Sonata IV

Born in 1947, Laurent Duvillier-Wable trained under pianist Suzanne Joly and studied composition with Michel Puig. The latter, a student of René Leibowitz, introduced him to the mysteries of Schönberg and Webern's twelve-note composition. To create a coherent œuvre, Duvillier-Wable drew on the array of possibilities offered by chamber music in his series of six Sonatas, composed between 1992 and 2007. Sonata IV For String Quartet was written in 1994, the year his father – painter René Duvillier, a friend of Charles Estienne and André Breton – fell gravely ill. Divided into four movements, the composition contains two beautifully expressive musical references: the Lamento religioso refers to Bach's Passion according to Saint Matthew by quoting the choral "Was ist die Ursache aller solcher Plagen" (No.19: What is the cause of all this suffering?) when Jesus, distressed by his imminent agony, asks his disciples to watch over him. The Agitato final borrows the inexorable "Must it be? It must!" theme from Beethoven's Quartet No.16 in F that crowns this poignant work.