Par BARTOK BELA. Bartok's 'String Quartet No. 5' was commissioned by the formidable Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, leading patron of chamber music in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century. Bartok is alleged to have composed the work in a one-month span of isolation in 1934, and it received its premiere in Washington, D.C. by the Kolisch Quartet in 1935. The String Quartet No. 5 was published shortly thereafter by Universal Edition, who now incorporates the score into their UE Study Score Series in a handsome new publication./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

At the end of the 18th century the town of Cádiz in southern Spain provided the backdrop for a Passion to mark Christ?s hour of death; its focal point was the reading and interpretation of Christ?s last words. Haydn wascommissioned to write short meditative music to be played alternately with the readings. Haydn composed a work for orchestra. Due to its success the publisher commissioned Haydn to make an arrangement for string quartet. As thewind instruments double the strings for the most part only a few changes had to be made to the string parts. Here is the Henle Urtext Study Score of Joseph Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ arranged for StringQuartet based upon on the musical text of the Haydn Complete Edition.Also available as part of a 12 part set including all Haydn's works for String Quartet Cat. No. HN9216

Kevin Volans' String Quartet No. 9: Shiva Dances was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and first performed by the Smith Quartet at the 2004 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.Kevin Volans (the composer) notes on the piece:In the past I have been interested in trying to go beyond historicism (1970s) beyond style(1980s) and beyond form (1990s) in my work. Looking back over the music of the twentiethcentury I was struck by the fact the nearlyall of it is extremely 'busy' almost cluttered. Italmost seemed that composers felt compelled to look industrious. In the new millennium Ithought it would be interesting to try and eliminate content. I also aspired to movingfrommusic (sound as art) to art (art as sound). This of course has already been done by a numberof composers (many from New York Phil Niblock and La Monte Young to name but two) butit was something I had never tried.AlthoughI found it annoying that the label 'minimalist' was given to my African-based work and fearing this would make the label stick I set out to write a piece which reflected my loveof minimal painting and architecture. The Japanesehave a term 'wabi' meaning 'voluntarypoverty' or 'emptiness' to describe their restrained minimal aesthetic an aesthetic which however pays greatest attention to the quality of material and fine detail. I like to think thatthelack of excessive pitch material in this piece reflects a kind of voluntary poverty.When Shiva is portrayed dancing (as Nataraj) He is depicted in a circle of flames crushing asmall figure the ego underfoot.You get theimpression He dances on the spot not movingaround at all. I like that.The piece is dedicated to Pablo Pascual Cilleruelo.

Lubo? Fi?er (1935?1999) was one of the most distinctive figures of Czech music in the 20th century and composed the Variations on an Unknown Theme in 1976. The ?unknown theme? was a prankish eight-bar theme from Fi?er?s student days. In the elation following the home-team win over Canada on 15 March 1959, he made a bet with his colleague Kalach to compose a concert piece for violin and orchestra with the working title ?Canada-Rondo?. The whimsical contest was abandoned, but Fi?er did not forget the theme and he later created variations on it for his new composition for the Talich Quartet. The Variations on an Unknown Theme have now been published for the first time ever. This edition is based on the autograph of the score which is housed in the Czech Museum of Music in Prague.

Complete Study Score edition. 'This is a 'Ninth' and no mistake. . .the most significant British string quartet of the century. . .'David J Brown Tempo March 1985