Element Quartet Element Quartet The Element Quartet was a string quartet prominent in British musical life in the 1950s and 1960s. The members were Ernest Element and Sylvia Cleaver (violins), Dorothy Hemming (viola), and Norman Jones (cello). The quartet were the first to perform Schubert's String Quartet No. 2 in C major following restoration of its previously lost score. The performance was broadcast on BBC Radio on 23 December, one of the many broadcasts they made for the BBC from the 1950s to the early 1960s. The Element Quartet was particularly associated with the early string quartets of Robert Simpson. The quartet
String Quartet No. 1 (Shostakovich) which clashes with the happy mood in the exciting development, which leads to the vibrant recapitulation and coda. The ending bars are an impressive climax, with the viola and cello playing rapid notes in their lowest registers while the violins hammer out C major chords above. String Quartet No. 1 (Shostakovich) Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 49, was composed in six weeks during the summer of 1938. It carries no dedication. This string quartet has none of the bravura of the fifth symphony which preceded it. Instead, the composer seemed to have discovered a new