Jouni Kaipainen's String Quartet No. 6 'The Terror Run' Op. 92. Commissioned by the BBC Radio for the Proms concerts 2010. Dedicated to the Meta4 Quartet. Parts available: WH31197A Programme note: My former experience in writing string quartets has made me used to the idea that a piece of mine in this genre lasts close to half an hour and consists of several movements with different characters. This time the commission clearly stated a duration of 12 minutes and this naturally brought about lots of thinking and orientating. Eventually I luckily found out that I actually can alter mybasic “string quartet philosophy” so that such a short piece became an existing option. In the music itself there is nothing very much to explain. The quartet is for the most part quite lively flowing music in fast tempi. In the very beginning there is something haunting in the atmosphere but soon joyful for the most part delicately light at times maybe also “dance-like” characters take over.  But in terms of dramaturgy   the music has a tendency to grow more weighty and harsh and these quasi-violent elements gradually threaten the sunny unproblematic flow. Closer to the end we come to a point where nothing is easy anymore. This brings about a slow section of quite different nature and after that the former hilarious swing tries to make a comeback – but does not really succeed. The run goes on but the overtones are now more shadowy and the mood on the scary side. The subtitle comes from the novel The Camomile Lawn (1984) by Mary Wesley of which Ken Taylor made a wonderful TV series adaptation for Channel 4 (1992) where a marvellous casting of great actors supports the colourful beautiful and delightful story. In this novel young Sophie (gorgeously played by the 10-year-old Rebecca Hall) has eagerly waited for her older cousins to arrive to her aunt’s house at the

George Nicholson's Salut for String Quartet. The death of Peter Cropper in May 2015 was an immeasurable blow to the musical community especially to those of us who knew him not only as a wonderful wise musician but also as a warm colleague and friend. His unceasing devotion to the cause of music and to the promotion of excellent standards in performance was in my experience beyond compare. The finest tribute we can pay him is to continue to make music to the best of our ability and to go on reaching out to continue to explore and learn. I always felt that I would need to commemorate Peter in a piece for StringQuartet the medium he was most obviously associated with and in Salut it is understandably the first Violin part that has pride of place. The piece develops contrasting textures and registers and above all it is concerned with the influence of the extremely high Violin writing at the beginning on the rest of the ensemble. - George Nicholson Salut was first performed by the Ligeti Quartet Firth Hall University of Sheffield 17 May 2016.

String Quartet was composed by Mumbai-born Brian Elias in 2012 and was commissioned by the Jerusalem String Quartet. Lasting around 20 minutes this is the full score of the work arranged for Violin I Violin II Viola and Cello. The work has been laid out in the conventional four movements Allegro Adagio Presto Adagio-Allegro-Adagio but it is essentially a work in a single movement to be performed withno breaks. A set of double variations generates the thematic and harmonic material for the entire piece in its first few bars with a brilliant Viola solo afterwards. Throughout the piece changes in dynamics and tempocharacterise the different movements before finally ending with a calming return to the slow music.  You can purchase the individual instrument  Parts here.

Songs Dances and Ellipses was commissioned by the Barbican Centre for the Chilingirian String Quartet on the occasion of their 25th anniversary.Quoting Saxton: 'The title Songs Dances and Ellipses refers both to the characterand the architecture of my quartet. The fundamental nature of the relationship between the extra-human music of the spheres and human musical expression manifest in song and dance lies behind much of my music; in the case ofSongs Dances and Ellipses I was absorbed by the idea of the most humanly intimate medium - the string quartet - set in the context of the all-embracing and very real elliptical orbits of the planets. The music consists of fivelinked movements which form three larger sections. Movements one and two form the first part the central slow movement is the second part and movements four and five form the third and final section.