String Quartet No. 3 by Philip Glass was originally composed for Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, a 1985 American biopic about the legendary Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, who famously attempted a coup and then committed suicide by seppuku. Through each of the six movements of the concert version of the quartet, the music corresponds with a particular event or person from Mishima's life. The three sections presented in this concert include the pensive first movement, primarily consisting of variations of a repeated minor-mode harmonic progression, builds on a structure emphasizing Glass' characteristic use of shifts between duple and triple metrical accentuations. The fifth movement alternates between pulsed chords and rich polyphonies while the final movement circles around familiar chordal progressions underneath a lush violin line torn between rapid arpeggiation and a drawn-out, expressive melody on a two-note motif.

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Programme

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Philip Glass

String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima” (Selection)

 

I           1957 – Award Montage

V          Blood Oath

VI         Mishima/Closing

Credits

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Music

Philip Glass

 

Choreography

Paolo Mangiola

 

Musicians

Marcelline Agius – violin  

Klara Nazaj – violin 

Nadia Debono – viola  

Ákos Kertész– cello  

 

Dancers

Pearl Calleja

Matheiu Chabaneix-Amor

Tara Dalli

Felix Deepen

Ibai Jiminez Gorostizu-Orkaiztegi

Andrea Martín Albert

Nicole Micallef

Keith Micallef

Simon Riccardi-Zani

Amber Van Veen

 

Videography & Editing 

Sebio Aquilina Audiovisual