Pour Quator á Cordes-Born in 1947 Laurent Duvillier-Wable trained under pianist Suzanne Joly and studied composition with Michel Puig. The latter a student of Ren? Leibowitz introduced him to the mysteries of Sch?nberg and Webern's twelve-note composition. To create a coherent œuvre Duvillier-Wable drew on the array of possibilities offered by chamber music in his series of six Sonatas composed between 1992 and 2007. Sonata IV For String Quartet was written in 1994 the year his father – painter Ren? Duvillier a friend of Charles Estienne and Andr? Breton – fell gravely ill. Divided into four movements thecomposition contains two beautifully expressive musical references: the Lamento religioso refers to Bach's Passion according to Saint Matthew by quoting the choral 'Was ist die Ursache aller solcher Plagen' (No.19: What is the cause of all this suffering?) when Jesus distressed by his imminent agony asks his disciples to watch over him. The Agitato final borrows the inexorable 'Must it be? It must!' theme from Beethoven's Quartet No.16 in F that crowns this poignant work.

Parts for String Quartet No.3 'Angel's Music' by Bent Sørensen (1988) Premiered by the Arditti String Quartet at the Danish Radio Concert Hall 16 November 1988. Score available: KP00250The composer writes:'Even when I was writing 'Adieu' I knew that I wished to write 'Angel’s Music'. The title existed in an incomplete form in my mind and gradually more and more ideas and a few outlines became clear. The actual work on 'Angel’s Music' was started in Rome where I spent the autumn of 1987 staying at 'The Danish Academy'. Whether this stay has influenced the quartet or not is impossible to say. however it is true to say that inthe Roman churches I visited I saw countless angels playing in the top of frescoes and altars. Without these angels together with the many crackled-gold paintings in this city and my general fascination with the Italian renaissance painter Fra Angelico (in fact there are only a few paintings by him in Rome but even his name..!) I am not sure my quartet would have been what it is. Anyway I do feel that there is a bit of Italy in the piece. The angels apart there are in the short rhythmic agitating part of the quartet reminiscences of the Italian medieval Trotto dance and in the most expressive part of the piece there are flashes of Puccini-like music. From the very beginning of my work on the quartet the distant extremely muted sound in the high register which opens the piece was on my mind. A sound satiated with a dense heterophonic and polyphonic texture of elegiac melody and vibrating trills. I imagined that 'little songs' (maybe angel songs) could be created in this density these songs constantly echoing themselves. Gradually as this sound got a more and more concrete musical and instrumental form I felt that not only should the 'little songs' be created played and die out in an echo but also that the general pattern of the quartet should give the feeling of music which from the distance is getting closer and closer

10 Fugues For String Quartet Vol. 2. Par BACH JOHANN-SEBASTIAN. The idea for these arrangements came to me whilst listening to the Hagen Quartet's beautiful recording of the fugues that form part of Haydn's 'Sun Quartets', Op. 20. The spirit and influence of J.S. Bach, in particular his Well Tempered Clavier, Book II, courses through these three miraculous Haydn fugues. Like the viol consort, the string quartet suits this kind of composition (the fugue), with all four instruments sufficiently similar in character to each other to match the extraordinary unity and economy of the counterpoint. A string quartet playing Bach fugues is a good example of a harmonious relationship between form andcontent: just as there is a unifying principle behind the construction of the four string instruments, so there is (usually) a single theme or subject that unifies the construction of a four-part fugue. Thus the form enacts the content, telling you something about the text and message within. Apart from Haydn's and a handful of other composers' wondrous creations, there's little fugal writing for string quartet, at least in comparison with the abundance of other forms. This was another reason to make these arrangements. The quartet offers a melodic independence impossible to achieve on a single instrument. And I believe the technical and interpretative challenges posed by this repertoire and ndash - lightness of sound and rhythmic fluidity, for example - will be very valuable to quartets seeking the holy grail: a unified sound. Perhaps the simplest and most compelling reason for this work is that I just love this music more than I can say. These dazzling pieces, mostly fast, bright and in major keys, show Bach at his most playful, funny and mischievous, composing for an instrument rarely associated with these qualities. And so I'm very happy to offer string quartets these little know fugues, written by my favourite composer - a violinist and violist himself, but above all a master / Classique / Date parution : 2018-05-04/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

For String Quartet Volume 1. Par BACH JOHANN-SEBASTIAN. The idea for these arrangements came to me whilst listening to the Hagen Quartet's beautiful recording of the fugues that form part of Haydn's 'Sun Quartets', Op. 20. The spirit and influence of J.S. Bach, in particular his Well Tempered Clavier, Book II, courses through these three miraculous Haydn fugues. Like the viol consort, the string quartet suits this kind of composition (the fugue), with all four instruments sufficiently similar in character to each other to match the extraordinary unity and economy of the counterpoint. A string quartet playing Bach fugues is a good example of a harmonious relationship between form andcontent: just as there is a unifying principle behind the construction of the four string instruments, so there is (usually) a single theme or subject that unifies the construction of a four-part fugue. Thus the form enacts the content, telling you something about the text and message within. Apart from Haydn's and a handful of other composers' wondrous creations, there's little fugal writing for string quartet, at least in comparison with the abundance of other forms. This was another reason to make these arrangements. The quartet offers a melodic independence impossible to achieve on a single instrument. And I believe the technical and interpretative challenges posed by this repertoire and ndash - lightness of sound and rhythmic fluidity, for example - will be very valuable to quartets seeking the holy grail: a unified sound. Perhaps the simplest and most compelling reason for this work is that I just love this music more than I can say. These dazzling pieces, mostly fast, bright and in major keys, show Bach at his most playful, funny and mischievous, composing for an instrument rarely associated with these qualities. And so I'm very happy to offer string quartets these little know fugues, written by my favourite composer - a violinist and violist himself, but above all a / Classique / Date parution : 2018-05-04/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

'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. Modalitycreeps 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.