The notion of « original version» is not only important for period instruments, as this production of Janacek's two quartets will show. To accompany the critical edition of the score about to be published by Bärenreiter, the Diotima Quartet, holder of the exclusive rights on this edition, has chosen to play this version, which at last conforms to the wishes of the composer. The second quartet has been recorded in the two possible formations, a quartet with alto and a quartet with viola d'amore. This disc was recorded in the mythical Aldeburgh concert hall, much loved by Benjamin Britten.
