Composées en 1963, les Cinq Séquences pour quatuor à cordes de Maurice Ohana affirment l'orientation que le langage de ce compositeur poursuivait depuis quelques années à la recherche d'un 'tempérament perdu'.Ce sont en effet les cordes, autant que la voix humaine et la percussion, qui offrent, parmi les moyens non électroniques d'expression, les plus grandes possibilités d'explorer l'univers sonore compris entre les notes de la gamme tempérée. Ici, l'échelle en tiers de ton crée le climat mélodique et harmonique de l'ouvrage.Dès le premier mouvement, Polyphonie, le contour mélodique échappe à l'échelle tempérée, la rythmique enchevêtre en cordes pincées un contrepoint libre, l'évocation de la percussion apparaît. Le second mouvement, Monodie, donne à chaque instrument, ponctué par les trois autres, son tour d'improvisation acrobatique, humoristique ou tendre. La péroraison emprunte aux instruments d'Extrême-Orient la couleur de corde pincée métallique.Le troisième mouvement, Tympanum, est un épisode percutant où le rythme seul règne, amenant les lentes volutes du Déchant, quatrième mouvement, tout en ombres et en éclats, qui rappelle les caprices goyesques, chers à son auteur. L'hymne, qui achève l'ouvrage, carillonne et éclate en lumière dans une écriture à la fois dense et scintillante. / Quatuor A Cordes

Three arrangements including Ave Verum Corpus and the Lacrimosa from the Requiem.During the year 1771 when Mozart was 15 years old he and his father Leopold were touring Italy which was at that time the most formidable citadel of the music world. In the following four years the young Mozart was received at the homes and villas of Italy's aristocracy. He met the most famous musicians of the time including Niccolo Piccinni operatic rival to Gluck and Padre Martini from whom he was to benefit from studies in counterpoint. He also met many noted male soprano singers and for one the celebrated Venanzio Rauzzini he wrote in 1773 the motet Exsultate Jubilate from whichcomes the well known Alleluia.At the end of his life only 19 years later in Vienna 1791 Mozart was very ill and working on a number of massive works such as the operas The Magic Flute and Titus also the Requiem. Titus was completed in 18 nerve-shattering days as it had to be performed in Prague in September 1791. At its premiere it was a complete flop. This affected the now overworked almost penniless composer's spirit and he returned to Vienna suffering from mental and physical exhaustion. Rest was denied him. The Magic Flute had to be finished for its premier on September 30th 1791. The task of the Requiem still faced him. In this weakened state Mozart thought that he was in fact writing his own requiem reading evil omens into the commissioning of the work. He thought someone had calculated the precise time of his death and was thus troubled with sombre thoughts. He completed the first two of the twelve parts. The next six parts were in an unfinished state and his manuscript ceased at the Lacrimosa. Süssmayer who was working closely with Mozart at the time was given the task of finishing the Requiem.Ave Verum Corpus is also one of his final works. It is a setting of an anonymous hymn written as a motet for Anton Stoll the choirmaster at Baden in June 1791.Mozart was a composer of great genius who