Benjamin Britten:

String Quartet no. 2

Three Divertimenti for string quartet

String Quartet no. 3

Total timing;                    69’47

Catalogue no.:                SON 10903

“A comparison with the Amadeus’s authority in these works does the newcomers no harm ...... Nobody who buys this new discs is likely to regret it” Editor’s Choice, Gramophone, June 2010

“The Elias Quartet jumps into the musical deep end with a classy recording of Britten’s challenging chamber music”, Editor's choice, Classic FM Magazine, May 2010

Together with Mendelssohn (from whom the quartet take their name), Benjamin Britten is a composer very close to the hearts of the Elias String Quartet.  The quartet have close associations with Aldeburgh, and for the third of their own discs they have embarked on the first in a cycle to record all Britten’s music for string quartet.

Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976)

String Quartet no 2 in C, Op. 36 (1945)

1.    I.     Allegro calmo, senza rigore    

2.    II.    Vivace                           

3.    IIII.  Chacony: Sostenuto             

Three Divertimenti (1933-36)

4.    I.    March                           

5.    II.    Waltz

6. 6.   III.   Burlesque
   

String Quartet no 3, Op. 94 (1975)

7.    I.    Duets: With moderate movement

8. 8.   II.   Ostinato: Very fast
   

9.    III.  Solo: Very calm

10.  IV.  Burlesque: Fast, Con fuoco

11. 11.  V.  Recitative and Passacaglia (La Serenissima):
    

12.         Slow - Slowly moving
    

Recorded:                        Potton Hall, Suffolk , 4-7 November 2008

Producer:                         Jeremy Hayes

Recording & editing:        Peter Newble

Executive producer;         Paul Segar