A Connection with “Past Lives”
Written by Jonathan Lee Jordan
We had the pleasure of sitting down with acclaimed composer Luis Gustavo Prado during an open rehearsal with the Haven String Quartet (HSQ), just ahead of the season’s first chamber concert, New Beginnings. Prado’s latest work, Past Lives, marks the debut of his first official string quartet composition—a deeply evocative piece born of years of collaboration with HSQ and his long-standing relationship with Music Haven, drawing on his personal reflections and memories.
Past Lives begins with the cello, as if awakening—a profound awareness taking shape, spanning an eternity of past existences. This initial movement speaks to the notion of life’s “starting point,” a moment of arrival that transcends time to embrace the present with all its vividness. The piece then sweeps listeners through the delicate threads of life itself, contemplating the end and what might lie beyond.
Serving as the thread interwoven throughout the piece is a lullaby, a melody Prado’s mother sang to him as a child, echoing his memories of her enduring influence.
“She was the artist of the family. A poet from a family of poets. She was the one who brought me into music,” Prado reflects. The lullaby becomes almost like an anchor within the composition, connecting moments of innocence, passion, beauty, and ultimately, loss, as it fades towards the piece’s end.
With a wry smile, Prado acknowledges his preoccupation with existential themes, “Everything I do seems to be about love or death,” he muses. Yet, in Past Lives, Prado surprises by breaking from this solemnity in a whimsical movement titled Duendes y Juguetes (“Goblins & Toys”). This playful section draws from his childhood memories of his mother’s tales of garden goblins—figures that once filled him with both wonder and fear.
“I was afraid to go into the garden at night. I was afraid of things coming from outer space, other dimensions… but in the morning it was the most wonderful garden!” he recalls.
This movement adds a lively, mischievous energy to the piece, capturing the duality of fear and curiosity, a theme that Prado brings vividly to life.
In Duendes y Juguetes, we meet Tilín (tee-LEEN)—a mischievous goblin darting through the garden. As HSQ plays through the movement, they channel both the playfulness and impish energy of this character, their instruments weaving in and out like shadowy figures stealthily racing through the garden. That is until Tilín appears one last time before vanishing, bidding farewell to a time where imagination and wonder were boundless, giving way to a more somber reflection: adulthood’s ego-driven climb.
Prado explains the following movement to be a descent into the grinding monotony of daily life, or as he calls it, “giving into the machine.” Here, the piece conjures a sense of eerie disorientation, a hint of the soul’s confinement within routine.
The piece plays out much like a cinematic score and Greek tragedy, hitting an auditory climax before descending into the falling action—a somber burial hymn that tugs at the heartstrings of every listener. The lullaby returns, but this time, it fades like the last ember of a wildfire, rising into the air, beyond the clouds, and into the cosmos—returning to the place from which it came.
While deeply personal, the piece was crafted to be subjective, inviting listeners to infuse it with their own experiences—as though it were an algorithm designed to sync with each person’s unique journey. Ultimately, it’s a meditation on the shared human experience.
Pondering his own existence and own life experiences, Luis leaves us with these words:
“A composer is made up of many lives.
All of their influences, all inspirations from the past are present in their work. A musical composition is a time machine as opposed to a time capsule. A capsule exists in contrast to the time in which it is opened. A time machine, however, takes you to another era.
You witness the moment of creation.”
Past Lives premiered at HSQ’s first Chamber Series Concert of the season, aptly titled “New Beginnings,” along with HSQ’s new formation, featuring Linda Numagami (viola) and longtime Music Haven Resident Musician Patrick Doane (violin). Also making his long-awaited debut was Resident Pianist, Jacob Wang, who gave a beautiful interpretation of Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quintet alongside the quartet.
Keeping up with the theme of “New Beginnings,” longstanding supporters of HSQ noted the updated “dueling violin set-up,” as stated by Linda Numagami, with first and second violins facing each other, framed by the viola and cello at the base. Luis Gustavo Prado himself finds this arrangement particularly well-suited to Past Lives, enhancing the rich textures and emotional complexity woven throughout the piece.
Luis Gustavo Prado is one of Music Haven’s Featured Artists/Composers for the 2024-2025 season.