Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

High Strung

Few string quartets merge classical and cutting edge as seamlessly as France’s Quatuor Diotima. While continually executing the work of Classical- and Romantic-era greats, this ensemble also has more modern music, including new commissions, it its blood — and its name, a tribute to 20th-century composer Luigi Nono’s Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima. During a short tour of the U.S., the foursome, winners of the Contemporary Music prize at the London International String Quartet Competition in 2000, incorporates that contemporary perspective into these oldies but goodies, performed with breathtaking range: quartets by Franz Schubert, Leoš Janácek’s Intimate Letters and Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite.