Quatuor Diotima

The Quatuor Diotima is one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world today; it was formed in 1996 by graduates of the Paris national conservatory. The quartet’s name evokes a double musical significance: Diotima is at once an allegory of German romanticism - Friederich Hölderlin gives the name to the love of his life in his novel Hyperion- and a rallying cry for the music of our time, brandished by Luigi Nono in his composition Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima. The Quatuor Diotima has worked in close collaboration with several of the greatest composers of the late twentieth century, notably Boulez and Lachenmann. The quartet regularly commissions new works from the most brilliant composers of our time, including Hosokawa, Srnka, Posadas, Lanza, Pesson, Saunders and Murail. Reflected in the mirror of today’s music, the quartet projects a new light onto the masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially Beethoven, Schubert, the Second Viennese School, as well as Janáček, Debussy, Ravel and Bartók. In the quartet’s rich discography one finds, notably, their interpretations of the Second Viennese School and the definitive version of the Livre pour Quatuor by Boulez. The Quatuor Diotima has recorded exclusively for the Naïve label for ten years; in 2016 they launched their Diotima Collection for that label, devoted to the works of major composers of our time.