Guillaume Combet, violinist in tonight's concert, discovered the little-known Mazellier String Quartet while studying at the Paris Conservatoire during his coaching classes for string quartet.

During these studies his coach, who was a violinist in the Via Nova Quartet, was approached by the composer's widow to play the string quartet that had never been published or performed and remains unpublished and unrecorded to this day. Impressed by the work, the coach began to use it for instruction of the quartet classes at the Conservatoire. It was through this class that Guillaume became familiar with it.

Little is known about Jules Mazellier. He was trained at the Paris Conservatoire and won the most important prize there, "The Grand Prix de Rome," in 1907, as well as the Prix Chartier for composition. His output includes various chamber and orchestral works as well as three major operas.

The quartet is in four movements, each dealing with a specific aspect of death. The composer indicates in the first movement that "here the theme of death pervades all four movements." The theme of death is first introduced in the opening bars and is then developed continually, rarely changing from its original form. In the second movement the theme of death is given a grotesque manipulation. In the score the music which accompanies the theme is marked satanique. The third movement is perhaps the most developed of the variations. Marked angelique in the score, it is the antithesis of the preceding scherzo movement in character and style. Its central section is marked Marche funebre, which is set in the form of a sarabande. The last movement is the peroration of the quartet culminating in an aggressive version of the theme marked in the score sauvagament (savagely). The quartet is a marvelous example of the concept of the symphonic poem in chamber music. It takes its concept from works like Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht and others. It is a wonderful work which should be heard more and more.