Download the PDF programme here. Reproduction and distribution is strictly prohibited.

Debussy composed just one work for the quartet medium – an early work, dating from 1893 – but it is one of the finest and most beloved of its period. The composer dedicated it to his fellow composer Ernest Chausson, and it was premiered in Paris by the Ysaÿe Quartet. Earlier still Debussy had been an organ pupil of César Franck, whose impassioned masterpiece closes the programme. In between, Debussy’s contrasting dances of 1904 are heard in a new arrangement.