Dessau's String Quartet movement was written while he was also working on Brecht's opera Puntila. After Brecht's death in 1956 Dessau found himself looking for a new direction. On the one hand he was still working on music begun in collaboration with the poet, while on the other hand Dessau was trying to work towards a socially oriented musical aesthetic, which led him to compose songs for political purposes. Even this Quartet movement does not owe its inspiration purely to an artistic vision. In spite of its technical demands, the piece is intended to be comprehensible and could even be played by an amateur ensemble in its cleverly reduced form. Only discovered after the composer's death, the Movement for String Quartet is published for the first time in this edition. / Quatuor A Cordes

Par SUK JOSEF. First scholarly-critical edition The single-movement String Quartet #2 by Josef Suk (1874-1935) was written at the height of his compositional powers. Completed in Krecovice in May 1911, this demanding work, with its complex harmonies and motivic structure, seemed avant-garde for its day: the Berlin premiere of November 1912 was accompanied by protests from the audience. Now Zdenek Nouza has edited the first scholarly-critical edition of this piece. The principal source is the first edition in full score, published by Simrock in Berlin. But Nouza has also consulted the printed parts (containing additions of great interest to performers) as well as the engraver's copy used for the printed score (with autograph corrections from the composer) and additional sources such as sketches. - First Urtext edition - Foreword (Cz/Ger/Eng) and Critical Commentary (Eng) by the editor/ Répertoire / Conducteur de Poche

Born in South Africa, but now an Irish citizen, Kevin Volans' musical idiom has been shaped by an unusually diverse range of experiences, including studies with Stockhausen in Cologne, field trips to South Africa to study traditional music, his own involvement with the New Simplicity movement, his collection of contemporary art and African textiles, friendships with composers like Morton Feldman and Gerald Barry, as well as a love of virtuoso piano music which he performs, broadcasts and records. While having an easily recognised, unique voice, Volans' music resists compartmentalisation. He is as comfortable working in conventional genres as embarking on innovative collaborations with artists of other disciplines.String Quartet #1 (White Man Sleeps) was written for the Kronos Quartet and was first performed by them in July 1986, London.The title 'White Man Sleeps' comes from a moment in nyanga Panpipe music where the performers leave off playing their loud pipes for a few cycles and dance only to the sound of their ankle rattles, to let the white landowner sleep - for a minute or two.'In composing this piece I drew from the following sources: the first movement owes something to the style of Basotho concertina music - the second and fourth movements are drawn from traditional Nyungwe music played by Makina Chirenje and his Nyanga panpipe group at Nsava, Tete, Mozambique, recorded and transcribed by Andrew Tracey (to be found in an article entitled 'The nyanga Panpipe dance' in African Music, Vol.5, #1 (1971) - the third movement derives from the San bow music (recorded by Tony Traill of the University of Witwatersrand) and from Basotho lesiba music, transcribed by myself - in the fifth movement I added my own invented folklore. My approach to the original music was anything but purist - it is played in Western tuning, filtered, slowed down by a few 'time-octaves?, cast into non-African metres (like the 13-beat pattern of the first dance) and redistributed between the players in several ways. I also used interlocking techniques where they were absent in the original models and vice versa' - Kevin VolansDuration 24 minutes. Parts available: CH61205. / Quatuor A Cordes (Conducteur)

Par VAUGHAN WILLIAMS RALPH. 'Quartet In C Minor' is in four movements with a total duration of about 25 minutes. The opening Allegro is similar in style to Dvorak in its lyricism, though there is a darker, more brooding atmosphere towards the close. It is tempting to detect a hint of folk-song in the theme of the Andantino, played by the viola, but that may be stretching hindsight too far. The movement has a wistful melancholy that carries over into the following Intermezzo, a song-like episode containing some of the most virtuosic writing in the work. The last movement is a theme and six variations with a fugal ending. The theme is ballad-like with a suggestion of 18th-century elegance. Modality creeps into the second Adagio variation and there is rhythmic exhilaration in the succeeding Presto. What can be admired in this attractive quartet is its conciseness. This String Quartet was his first major composition of any kind./ Répertoire / Trio ou Quatuor à Cordes