On 16 February, Ensemble intercontemporain premiered Máté Bella’s Hesperus for viola and chamber ensemble at Radio France's Présence Festival. The composition was commissioned by EIC, soloist was Odile Auboin, the concert was conducted by Dylan Corlay.

About Hesperus, Máté Bella wrote: "In Greek mythology, the name Hesperus refers to the evening star, or the planet Venus, that appears in the evening sky after sunset. In this work, I primarily use low dynamics and fast, almost meccanico rhythm. For a long time, I have been interested in writing slow and long musical processes where we progress from noise-like musical elements to sounds, or from sounds to noise. The tone of the work aims to create a world for the listener, where they are looking at a scintillating star in the night sky. I chose the apparatus to create sounds that are soft and smooth, as if I was painting with watercolour on a great canvas. The viola solo emerges from this timbre with its lyric or dramatic melodies. In the piece, I also experiment with creating undetermined sound with metric notation. The rhythm does not have a pulsation in the classic sense, the described time signature is primarily to help synchronizing the performers.” 

Photo: Ensemble intercontemporain