8 Timeless Pieces Arranged for String Quartet-Vivaldi was a prolific composer very much a string composer but also responsible for a wide variety of other work. This selection includes extracts from The Seasons - arguably the composer's most well-known work as well as other less well-known vocal and instrumental music. The two extracts from the concerto for two mandolins and the concerto for two trumpets remind us that the composer did not restrict himself only to concertos for string instruments.

Gabriel Fauré's only string quartet which was composed in 1923-24 is the composer?s final work and was written at the suggestion of his publisher Jacques Durand.Until then Fauré had always put off writing a string quartet evidently because of Beethoven?s imposing shadow. When Fauré composed the quartet he was already extremely ill. He added dynamics and slurs only in some parts of the exposition of the first movement and then asked his former pupil Jean Roger-Ducasse to complete the work. Roger-Ducasse?s additions were however very extensive; he even altered and supplemented some of Fauré?s own markings in the exposition.Bärenreiter's first ever scholarlycritical edition of the quartet based on vol. V/3 of the edition 'Gabriel Fauré: ?vres complètes' begun in August 2010 utilises all sources including the composer?s letters which provide valuable insights into the origins of the composition. In particular Fauré?s penultimate work the Piano Trio op. 120 was used to guide the editor with his emendations.