Diotima Quartet: Lachenmann

The Strad Issue: February 2026

Description: A long composerly association reaps rewards in these stellar performances

Musicians: Diotima Quartet

Works: Lachenmann: String Quartets: no.1 ‘Gran torso’, no.2 ‘Reigen seliger Geister’, no.3 ‘Grido’

Catalogue number: PENTATONE PTC5187223

A touchingly personal note in this rewarding release’s booklet explains the Paris-based Diotima Quartet’s 25-year relationship with Stuttgart-born Helmut Lachenmann. It’s one in which the composer’s single-minded devotion to what he calls ‘instrumental musique concrète’ and his sometimes demanding methods have helped define the group’s own overall approach to music.

It’s a closeness and an understanding that underpins this authoritative collection of Lachenmann’s three works for string quartet. The readings tackle this fearsomely complex music with confidence, conviction and vivid storytelling. Indeed, despite Lachenmann’s First Quartet barely requesting a single conventionally bowed note, the Diotima players navigate its startlingly rich sonic world with assurance and ringing clarity, as if gradually unveiling an unknown organic entity that’s changing and growing in unpredictable ways.

Fragments of more conventional string sound emerge in the Second Quartet, which receives an almost clinically precise account, though one never lacking life or spontaneity. Most immediately lyrical is the Third Quartet, and the Diotima brings immense but constantly shifting emotions to the piece’s grand gestures – and even a hefty dose of humour as the piece approaches its precipitous close.

It’s a collection that shines a bright light on the very human moods and concerns behind Lachenmann’s dense but fragile sonic constructions, and one that demands and richly repays close listening. The recorded sound is appropriately close and detailed, although volume levels are surprisingly low.

DAVID KETTLE