Anyone who hears about Giacomo Puccini today is instinctively led to think of his most famous operatic compositions. However, not everyone knows that his production during his Milanese training years, which ended in 1883, was exclusively instrumental. The pieces included in this album belong to this artistic challenge, except for Crisantemi, which came later and will contribute with its two main themes to the last act of Manon Lescaut (1893).

Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Lennon–McCartney. Names which not many people would expect to hear in conjunction with a string quartet. But the boundaries between classical music and other music — pop, rock, jazz, ragtime — are not so well–defined. In fact, in the ten years between the 20st and 21st centuries, they have become ever more blurred.