Saint-Georges, Joseph Bologne de: Six Concertante Quartets (AE431)

Saint-Georges, Joseph Bologne de (1745-1799)

The string quartet holds pride of place in Bologne de Saint-Georges instrumental works, with three sets of six works each. 

With neat but surely unintentional symmetry these quartets include his first and last instrumental works, the Six quatuors à cordes, Op.1, and the Six Quatuors concertans, Op.15.

The present quartets fall midway between these two publications. Composed in 1777 (according to Gabriel Banat, the best and most recent of Saint-Georges’ biographers) the Six Quartetto concertans were issued two years later in a breathtakingly inaccurate edition by Durieu in Paris.

Given the unusually high number of errors and inconsistencies in Durieu’s edition it seems most unlikely that Saint-Georges was involved in its preparation. No other edition of the quartets is known although a second printing of the set using the same plates was made ca 1782.

Quartet I in Bb major
Quartet II in G minor
Quartet III in C major
Quartet IV in F major
Quartet V in G major
Quartet VI in Bb major