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Beethoven: String Quartets Nos. 4-6 / Chiaroscuro Quartet
BIS

Beethoven: String Quartets Nos. 4-6 / Chiaroscuro Quartet

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Details

Composer
Ludwig van Beethoven
Artist
Chiaroscuro Quartet
Format
SACD
Discs
1
Label
BIS
Released
Mar 04, 2022
Catalog #
BIS-2498
UPC
7318599924984

About

For a string player, Beethoven’s 16 quartets are of an importance similar to that of his sonatas to a pianist and for every composer of string quartets they remain a benchmark. The Chiaroscuro Quartet have begun their cycle of these works at the same place as Beethoven did, with the Op. 18 set which occupied him intensively for the best part of two years (1798 – 1800). The effort he put into these quartets was surely due to the fact that he had much to live up to – they would after all be measured against those of Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven was clearly determined that the six quartets of the set should present the widest possible overview of his art.

The Chiaroscuros released the first three in 2021 – a disc which was included among the finest new releases of the year in BBC’s Record Review. The present album opens with the only minor-key quartet of the six, No. 4 in C minor, which in the years that followed became Beethoven’s most popular quartet – to his growing irritation as he felt it overshadowed later works. In No. 5 in A major Beethoven follows closely in the footsteps of Mozart: its third movement and finale are in fact modelled on Mozart’s quartet in the same key (K?464), which Beethoven had copied out before he began work on his own quartet. With No.?6 in B flat major it is rather Haydn that we see hovering in the background: for instance his way of making witty capital out of the most elementary material or the rhythmic games in the third movement Scherzo.

REVIEW:

This is the best recording of any Beethoven Quartets I have heard in a long time, not because it is, unusually, a period performance on gut strings and historical bows, or that it is superbly well recorded in surround, but because these players have dared to completely rethink these well-known pieces and turned them into a series of wonderful surprises.

The set has to be heard no matter how many other recordings one possesses. If it goes on to encompass the whole series - and who knows if it will? - it could become the period performance cycle against which others in the future are measured. Recording, in surround and stereo, notes and presentation are immaculate: an object lesson in how such things ought always to be done.

-- MusicWeb International

Tracklist 12 tracks

  1. 1 I. Allegro ma non tanto 08:25
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Allegro ma non tanto
    Duration
    08:25
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet
  2. 2 II. Scherzo: Andante scherzoso quasi allegretto 06:25
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Scherzo: Andante scherzoso quasi allegretto
    Duration
    06:25
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet
  3. 3 III. Menuetto: Allegro - Trio 03:44
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Menuetto: Allegro - Trio
    Duration
    03:44
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet
  4. 4 IV. Allegretto - Prestissimo 04:41
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Allegretto - Prestissimo
    Duration
    04:41
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet
  5. 5 I. Allegro 09:12
    Track
    5
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    09:12
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet
  6. 6 II. Menuetto 04:09
    Track
    6
    Title
    II. Menuetto
    Duration
    04:09
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet
  7. 7 III. Andante cantabile - Poco adagio 09:43
    Track
    7
    Title
    III. Andante cantabile - Poco adagio
    Duration
    09:43
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet
  8. 8 IV. Allegro 06:52
    Track
    8
    Title
    IV. Allegro
    Duration
    06:52
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet
  9. 9 I. Allegro con brio 08:26
    Track
    9
    Title
    I. Allegro con brio
    Duration
    08:26
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet
  10. 10 II. Adagio ma non troppo 06:22
    Track
    10
    Title
    II. Adagio ma non troppo
    Duration
    06:22
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet
  11. 11 III. Scherzo: Allegro 02:51
    Track
    11
    Title
    III. Scherzo: Allegro
    Duration
    02:51
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet
  12. 12 IV. La Malinconia: Adagio - Allegretto quasi allegro 07:13
    Track
    12
    Title
    IV. La Malinconia: Adagio - Allegretto quasi allegro
    Duration
    07:13
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ensemble
    Chiaroscuro Quartet