Details: About Christian Ernst Graf (1723-1804) little is known, but we do have sources enabling an understanding of his music. Just prior to Graf's death, H. C. Koch published the most important music lexicon of his times. Like this lexicon, Graf's music documents the eventful stylistic developments from baroque to classicism. Graf's clear, intelligent music links all sorts of heterogeneous melodic ideas, sequences, varies or imitates them in playful alternation and provides contrast with chromatic counterparts. The Via Nova Quartet interprets his five string quartets on historical instruments.