During his residency at the Camargo Foundation, Francisco Alvarado worked on two pieces: a stringquartet, commissioned by the Quatuor Diotima, called wie die zarten Blüten im Winter and an ensemble piece, commissioned by the Ensemble C-Barré, from Marseille. The first piece, which title is taken from one of Friedrich Hölderlin's poems, dedicated to his muse Diotima, explored the contrasting attributes contained in the winter flower. This image (which appears at the beginning of Holderlin's poem Diotima ) holds at least two meanings (which might be contradictory) that inspired the composition of the piece. On the one hand — as the poet explicitly mentions — the fragility and, on the other, the resistance in loneliness and facing the storm ( 'und in frostiger Nacht zanken Orkane sich nun' ). This piece also makes reference to Luigi Nono's work Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima (1979-1980), from which the French quatuor takes its name. The second piece, for the ensemble C-Barré, was a work in progress and explored the possible relationships between electronics treatments and plucked string instruments, conceiving a common acoustical space. This piece is written for harp, electric guitar, cymbalom, doublebass & electronics.