HENRI MARTEAU (1874-1934): Complete Works for String Quartet, Vol. 1 - String Quartet No. 2 in D, Op. 9, 8 Mélodies for Mezzo-Soprano and String Quartet, Op. 19.

Description: The 35-minute, four-movement quartet of 1905 has a contrapuntal intricacy and chromatic passages reminiscent of Carl Nielsen’s quartet. In its own way it anticipates developments later in the twentieth century while exploring all the many gives and takes of German and French musical influence. The cycle of songs was composed between 1915 and 1917 while Marteau was interned by the Germans as an enemy alien (he was a professor in Berlin when the war broke out); its difficult melodic line comes from concentration on the texts, something which may be owed to the recent example of Respighi’s Il tramonto. French-English texts. Karine Deshayes (mezzo), Isasi Quartet.