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Artists: 
Paul Griffiths,  
JACK Quartet

Samuel Beckett, Trevor Bača: Stirrings Still

1CD
€19,99

Release date: September 4, 2026

Stirrings Still was Samuel Beckett’s last message in prose, completed in 1987, and first published the following year. More monologue than story, it comes from a narrator on the edge between life and what lies beyond, which might be a vast wheatfield seen in black-and-white, or might be a swirl of stumbling memories.Beckett cherished music, in particular the songs and string quartets of Franz Schubert. His writing is musical, in its meticulous phrasing, its use of repetition, and often its form. Stirrings Still is an example: a composition of interweavings and developments.

 

The music, created for this release by composer Trevor Bača, is no accompaniment but rather a parallel stream, heard in alternation with the words, reflecting and contemplating what they have to say. Imagined for the musicianship of the JACK Quartet, it is a stream into which the listener is drawn from time to time, not away from the words but more deeply into them, through another medium.

 

Stirrings Still was recorded in 2023 and 2024 at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano, and produced by Manfred Eicher, who has long been fascinated by the inherent musicality of Samuel Beckett’s writing.

 

Paul Griffiths Narrator

JACK Quartet

Christopher Otto Violin

Austin Wulliman Violin

John Pickford Richards Viola

Jay Campbell Violoncello

 

Tracklisting:

1.     Stirrings Still I

2.     Stirrings Still II

3.     Stirrings Still III

4.     Stirrings Still IV

5.     Stirrings Still V

6.     Stirrings Still VI

7.     Stirrings Still VII

8.     Stirrings Still VIII

9.     Stirrings Still IX

10.  Stirrings Still X

11.  Stirrings Still XI

12.  Stirrings Still XII

13.  Stirrings Still XIII

14.  Stirrings Still XIV

15.  Stirrings Still XV

16.  Stirrings Still XVI

17.  Stirrings Still XVII

Stirrings Still XVIII 

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Format Album
Release Date 2026