And Half a Year the Night Lasts

The first movement resembles a sound mobile, where instruments move in different rhythms, sometimes coinciding, sometimes clashing, creating the impression of disagreement or error. The second movement embodies a romantic character, yet in its center an attempt is made to destabilize the structure harmonically and timbrally, leading to a piercing viola solo. In the reprise, however, Romanticism triumphs once again, declaring its unyielding presence.

The third movement takes the form of a grotesque, militaristic toccata, while the fourth becomes an act of repentance — a procession through a ruined city. Here inner drama merges with the search for new forms of expression, revealing how the personal and the historical intertwine through sound.

The title also carries a secondary layer of meaning, referencing Ingmar Bergman’s film “Smiles of a Summer Night”. In the film, the summer night “smiles” three times — at lovers, at fools, and at the desperate. In this light, the final three movements of the quartet can be heard as such smiles: the second to lovers, the third to jesters, and the fourth to those who have endured fear and despair.