The String Quartet

1. Con moto, ben sostenuto
2. Molto tranquillo
3. Impetuasamente
4. Con spirito
5. Adagio cantando
6. Allegro con grazia

Performers: Allegri String Quartet

Radio recording 1988

Bernard van Dieren (1887-1936) – String Quartet No. 6 (1928)

1. Energico
2. Cantabile
3. Furioso

Performers: Utrecht String Quartet

CD: Donemus

In British music life, Rotterdam-born composer Bernard van Dieren was an outsider. He emigrated to England in 1909. Shortly before the war, in 1912, he composed a one-movement atonal string quartet that did not fit into the signature of British music at the time, where he had become a respected part. The following five quartets are also exceptional in their texture, capriciousness, and inventiveness.

Van Dieren had been a music correspondent in Berlin in 1911 and 1912, where he befriended Ferruccio Busoni and Arnold Schoenberg, who worked as teachers. Back in London, he became one of the central figures of English music life as a composer, writer, and art connoisseur. Van Dieren initially wrote his Fifth string quartet in 1925 for highly unusual instrumentation: violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Then, in 1931, he created the version for the standard string quartet. The Sixth string quartet was formed in 1927.