Doric String Quartet - Henry Purcell, Benjamin Britten: String Fantasias in Four Parts, String Quartets Nos 1-3, Three Divertimenti

Founded in 1998 at Pro Corda, Suffolk, the multi-award-winning Doric String Quartet describes recording Britten�s 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 H�l�ne Cl�ment, our violist, is playing on Benjamin Britten�s 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.� H�l�ne Cl�ment 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.�