LUCIEN DUROSOIR (1878-1955): String Quartets No. 1 in F Minor, No. 2 in D Minor and No. 3 in B Minor.

Description: The first quartet is Durosoir's first completed composition (1919-20). Shades of the Ravel quartet can be heard now and then and, in its slow movement, an eloquent grief and dignified lament for the war dead can be imagined. The other two date from 1922 and 1933-34; all have a sort of tension between nervous, agitated fast passages and slower, more meditative ones and a significantly personal use of counterpoint is evident throughout. Quatuor Diotima.