Figures Argentines

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Figures Argentines is a double album by Quatuor Voce — the Paris-based string quartet comprising Sara Debaisieux and Entrée Bruyère on violins, Benoît Sardet on viola, and Guillaum e Martigné on cello — released May 15, 2026 on Alpha Classics (catalogue ALPHA1218), the fruit of three years of research, residencies, and concert tours across Argentina. The project grew out of the quartet's sustained engagement with Argentine musical culture: visits to peñas and milongas in Buenos Aires and Rosario, a creation residency at the Abbaye de Royaumont around Fernando Fiszbein's work "Gardel Picado," and a working session with legendary bandonéonista Dino Saluzzi. The two discs are structurally distinct — the first pairs the quartet with Argentine guitarist Pablo Márquez, the second brings in bandonéon player and composer Jean-Baptiste Henry — creating what the quartet describes as a "very subjective panorama" of Argentine music, with works ranging from solo to quintet formation and drawing on compositions, arrangements, and newly commissioned pieces by Fiszbein, Gabriel Sivak, and Henry himself.The programme is anchored by two monuments of Argentine classical music: Alberto Ginastera's String Quartet No. 1, Op. 20 (1948), representing the composer's early rhythmic nationalism, and his late Guitar Sonata, Op. 47 (1976), performed by Márquez and described by Proper Music as emblematic of Ginastera's mature style. Surrounding these pillars is a vivid tapestry of tango, zamba, chacarera, cueca, and baguala, including an evocation of Carlos Gardel through Fiszbein's new work, Astor Piazzolla's Four for Tango for string quartet, and folk tributes to Cuchi Leguizamón, Leda Valladares, and Dino Saluzzi. Le Monde praised Henry's bandonéon playing across the second disc for "une justesse de timbre et une richesse de souffle dignes des plus grands Argentins," while NDR selected the album as its "Album of the Week," describing it as "a refreshingly different, versatile and varied album with a mix of the traditional and the experimental." Show more