Quatuor Parisii

Founded in the early 80s by four students from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, all of whom won first prizes in instrumental and chamber music, the Quatuor Parisii recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.

The cornerstone of his itinerary, the art of searching for the perfect sound combined with the conviction that music must live from the inside out, was bequeathed to him by his master Maurice Crut, a brilliant representative of the great Franco-Belgian tradition and member of the famous Pascal Quartet. The apprenticeship of the early years saw this heritage come to fruition through contact with the Melos, Amadeus and Lasalle quartets, culminating in the Evian and Munich international competitions, which the Parisii Quartet won in 1987. From then on, the quartet performed in over a hundred concerts a year, in more than 80 countries.

With their shared commitment to excellence and eclecticism, the musicians of the Quatuor Parisii have built up an impressive repertoire over the years, and a rarely equalled quality of interpretation that places them unequivocally among the very best. They also attach great importance to supporting the creative process, and have thus contributed to revealing many contemporary composers.

With more than thirty albums to its credit, the Quatuor Parisii's discography - like its musical career - is distinguished by both its breadth and the wide variety of repertoires it covers: In addition to the major complete works (Beethoven, Brahms, Webern) performed in concert, the first recordings feature the French repertoire (Ibert, Roussel, Tailleferre, Pierné, Franck, Fauré), which the Parisii Quartet has made its own and for which its legitimacy is unanimously recognized throughout the world. Its discography also gives pride of place to the contemporary repertoire, with numerous premieres (Amy, Pesson, Canat de Chizy) and the rediscovery of emblematic pieces from the 20th century (Hahn, Menu, Boulez).

Among the many awards to his credit (“ffff” from Télérama, “Diapason Découverte”, “Choc” from Le Monde de la Musique, etc.) are a “Music Victory” (1994) and the Great Prize Charles Cros (2002) for the complete 18 string quartets by Milhaud.

In 2010, the discography was enriched by a disc dedicated to Chausson, alongside Sandrine Piau, Régis Pasquier and Philippe Bianconi.

In 2013, in addition to the release of two albums dedicated respectively to T. Dubois and T. Gouvy, the recording of G. Amy's “Litanies pour Ronchamp” alongside the ensemble Solistes XXI, accompanied by the Adagio from Beethoven's 15th string quartet, received the “Coup de coeur” award from the Académie Charles Cros, as well as the Sacem Prize awarded by the Académie du disque lyrique.

Also in 2013, the Quatuor Parisii's recording of Pierre Boulez's complete “Livre pour quatuor” was reissued by Deutsche Grammophon as part of a boxed set devoted to the composer's complete works.

In 2015, Laurent Lefrançois released his chamber music album “Balnéaire”. The “Cantilena” disc of composer Giuliano D'Angiolini, released in 2016, received rave reviews from Resmusica and The Guardian.

On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, the Parisii Quartet built on these achievements, as well as its insatiable curiosity and wonder at the richness of the repertoire, to continue to explore and deepen it: the “(R)evolutions” project was thus born of the desire and need to focus on the essential and the universal, by refocusing on a corpus of works by Haydn (op. 76), Mozart (quartets dedicated to Haydn) and Beethoven (op. 18), constituting both the source and quintessence of the string quartet repertoire.

Autumn 2022 saw the premiere of a concert-reading with renowned actress Emmanuelle Devos: “Language(s)” is based on an interview with film producer Jean-Luc Godard for the “Cahiers du cinéma”, and calls on Rilke, Hesse... as well as Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Shostakovich and Webern.

The Quatuor Parisii was recently invited to perform at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Printemps des Arts in Monaco, Les Franciscaines in Deauville and the Scène Nationale in Narbonne.

Arnaud Vallin, first violin
Alexandra Graffin-Klein, second violin
Dominique Lobet, viola
Jean-Philippe Martignoni, cello

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