This string quartet is in five movements, of which the second and fifth are by far the most elaborate. The remaining three movements are rather short, like brief vignettes.The second movement draws its inspiration from Schubert, albeit indirectly- the middle instruments in the quartet (violin 2, viola) play an accompaniment with a motif of two slurred notes, almost always in sixths.In spirit and style, the fifth movement is akin to Masques for violin and cello: a rather introspective piece, a simple compositional approach using few notes, obsessively repeated melodies, the absence of tonality, no modulation in the proper sense of the word, repetitive structures and hypnotic sequences.The movements may be played individually.Commissioned by the Spanish Center for the dissemination of Contemporary Music, 2009.Premiered on April, 27. 2009, at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (Spain), by the Capuçon Quartet. No direct sales to individuals: consult your music shop.2015 recommended retail prices excluding VAT.Works on hire: contact our Hire Department directly. / Quatuor A Cordes

Par BACEWICZ GRAZYNA. Grazyna Bacewicz realised at a very early age that her main purpose in life was to compose music. Already during the 1920s, as a student of Lódz Conservatoire, as part of her lessons in harmony and counterpoint, she made attempts at composing, in which she tried to resolve nagging technical problems and impart an artistically satisfying form to them. She grew up in an atmosphere of anti-romantic tumult and the emerging neoclassical style. She assimilated the main attributes of that current in a natural way: the need to forge logical formal constructs based on new harmonic principles, not determined by the major–minor system, and also a freedom in the shaping of textures, a fixed element of which was the combining of homophony with more or less strict polyphonic forms. One example of such a strategy is the String Quartet from her student years, signed with the date 1929–1930, which the composer did not include in her official catalogue of works. In the first movement (Allegro moderato), one can distinguish two principal subjects, served in the form of the incomplete exposition of a fugue. The chromaticised first subject, with its strongly highlighted head motif, appears in the cello, with an answer coming four bars later in the first violin. After a short bridge, the first violin intones the second subject, of a different character (dolce), and the answer appears a bar later and an octave lower in the viola. Both subjects can be heard also in the closing coda, and the space between them is filled by counterpoints based largely on ostinato figures of various sorts – a technique that Bacewicz would hone to perfection in her later work. The middle fughetta (Molto adagio), with a subject stated just once, and in only three parts (cello, first violin, viola), acts as an intermezzo. The third movement (Allegro molto moderato) is a double fugue with strongly contrasting subjects. The first subject, in the form of a chromaticised melodic continuum, exposed by the cello, is initially shown with the traditional arrangement retained (answered by the viola and second violin at a fifth, and by the first violin an octave above). The second subject (energico) is a structure shaped by the opening repetition of a motif of perfect fifths, then octaves combined with staccato-tremolo figurations. As the work unfolds, the two subjects appear simultaneously in original and inverted form, coming together in the closing Cadenza in a uniform idea crowned by strong (fff) chords repeated towards the end. - Malgorzata Gasiorowska/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

QUINTET in C Major for 2 Violins, Viola and 2 Violoncellos, Op. 163 QUARTETS for 2 Violins, Viola and Violoncello N°1 N°2 in C Major N°3 in B-flat Major N°4 in C Major N°5 in B-flat Major N°6 in D Major N°7 in D Major N°8 in B-flat Major, Op. 168 N°9 in G Minor N°10 in E-flat Major, Op. 125 No. 1 N°11 in E Major, Op. 125 No. 2 N°12 (Quartett-Satz) in C Minor N°13 in A Minor, Op. 29 N°14 in D Minor (Death and the Maiden) N°15 in G Major, Op. 161 TRIOS for Violin, Viola and Violoncello In B-flat Major In B-flat Major

Par ZEMLINSKY ALEXANDER. La musique d’Alexander Zemlinsky est longtemps injustement restée dans l’ombre de la deuxième École de Vienne, considérée comme «plus progressiste». Certes, Zemlinsky était amicalement très proche de l’une des personnalités les plus en vue de cette école, Arnold Schönberg, mais il n’a jamais franchi le pas de la radicalité dodécaphonique. Il n’en composa pas pour autant des œuvres moins originales ou moins personnelles. Et c’est justement son deuxième Quatuor à cordes, élaboré dans les années 1913-1915, qui conduisit la forme et la tonalité, telles qu’on se les représentait alors, jusqu’à leurs dernières limites. L’œuvre, en un seul mouvement, mais qui comprend plus de 1200 mesures, est d’une grande diversité, et fait partie des contributions les plus frappantes de son époque; elle avait depuis longtemps besoin d’une nouvelle édition critique. L’édition Urtext de la maison Henle corrige un grand nombre de fautes et d’imprécisions figurant dans l’édition originale, qui apparurent lors de la comparaison minutieuse faite avec les sources manuscrites autographes de Vienne et de Washington. Même les indications métronomiques transmises par Zemlinsky dans une seule correspondance épistolaire ont été pour la première fois prises en considération. Ces travaux éditoriaux ont été aimablement soutenus par le Fonds Alexander Zemlinsky de Vienne./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Par JANACEK LEOS. Janácek's 2nd String Quartet, Intimate Letters, is regarded as a highlight of the modern string quartet literature. It was written during the composer’s last year of life, between 29 January and 19 February 1928, inspired by the ageing Janáèek's exceptional love for Kamila Stösslová. The Moravian Quartet devoted themselves to this impressive work; Janácek attended a total of three of their rehearsals in May and June 1928. This had several consequences, including his abandoning his original idea of using a viola d'amore. After Janácek's unexpected death (12 August 1928) the uncertain genesis of the work became the greatest problem of the IntimateLetters : the surviving copies were not definitively authorised. The editors of this new edition have reverted to Janácek's autograph sketches as the main, most reliable source and using these as a basis, have reconstructed the work as it stood at the point of Janácek's death. The musical text, taken from the Critical Complete Edition of the Works of Leoš Janácek (Vol. E/4), therefore contains clear differences in comparison with older editions./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes