For string quartet
String Quartet
No. 7 · Désir
Lera Auerbach’s seventh numbered string quartet, Désir, is a thirty-five-minute chamber work in three movements: a quartet of silence, seduction, longing, memory and inward pursuit.
Commission
Commissioned by Pittsfield South Mountain Concerts.
Premiere
8 September 2013. Pittsfield — Borromeo String Quartet.
Movements
1. Compagnon de silence
2. Agenda de Don Juan
3. Rêves et dances de désir
Work Information
String Quartet No. 7
2. Agenda de Don Juan
3. Rêves et dances de désir
Borromeo String Quartet.
The Work
Désir, Lera Auerbach’s String Quartet No. 7, places the quartet under the sign of desire: not only romantic desire, but also longing, hunger, memory, absence, pursuit and the magnetic force of the unreachable.
Its three French-titled movements — Compagnon de silence, Agenda de Don Juan, and Rêves et dances de désir — suggest a psychological progression from silence and companionship to seduction, dream and the choreography of desire.
Commissioned by Pittsfield South Mountain Concerts and premiered in Pittsfield by the Borromeo String Quartet, the work extends Auerbach’s ongoing exploration of the quartet as a theatre of memory, language, tension and inner drama.
- Désir A French title suggesting longing, attraction, pursuit and absence.
- Three Movements Silence, Don Juan, dreams and dances of desire.
- Borromeo Quartet First performed in Pittsfield by the Borromeo String Quartet.
Context
String Quartet No. 7 “Désir” follows String Quartet No. 6 “Farewell” in Auerbach’s quartet cycle. The sequence suggests a powerful emotional turn: from departure and closure toward longing, pursuit and the unresolved energy of desire.
As chamber music, it is presented here with the official Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski work and purchase pages rather than rental-material links.
Publisher and Materials
Published by Sikorski / Boosey & Hawkes. The score and parts for this chamber work are available through the official Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski work and purchase pages.