The quartet in a minor is one of the chamber music works with which Schubert wanted to 'pave the way to the great symphony? in spring 1824. At the same time he was paving his way to a wider audience, as the 'Rosamunde? Quartet was the first and only string quartet that was not only publicly performed in Schubert's lifetime but also published in parts. It is fortunate for us that this was the case because the autograph of this much-loved quartet is missing today and the only source for the work is the first edition. And this is precisely where the challenge lies, as the parts exhibit some inaccuracies regarding the articulation and dynamics. They have had to be carefully resolved, something which our new Urtext edition has done in an exemplary fashion. Its name can be traced back to Schubert's incidental music to the play Rosamunde, which can be heard at the beginning of the Andante. Quite a few people might, however, be reminded of the Impromptu in B flat major op. post. 142 #3, in which Schubert later once again took up the beautiful melody. / 2 Violons, Alto Et Violoncelle

Par KOLBUSZ ALEKSANDRA. Long before writing Passalega, I harboured the idea of creating some form of organically homogeneous chain of musical tensions evolving ever more distinctly into a musical utterance, although still indeterminate in terms of pitch. The tissues forming the chain of those tensions were of relatively simple design, yet in spite of this ? or perhaps because of it ? they were incredibly well suited to generating the expressive narrative that accompanied me throughout that entire pre-composition period. After recognising the character of the musical potential in that material, I considered it to be similar to Baroque rhetoric in terms of the refined clarity and smoothness of the gestures. Inspired by this, I sought to articulate this material in the fullest possible way by tracing a chain of swelling tensions, referring to a homogeneously polyphonic string quartet. / Date parution : 2022-12-12/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Par PART ARVO. Fratres (original setting for violin and piano) was commissioned by the Salzburg Festival and premiered on August 17th, 1980 at that very place (violin: Gidon Kremer, piano: Elena Kremer). Composed in Pärt's very own 'Tintinnabuli'-style, this piece allows many different settings because it is not bound to a specific tone color. 'The highest virtue of music, for me, lies outside of its mere sound. The particular timbre of an instrument is part of the music, but it is not the most important element. If it were, I would be surrendering to the essence of the music. Music must exist of itself … two, three notes … the essence must be there, independent of the instruments.' (Arvo Pärt)/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes