1. Allegro molto moderato
2. Lento
3. Allegro molto

Henriëtte Bosmans had a successful career as a pianist in the Netherlands in the 1920s and 30s, appearing as a soloist with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra. She was less fortunate as a composer, initially running into the prejudice against female composers that was prevalent at the time. Later on, her performing career was curtailed: as a half-Jewish woman she was registered as a ‘Jewish case’ in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. After the war, Bosmans wrote a number of songs, and was awarded the Royal Order of Orange Nassau in 1951 – a recognition that came too late: she was always very ill and died the following year.

Bosmans’s String Quartet is in three movements. It was composed in 1927, the year in which she began studying with the outstanding Dutch composer of the time, Willem Pijper. She dedicated it to Pijper, noting on the manuscript that it was completed in time for his birthday on 8 September 1927. The Allegro molto moderato opens with a haunting idea in unison which blossoms into a movement full of unusual harmonies. A new faster section (in 7/8 time) is launched by the cello. After a recollection of the opening idea, the movement ends quietly with two plucked chords over a low cello note. The central Lento opens with a violin lament over sustained chords, its mood serious but with gentler, pastoral moments. The finale is marked by driving rhythms which make for an urgent and exciting close. Throughout the work, the influence of the quartets by Debussy and Ravel is often apparent, but this in not derivative music: even in a work from quite early in her composing career, Bosmans has an individual creative voice.

The first performance of this remarkable quartet was given on 28 January 1928 by the Amsterdam String Quartet, all members of the Concertgebouw Orchestra.