Ludwig Van Beethoven: ... - Narratio Quartet - Audio CD (Arrives in 50 days)

Viola de Hoog: My colleagues in the Narratio Quartet and I have been immersed in all of Beethoven’s string quartets for over fifteen years now. We experience time and again how Beethoven explored and then overcame the limits of the Classical style and the instrumental challenges that were prevalent at the start of the nineteenth century along new pathways. Opus 95 is a great example of exactly this. Beethoven himself stated in a letter to Sir George Smart, at the time an important musician in England, ”The Quartet is written for a small circle of connoisseurs and is never to be performed in public.” Each of the five late quartets, from Opus 127 onwards, explores new forms, modulating to remotely distant keys, presenting hitherto unprecedented melodic arches and containing what were, at the time, unusually detailed dynamic instructions; different ways in which Beethoven was tearing himself away from the familiar style of the day. Beethoven composed these five quartets in a remarkably brief period, between 1824 and 1826.

Tracklist

Disc 1

1. String Quartet Op. 95 In F Minor : I. Allegro Con Brio
2. String Quartet Op. 95 In F Minor : Ii. Allegretto Ma Non Troppo
3. String Quartet Op. 95 In F Minor : Iii. Allegro Assai Vivace Ma Serioso
4. String Quartet Op. 95 In F Minor : Iv. Larghetto Espressivo. Allegretto Agitato
5. String Quartet Op. 127 In E-Flat Major : I. Maestoso. Allegro
6. String Quartet Op. 127 In E-Flat Major : Ii. Adagio Ma Non Troppo E Molto Cantabile
7. String Quartet Op. 127 In E-Flat Major : Iii. Scherzo. Vivace
8. String Quartet Op. 127 In E-Flat Major : Iv. Finale

Disc 2

1. String Quartet Op. 130 In B-Flat Major : I. Adagio Ma Non Troppo. Allegro
2. String Quartet Op. 130 In B-Flat Major : Ii. Presto
3. String Quartet Op. 130 In B-Flat Major : Iii. Poco Scherzoso, Andante Con Moto Ma Non Troppo
4. String Quartet Op. 130 In B-Flat Major : Iv. Alla Danza Tedesca, Allegro Assai
5. String Quartet Op. 130 In B-Flat Major : V. Cavatina, Adagio Molto Espressivo
6. String Quartet Op. 130 In B-Flat Major : Grande Fugue Op. 133
7. New Finale For String Quartet Op. 130 In B-Flat Major

Disc 3

1. String Quartet Op. 132 In a Minor : I. Assai Sostenuto. Tempo Allegro
2. String Quartet Op. 132 In a Minor : Ii. Allegro Ma Non Tanto
3. String Quartet Op. 132 In a Minor : Iii. Heiliger Dankgesang Eines Genesenen an Die Gottheit, In Der Lydischen Tonart
4. String Quartet Op. 132 In a Minor : Iv. Alla Marcia, Assai Vivace
5. String Quartet Op. 132 In a Minor : V. Allegro Appassionato

Disc 4

1. String Quartet Op. 131 In C-Sharp Minor : I. Adagio Ma Non Troppo E Molto Espressivo
2. String Quartet Op. 131 In C-Sharp Minor : Ii. Allegro Molto Vivace
3. String Quartet Op. 131 In C-Sharp Minor : Iii. Allegro Moderato
4. String Quartet Op. 131 In C-Sharp Minor : Iv. Andante Ma Non Troppo E Molto Cantabile / Allegretto / Adagio Ma Non Troppo E Semplice / Allegretto
5. String Quartet Op. 131 In C-Sharp Minor : V. Presto
6. String Quartet Op. 131 In C-Sharp Minor : Vi. Adagio Quasi Un Poco Andante
7. String Quartet Op. 131 In C-Sharp Minor : Vii. Allegro
8. String Quartet Op. 135 In F Major : I. Allegretto
9. String Quartet Op. 135 In F Major : Ii. Vivace
10. String Quartet Op. 135 In F Major : Iii. Assai Lento, Cantante E Tranquillo
11. String Quartet Op. 135 In F Major : Iv. Der Schwer Gefasste Entschluss Grave, Ma Non Troppo Tratto. Allegro

Label: Challenge Classics | Origin: Holland