai Vasili Nedergaard violin
  Daniel Śledziński viola
  Signe Ebstrup Bitsch cello

• Pianist to be announced

Works

• Jüri Reinvere (1971–)
  From Neli kvartetti. Four quartets
  3. let
  4. Prospekt Mira

• Interval

• Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)
  Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 16
  1. Allegro molto moderato
  2. Adagio
  3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato
  Arr. Per Tengstrand

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