String Quartet in C-sharp minor op. 131. Many anecdotes surround String Quartet op. 131: Beethoven is said to have considered it to be his finest quartet and of his late period works, the one dearest to his heart. It is also believed that the composer invested so much of himself in it: his ailing health, the social isolation brought about by his deafness and the suicide attempt of his nephew Karl. In addition it was reported that Franz Schubert asked to hear this piece once more on his deathbed. Even if these anecdotes are not all true, they reveal what generations of musicians felt they heard in this quartet: Beethoven?s most personal musical idiom and a vulnerable message from the final period of his life. This new edition by Jonathan Del Mar represents a thorough revision of this highly complex work. Meticulously incorporated are Beethoven?s pencil markings that were previously almost completely ignored.

Edward Gregson's String Quartet was commissioned by The Manchester Mid-day Concerts Society in celebration of its 100th year. The premier performance took place on the 14th of January 2015 performed by the Navarra Quartet at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. The piece is divided into three distinct movements each developing and changing what has come before. When commenting on his compositional process for String Quartet Gregson noted that he desired to return to the classical principles of Beethoven and Bartok deciding to include extended sonata variation and rondo forms.

Hoffmeister Quartet and Prussian Quartets-Over the next few years all 26 of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Quartets will be published by Henle in an Urtext Edition of both score and parts. All previous editions have left much to be desired for example asconcerns the correct placement of dynamic markings.Henle's edition made with the artistic collaboration of the Armida Quartet draws upon the large body of modern knowledge concerning Mozart philology andperformance practice. We begin with what are chronologically speaking the final four quartets: the so-called 'Hoffmeister' Quartet K. 499 and the three 'Prussian' Quartets K. 575 589 and590.

for String Quartet Score and Parts. Par HARTKE STEPHEN. THE FIFTH BOOK of the title refers to what Stephen Hartke considers his fifth book of madrigals, only two of which books are actually for voices, with the others being for string instruments. Hartke writes madrigals for string instruments due to their inherent singing quality, but also due to the fluid structural character of the madrigal as a genre that often responds in quite mercurial ways to the emotional unfolding of its text. These five movements are thus abstract madrigals whose larger outlines, shifts in mood, and various internal reminiscences are intended to convey a private, unspoken drama. Commissioned for the Brentano String Quartet by the Frankfurt Burgerstiftung im Holzhausenschlosschen sponsored by the Ernst Max von Grunelius-Stiftung. / Date parution : 2020-04-11/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Impressions On Beethoven's Harp Quartet. Par AMANTI LUCIO. When Cuarteto Casals approached me with the idea of illuminating Beethoven´s quartets anew, you can imagine the many thoughts and feelings that where going through my mind: what a joy, what a great honor… What an intriguing head-scratcher! How can you possibly shine a new light on something that is already perfect? Weeks, months went by in search of a common ground between the Master and myself until I finally found it in the realization that a word lays “hidden” in the St. John’s hymn that gave musical notes their original name: ‘Re, Sol, Ut, Io’ (D, G, C, B in English music notation) Perfect! “Resolutio” in Latin means both the resolution of a problem and the re-solution: a re-blend of many elements that will eventually coagulate to make something new. There was finally the melodic and a rhythmical canvas for my piece. On this canvas I wrote the story of a funny little contest, played on a sunny Mediterranean square, between street musicians and Cuarteto Casals just minutes before they are about to go on stage to perform Beethoven´s “Harp Quartet”. After all the characters, each in his own way, had the chance to tell their story, a gentle rain starts to fall, dissolving (Re-solving) again the music sheet to eventually leave us with just a white piece of paper for somebody else to continue the Work. (Lucio Franco Amanti) / Niveau : Avancé / Répertoire / 2 Violons, Alto et Violoncelle