Founded in 1998 at Pro Corda, Suffolk, the multi-award-winning Doric String Quartet describes recording Brittens quartets as a significant milestone: In our recording we have endeavoured to tread a line that brings out the humanity in these works but also recognises the need for distance and fragility. This is very personal and intimate music, yet also world-encompassing and timeless. The Quartet continues: Another feature of this recording is that Hlne Clment, our violist, is playing on Benjamin Brittens own viola. This instrument (on loan from the Britten-Pears Foundation) was made in 1843 in Milan by Francesco Guissani. It was previously owned by the composer Frank Bridge who gave it to Britten, as a departure gift when Britten and Pears set sail for the USA in 1939. Hlne Clment writes: To be able to explore the music of Britten with the very sound that the composer had in his ears is the greatest honour and joy I could have imagined.

Doric String Quartet
Alex Redington violin
Jonathan Stone violin
Hlne Clment viola
John Myerscough cello

CHAN20124 Released 2019