The Quatour Arod, which won 1st prize at the ARD competition in 2016, celebrated its 10th birthday in 2023. Incidentally, the string quartet is named after a horse from Tolkien's „Lord of the Rings“.

Haydn's famous „Kaiserquartett“ with the melody of the German national anthem in the second movement and one of Beethoven's late quartets frame „Al Asr“ in this concert by the four French composers, a work by their young compatriot Benjamin Attahir. They premiered it in 2017 and it gradually developed over the course of the performances.

"Al 'Asr is the afternoon prayer. I tried to transcribe the atmosphere of this special moment of the day musically," describes the composer. " Glaring light, overwhelming heat, the shimmering of the air on contact with the earth's surface - so many images that accompanied me when writing this piece. But Al 'Asr is also the 103rd Sūrah of the Qur'ān, which deals with the passing of time and the future of beings. Its structure in three verses dictated the form of this quartet without prioritising the sacred text. It is always the poetic and allegorical aspect that guides my work."