Chiaroscuro Quartet

Alina Ibragimova and Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux, Emilie Hörnlund and Claire Thirion are the Chiaroscuro Quartet. Chiaroscuro – light-dark – is the Baroque painting technique, which immensely heightens the artist's power of expression through the contrast of the brightly-lit subject against a dark background. With gut strings and original bows, the Chiaroscuro Quartet strives for a sound which can only be hinted at by the antithesis of light and dark alone; a sound expressing every conceivable nuance between tenderness and aggression, radiance and pallor, lively passion and cool sobriety. The ensemble, founded in 2005, was described by Gramophone as “a trailblazer for the authentic performance of High Classical chamber music”. The Observer tells of “a shock to the ears of the best kind”.