Quatuor Calidore - S�r�nade (Les Musiciens et la Grande Guerre)

Three quartets were composed far from the front lines (Milhaud, Stravinsky) or after the war (Hindemith). It was upon a young, as yet inexperienced composer, Jacques de la Presle, that the task would fall, on the front where he was holed up in a tunnel beneath the bombing, to demonstrate that music is more potent than death all around, ennui and hopelessness. On the side of the Triple Alliance forces, the Austrian Ernst Toch as well took refuge in music to show forth his will to survive.