15 January 2022 BOZAR - Brussels When Philip Glass was asked to compose

18 January Le phénix scène nationale incidental music for a Broadway production of

Valenciennes King Lear in 2019, he immediately knew he wanted

20 January Maison de la Culture Bourges
to write for string quartet : “I know how to write
for string quartet. I love its range of emotion.”

23 January Tandem scène nationale Arras Indeed, this concert version of the play’s score is

his ninth work for string quartet, a medium he

27 January De Singel - Antwerp
employs to great effect to depict the tumult,

28-30 January Opéra de Lyon violence, and despair at the heart of

Shakespeare’s classic tragedy.

2023 ,
Wigmore Hall USA tour

To capture the world of King Lear in music Glass ,

immersed himself in the historical background that

may have influenced its conception : “I began

picturing what it must have been like to see this

TANA QUARTET piece for the first time in 1606. The Gunpowder

,
KING LEAR
Plot had happened only months before in

,
November and the theatres were closed until the

spring . If the insurrectionists had had their way ,

, ,
2022,
the whole government including the king would
In the Tana Quartet will collaborate
have all gone down . That was an astonishing
with composer Philip Glass for the premiere
event to happen in England , and it tore the

of his String Quartet No . 9, based on his country apart . The idea that part of the

earlier score for the Broadway production population would try to take down the

.
of King Lear This new work will be premiered government — it was shocking.”
at Bozar in Brussels , followed by

performances in France , Belgium , England , For the original Broadway production Glass spent ,
,
.
weeks observing the actors in rehearsal
and the US The program places the drama
absorbing the play during the day and composing
and thunder of King Lear alongside the Caroline Shaw Plan & Elevation (2015) 15 min. in the evenings . In this concert version , the stark

— ’ ’
. 9, "King Lear"
richness of Schubert Glass s favorite dramatic landscape unfolds through Glass s
Philip Glass String Quartet No
composer — and the freshness of young
(2021) 30 min. characteristic repetitive structures , oscillating

Pulitzer -
Prize winning composer Caroline harmonies and gently swaying rhythms ,
. Franz Schubert String Quartet No . 14 in
D minor D. 810, "Death and the Maiden"
punctuated by icy textures heralding the
Shaw

(1824) 40 min. monumental storm to come .