Quatuor Magenta performs Merlin, Bacewicz, and Fanny Mendelssohn

The Quatuor Magenta take to the stage of the 2026 Festival Singer-Polignac for a mesmerizing showcase of female composers across three centuries. The first commission of the Quatuor Magenta, Raphaël Merlin’s La Jeune Fille pays tribute to Winnaretta Singer, who established the Fondation Singer-Polignac in Paris to showcase her commitment to artistic, literary, and scientific patronage. The program continues with Grażyna Bacewicz's first string quartet, written in 1938 after she had spent a few years with Nadia Boulanger honing her craft. The composition is vivid and dramatic, blending French influences with the melodic patterns of a traditional Lithuanian folk song. 100 years earlier, Fanny Mendelssohn composed her String Quartet in E-flat Major, which displays extraordinary expressive freedom. Although Mendelssohn had already composed 250 pieces by this point, she remained mindful of the period’s social conventions and did not intend to publish her work. Despite — or perhaps because of — this privacy, Mendelssohn’s quartet is bold, intense, and heartfelt.