The members of the internationally renowned Quatuor Zaïde – Charlotte Juillard, Pauline Fritsch, Sarah Chenaf et Juliette Salmona – have chosen to devote their first disc to two string quartets by Leoš Janáček (the ‘Kreutzer Sonata’, inspired by the novella by Tolstoy, and ‘Intimate Letters’) and Bohuslav Martinů’s 5th Quartet.

These three pieces are linked not only by the Czech nationality of their composers, but also by intense love affairs which profoundly affected the lives of the two men. This disc is full of highly figurative music, marked by a fierce energy and sharp contrasts, and matched by the playing of the quartet.