The Austrian premiere of Quadern de Haikus (Haikus' Notebook) for small chamber ensemble by Benet Casablancas, will take place on 19 October. It will be performed by the Ensemble Reconsil Wien, conducted by Antanina Kalechyts from Vienna's Reaktor Hall.
The piece will have following country premiere performances in 2023; firstly on the 5 February with a premiere in Tokyo, Japan by Ensemble Nomad, conducted by Norio Sato and later in Argentina’s Buenos Aires with Grupo Encuentros, conducted by Alicia Terzian.
Quadern de Haikus was commissioned by Plural Ensemble and the resulting project was awarded a "Premis Barcelona 2020" grant by the Barcelona City Council (ICUB). Its world premiere took place in autumn 2021 as part of a tour that took the aforementioned ensemble to Seville, Valencia and Zaragoza, conducted by Fabián Panisello. Subsequently, the work was presented in Barcelona on 13 and 14 January this year by the group Barcelona Modern, directed by Xavier Pagès-Corella.
The Quadern de Haikus (2021), written for five musicians and conceived as a personal notebook, responds to the impulses and sensations experienced during the strange and difficult times during the pandemic and lockdown. The successive miniatures are inspired by the formal concision and essentiality of the poetic form of haiku, aspiring to capture the brilliance of the instant with the expressive immediacy and internalised spontaneity of Japanese poetry and calligraphy. Several of them are dedicated to friends - musicians, poets, painters - often resorting to acrostics, and their character is highly contrasted: some are festive - tributes, congratulations - some are true laments, and others are stylised evocations of moods and landscapes.
At the same time, Quadern de Haikus will be recorded by the Ensemble Moonwinds and art director Joan Enric Lluna and will form part of the new monographic album "Benet Casablancas: The Clarinet Music" produced by the Columna Música label, due for release in November 2022.
