This string quartet is in five movements, of which the second and fifth are by far the most elaborate. The remaining three movements are rather short, like brief vignettes.The second movement draws its inspiration from Schubert, albeit indirectly- the middle instruments in the quartet (violin 2, viola) play an accompaniment with a motif of two slurred notes, almost always in sixths.In spirit and style, the fifth movement is akin to Masques for violin and cello: a rather introspective piece, a simple compositional approach using few notes, obsessively repeated melodies, the absence of tonality, no modulation in the proper sense of the word, repetitive structures and hypnotic sequences.The movements may be played individually.Commissioned by the Spanish Center for the dissemination of Contemporary Music, 2009.Premiered on April, 27. 2009, at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (Spain), by the Capuçon Quartet. No direct sales to individuals: consult your music shop.2015 recommended retail prices excluding VAT.Works on hire: contact our Hire Department directly. / Quatuor A 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 Edition of Joseph Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ arranged for StringQuartet based upon on the musical text of the Haydn Complete Edition.

Composer pianist writer and educator Joaquin Turina was born in Seville in 1882 and was active mainly in Spain until his death in 1949. His work is influenced by traditional Andalusian idioms. The Serenata is no exception. In it Turina employs all his French classical training filtered through Spanish sonorities to make a sophisticated an appealing work of chamber music. Originally Turina had included a part for bass which was lost.