Somehow they have it with Italy, the four string players from Paris. They chose the famous painter from Livorno as their namesake, and the greatest violin makers from Cremona built their instruments. And now the quartet also looks programmatically towards the Apennine Peninsula: the young composer (and violinist) Élise Bertrand has written the "Modiglianis" a work on Italian themes. And Mediterranean lightness also reigns in Mozart and Hugo Wolf. Beethoven's Opus 59 No. 1, on the other hand, can be considered one of the most daring and ambitious string quartets of the 19th century. Written in 1806 for Count Rasumowsky, the Petersburg envoy to the Viennese court, it prominently quotes a Russian theme.

Information about the Modigliani Quartet's commission for Elise Bertrand (*2000): Lui e Loro for string quartet

Under the pines and cypresses that surround the Abbey of Monte Cassino lie the remains of war, shrapnel and soldiers; the inhabitants on the ground. In the midst of all this destruction, the white statue of Christ remains immaculate. He looks up at the sky and his curls are intact. Spared from human violence, the statue carries a message of hope and resilience among the smoking rubble. Through a musical narrative in several sections, we hear the bombings, the fear, the march, the processions, a rain of hell around the Abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy. And this intact statue of Christ, which teaches us, comforts us and calls on us to put a stop to this violence. The quartet ends in a pure, consonant harmonic fabric, as if soothed by this message of hope.