John Jeffreys

Elegy for Andre Mangeot

Andre Louis Mangeot was born in Paris in 1883 but settled in London and became a British citizen. He was a leading violinist and impresario and played in the Queen's Hall Orchestra under Henry Wood. He founded the International String Quartet (Andre Mangeot, Harry Berly, Boris Pecker and John Barbirolli) which specialised in British works and contemporary music. They gave the first performance of Faure's String Quartet in 1925.
He became a good friend of the young composer John Jeffreys and supported and encouraged his work. John wrote his Serenade for Strings for Andre Mangeot on the occasion of his 76th birthday in 1959. Andre Mangeot died in London in 1970.
Some years later, in 1984, John Jeffreys wrote this Elegy for string quartet, which is based on the second theme from the Serenade for Strings.
Duration 4 minutes