25th Anniversary of the "Quatuor de Chartres"

"The Quatuor de Chartres is a French String Quartet which celebrates its twenty years of musical work and common passion on December 3rd, 2010. For this 25th Anniversary celebration taking place in Salle Cortot in Paris there is no doubt that its four members will both perform a masterly sample of great Classical Music and offer more original works, owing to their independent mind and taste for discovery. Mozart had to be chosen to plunge the public into an immediate festive air...then two 19th and 20th century composers will be of the party. The first one belonging to the musical circle around César Franck, the second one being a quite independent composer from the "Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris", both of them without having a musical profession. Until now, Viscount Marie-Alexis de Castillon de Saint-Victor, a previous officer, later a disciple of Cesar Franck, is rather known as a founder and Secretary of the "Société Nationale de Musique" (a typically French musical institution giving composers an opportunity for their works' first performance). But his memory remains also linked to his birthplace of Chartres. So this 25th Anniversary of a String Quartet from the same town righteously honours an author whose César Franck had noticed the genuine musical spirit. Belonging to a more recent musical period and covering the whole 20th century thanks to his long life, Maurice Journeau wrote his string quartet op.11 (Quatuor à Cordes) which he later considered as one of his characteristical works from the compositional point of view. It is the work of a young man, begun in Biarritz on Summer 1925 and ended in Nice in early 1927. The work's first performance was on January 11th, 1930, with composer Eugène Bozza and Jean Martinon as well-known violinists. It was then broadcast in March 1951 with the Quattrochi String Quartet. Then this still unpublished work was much performed in France and abroad by the "Quatuor de Chartres" and particularly for the composer's Centenary in 1998."

(Ch.Virlet)