First page of the Quintet
Quinteto / Quintet
For String QuintetCommentary
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Unlike practically all of my works composed throughout my career, this work does not arise from a previously acquired commitment with a performer or an instrumental group; on the contrary, and in the absence of a specific objective, I began to write it due to the need to work for a group that incorporated the presence of the double bass along with the string quartet, thereby creating a very different sound density that I was very interested in exploring.
Composed therefore for two violins, viola, cello and double bass, the Quintet is a work of a single movement lasting about ten minutes, in which a series of contrasting sections follow one another (energetic, lyrical, scherzante...) of a considerable rhythmic and metric difficulty -which does not make its interpretation unthinkable with a conductor in front, despite the small template-, and in which the five instruments are treated without great differentiations in terms of the equitable distribution of the material used, in a treatment similar to that used in previous works (such as the Divertimento, Aria and Serenata, from 1987, or the Four Quartets, from 1994).
The composition of the Quintet was started in Douzaynes (France) and continued in Arredondo (Cantabria), Las Navas del Marqués (Ávila) and Madrid between the months of July and September 2019, having not yet been premiered at the time of writing this commentary (March 2023).