Les Récréations (FR)

About

Les Récréations is a French ensemble with a very specific and fascinating focus: two centuries of four part string music that predates the string quartet as a recognised genre. Their repertoire stretches from Palestrina all the way to Mozart, tracing a path from the consort tradition through the Italian Baroque and into the early Viennese classical period. The idea is to show how centuries of four voice string writing gradually evolved into what we now call the string quartet. In practice that means programmes built around composers like Alessandro Scarlatti, Tartini, Sammartini and Boccherini, music that sits in the fascinating space before Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven gave the genre its definitive shape. It is repertoire that rarely gets this kind of dedicated attention, and Les Récréations bring a genuine sense of historical narrative to it.