John W. Duarte was not only one of themost prolific composers for the soloclassic guitar in the 20th century; he wasalso concerned with the instrument in anensemble context. He made a lastingcontribution to the concept and musicalchemistry of the guitar quartet, a muchneglected feature until his innovations.This area of his creative work provedsomething of a goldmine for bothprofessional quartets and educationalsettings where the guitar was taught as aserious instrument, worthy of deep study,and indeed for Summer Schoolsworldwide. In this the composer offeredarrangements and original works of tasteand delicacy, a hitherto unprecedenteddevelopment in the expanding repertoireof the guitar.This fourth instalment in Brilliant Classics'series dedicated to the vast and preciousguitar oeuvre of John W. Duarte provides acomplete survey of the composer's music forfour guitars. This sub-set of his guitar music isin itself greatly varied in style but ofconsistently superb quality. Disc one containsmusic he originally composed for thisensemble, and disc two features hisarrangements (many of them of his owncompositions) for guitar quartet.Duarte explained that his own stylisticeclecticism derived from improvisation, withcomposition being a slower form ofimprovisation benefitting from time toreconsider and to refine the product 'Whatone hears becomes translatable into InchplaybackInch action and/or, given a knowledge ofmusical theory, comprehensible. It canprovide a direct route to eclecticism - onemay adopt what one chooses into one's ownbloodstream and bypass what one feelsforeign to one's own nature. For this reason Ihave never had one immediately identifiablestyle and have happily lived with a widevariety of idioms.'