This is the live premiere performance of Geoffrey Gordon's la terre est bleue comme une orange No. 1 (the earth is blue like an orange) - a work for string quartet inspired by French surrealist poet Paul Eluard's iconic poem.

This work was commissioned by the San Francisco-based Friction Quartet and the premieres took place on 23 and 24 September 2022 at Noe Valley Ministry and Ruth Bancroft Garden in San Francisco.

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The earth Is blue like an orange

No error the words do not lie

They no longer allow you to sing

In the tower of kisses agreement

The madness the love

She her mouth of alliance

All the secrets all the smiles

Or what dress of indulgence

To believe in quite naked.

The wasps flourish greenly

Dawn goes by round her neck

A necklace of windows

You are all the solar joys

All the sun of this earth

On the roads of your beauty.

- Paul Eluard

(translated from the French)