Lucien Durosoir's music is like nothing you have ever heard before. As exemplified in this revelatory Alpha disc of his three string quartets, Durosoir's music is tonal in orientation but often so chromatic it becomes functionally atonal, contrapuntal in texture with lines so free they become virtually independent, and passionate in expression with emotions so powerful they would overwhelm the music if not for the composer's complete control of his materials. Born in 1878, Durosoir had a career as first-rank violinist before the Great War took the 36 year old into the trenches. After surviving the war, Durosoir turned to composition with a passion and produced more than two dozen works in less than 20 years. Neglected by the French musical establishment during the composer's lifetime and ignored after his death in 1955, Durosoir's music has only been rediscovered due to the energetic advocacy of his son and daughter-in-law, and this is only the second disc entirely devoted to his works. Played with amazing confidence and technical assurance by the
Quatuor Diotima and recorded in clear, close sound by Alpha, this disc deserves to be heard by everyone who enjoys European chamber music written between the wars.