SERGEI RACHMANINOV (1873-1943): String Quartets No. 1 and No. 2, PETER TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893): String Quartet No. 1 in G, Op. 11.

Description: The two unfinished quartets of Rachmaninov's youth are still very rare repertoire - in the 15 years we've been running RI, we've never been able to offer a new recording of the Second (1896), the longer of the two (21 minutes here). Elements of Russian folk music are rare but not absent and late 19th century French influences are also there in the First (1889) but the main attraction is the long Andante molto sostenuto of the Second, a striking, death-haunted dirge with its basis in Orthodox chant. Quatuor Élysée.