The Full Score for Peter Maxwell Davies’ fourth in a series of ten string quartets commissioned by the Naxos Recording company first performed by the Maggini Quartet on 20th August 2004 at the Chapel of the Royal Palace Oslo Norway as part of the Olso Chamber Music Festival. Composer Note: The fourth Naxos quartet was written in January and February of 2004 with the intention of producing something lighter and much less fierce than itspredecessor an unpremeditated and spontaneous reaction to the illegal invasion of Iraq.I returned to the well-known Brueghel picture of children's games (1560 now in Vienna) which had been the inspiration for my sixthStrathclyde Concerto for flute and orchestra. These illustrations liberated my musical imagination but I feel it would limit the listener's perception to be too specific about which game relates to exactly which section of thework. Suffice it to say that there is vigorous play - leap-frog bind the devil with a cord truss wrestling - alongside quieter pastimes - masks guess whom I shall choose courting odds and evens. The single movementjuxtaposes these activities as abruptly and intimately as they occur in Brueghel. Rather as the eye is taken into different perspectives and proportions of scale within the picture taking liberties which would never be presentin for instance Brunelleschi architectural drawings so here with a constant sequence of transformation processes I have distorted the neat precise implications of modal progression expressed in the unison opening phrase(from F to B through A sharp/B flat) so that the ear is led en route into the sound equivalents of strange passageways and closed rooms: sicut exposition ludus. As work on the quartet progressed I became aware that Iwas reading into and behind the games adult motives and implications concerning aggression and war with their consequences. It was impossible to escape into innocent childhood fantasy. The nature of the F to B

Demanding salon music for string quartet (with double-bass ad libitum) is provided by Wolfgang Birtel in his 'Latin Dances' with four titles which can be played individually or as a little suite. The first dance is the chorinho 'Não me toques' by Zequinha de Abreu (1880-1935) who not only wrote 'Tico Tico' but also other rousing pieces of music. Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934) is considered to be the 'inventor' of the Brazilian tango and waltz: He titled the waltz, which follows as second title, 'Ingenious'. These rather unknown titles are followed by two absolute worldwide hits: 'Bolada de Aficionado' by A.G. Villoldo and then the everlasting beguine 'Bésame Mucho' by the Mexican composer Consuelo Velázques (1916-2005). Whether individually or as a 'four-pack' - the fingers will be twitching and the toes will be tingling for this music carries away musicians and audience alike. / Quatuor A Cordes

Urtext Edition-Brahms had already composed over 20 String quartets (he confessed to a friend that he had burnt all of that ?stuff?) before he finally presented his Opus 51 to the public. In the end only three surviving works managedto withstand his high self-criticism; numerous layers of corrections bear witness to his struggle with each detail. We are now publishing the two passionate dark Quartets Op. 51 separately from the rather more lively Opus67. The basis for this edition is the volume in the New Complete Edition of Brahms? works published in 2004 by Henle for which previously missing sources in a Swiss bequest were consulted for the firsttime.

During his time in America (1892-95) Dvorák suffered with homesickness. It was whilst living in New York that he began his String Quartet In A Flat Major but he did not complete the piece until afterhis return to Bohemia in December 1895.There is no trace of the influence of Indian or African-American music in this his final chamber work; rather the piece is striking for the amount of cantabile themes and motives and their contrasting and artistic treatment. It seems that his relief at seeing his children and family again directly influenced the work. Dvorák himself wrote in a letter during its composition that 'Almighty God hasgranted us this cheerful moment and thus we all feel unutterably happy'.This Henle publication is the first Urtext edition of the Quartet since 1955.