Quatuor Diotima

Quatuor Diotima was awarded first prize at the FNAPEC Competition, Paris in 1999, and the Contemporary Music Prize at the London String Quartet Competition in 2000, in which year they began a two-year residency at the Centre Européen de Musique de Chambre, Fontainebleau.

Their repertoire ranges from Haydn to the composers of our time, with particular focus on the Classical period, French Romanticism, the early Twentieth Century, and a selection of major works from the last 50 years. An equally significant part of their activity is the performance and dissemination of newly commissioned works, in major venues across the globe.

Diotima’s discography includes works by Helmut Lachenmann and Luigi Nono (‘Diapason d’or de l’année’ – Young Talents prize), a quartet cycle by Alberto Posadas ("Diapason d’or", November 2009), and quartets by George Onslow ("Diapason" ‘CD of the month’, January 2010). Their latest CD comprises works for voice and string quartet by Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, with Sandrine Piau and Marie-Nicole Lemieux.

Helmut Lachenmann, no doubt one of the most influential living composers, developed a novel conception of “instrumental musique concrète” an approach that took both instrument and instrumentalist to the boundaries of the playable, in a style that is both systematic and critical. His third quartet, "Grido" (2001), continues this path whilst reaching out to reinterpret tradition.

James Dillon is one of the most significant contemporary composers working in the UK. Born in Glasgow, Dillon is virtually self taught musically, something that hasn’t prevented him from being awarded numerous prizes including four Royal Philharmonic Society Composition awards. Dillon’s music, both rigorous and immediately captivating, springs from a vast range of listening and performing experiences, from pop and bagpipe music to the classic traditions of northern India and the European avant-garde. The String quartet No. 6 (2010) was commissioned by SWR for the Donaueschinger Musiktage.

The concert program includes seminal works by Debussy and Webern that in different ways defined the evolution of the string quartet in the 20th century.