Score Parties. Par BEETHOVEN LUDWIG VAN. When Beethoven wrote these three quartets he was 15 years old and a composition student of Christian Gottlob Neefe in Bonn. They reveal a strong Mozartian influence while the brilliant piano writing already gives a sense of the mature Beethoven. He may conceivably have written the works for the wealthy Mastiaux family in Bonn, as he gave piano lessons to one of the daughters and the other three siblings played violin, viola and violoncello. The sole source for the quartets is the autograph score which contains many overwritings that shed light on the works' original conception and possible alternative readings. Although Beethoven never published the pieces in his lifetime and is not known to have performed them, he reused their melodic and thematic material in later compositions. Beethoven preserved the autograph score to the end of his days ? perhaps an indication that the quartets meant a great deal to him. The first edition was published by Artaria in Vienna one year after his death, albeit with the pieces in a different order and with many errors in the musical text. Bärenreiter's scholarly performing edition of the Piano Quartets WoO 36 is edited by the Italian pianist Leonardo Miucci, a specialist in the performance practice of keyboard music from this period. The edition not only presents the correct readings, it also sheds light on the young Beethoven's expressive notation and provides a plausible explanation for the distinction he made between dots and strokes to indicate staccato./ Répertoire / Quatuor pour Piano, Violon, Alto et Violoncelle

Allerheiligentag Iii. Par LINJAMA JYRKI. Jyrki Linjama's second string quartet (2018) is subtitled Allerheiligentag III. The material for the Allerheiligentag cycle is a Finnish folk chorale for All Saints' Day (no. 146 in the Finnish Hymn Book). The first work in the cycle is a string trio (2007), the second a piece for orchestra (2009), and the fourth and fifth are solo works for viola da gamba and violin.The composer tells: “The choice of topic and material for the string trio was originally prompted by the venue at which it was to be premiered: the old church on the island of Seili (Själö). The bleak history of the island's leper and mental hospital evoked images of suffering and death. I got so attached to the harsh and beautiful melody that it began to generate a whole cycle.” The string quartet is in three movements (slow-quick-slow) tensed in different ways by contrasts. The first movement has both swinging softness and cutting sharpness, the Scherzo the wildness of a dance of death and lyricism, and the finale the irrevocability of a funeral march and tender melodiousness./ Répertoire / String Quartet

Lubo? Fi?er (1935?1999) was one of the most distinctive figures of Czech music in the 20th century and composed the Variations on an Unknown Theme in 1976. The ?unknown theme? was a prankish eight-bar theme from Fi?er?s student days. In the elation following the home-team win over Canada on 15 March 1959, he made a bet with his colleague Kalach to compose a concert piece for violin and orchestra with the working title ?Canada-Rondo?. The whimsical contest was abandoned, but Fi?er did not forget the theme and he later created variations on it for his new composition for the Talich Quartet. The Variations on an Unknown Theme have now been published for the first time ever. This edition is based on the autograph of the score which is housed in the Czech Museum of Music in Prague.

Italian Quartets, Salzburg Divertimenti. Par MOZART WOLFGANG AMADEUS. / Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Hoffmeister Quartet and Prussian Quartets . Par MOZART WOLFGANG AMADEUS. Ça y est: dans les années à venir, tous les 26 quatuors à cordes de Mozart paraîtront en Urtext chez Henle – en partition et en parties séparées. Toutes les éditions publiées à ce jour laissent considérablement à désirer à bien des égards – par exemple quant au placement correct des signes de dynamique. L' édition Henle, qui a bénéficié du concours artistique du Quatuor Armida, puise dans les acquis les plus récents de la philologie et de l’interprétation mozartiennes. La collection est inaugurée par la publication des quatre derniers quatuors: le quatuor dit «Hoffmeister» K. 499 ainsi que les trois quatuors «Prussiens» K. 575, 589 et 590. La composition des troisdernières oeuvres pourrait avoir été inspirée par l’excellent violoncelliste qu’était le roi de Prusse Frédéric Guillaume II – les violoncellistes d’aujourd’hui pourront en tous cas prendre plaisir à de nombreuses et belles cantilènes. / Seiffert, Wolf-Dieter / Répertoire / 2 Violons, Alto, Violoncelle