‘Quatuor Arod’

"Give me your hand, sweet, lovely creature. I am your friend; I am not here to punish you. Cheer up! I am not fierce. You will sleep softly in my arms!" With those words, taken from Schubert's lied "Death and the Maiden", the Grim Reaper draws a child towards its fate. This powerful image inspired the composer's String Quartet No. 14, which has come to bear the same name as the lied. With its characteristic elan, the young Quatuor Arod can be relied on to bring this confrontation between life's beginnings and its end into sharp focus. The composer himself was to die in the springtime of his life, at barely 31 years of age.