Quartetto Italiano

Quartetto Italiano – Prokofiev: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 92 – Malipiero: String Quartet No. 4 (1956/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 38:06 minutes | 754 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

This release features a very rare recording of Gian Francesco Malipiero’s second string quartet. Malipiero composed the most important quartet cycle of modern Italy, which the Quartetto Italiano intensely promoted throughout their career. It is coupled with Prokofiev’s second quartet, composed after Caucasian themes.
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Quartetto Italiano – Beethoven: String Quartet No. 10, Op. 74 (1956/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 35:38 minutes | 353 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

The Quartetto Italiano was a string quartet founded in Reggio Emilia in 1945. They made their debut in 1945 in Carpi when all four players were still in their early 20s. They were originally named Nuovo Quartetto Italiano before dropping the “Nuovo” tag in 1951. They are particularly noted for their recording of the complete cycle of Beethoven string quartets, made between 1967 and 1975. The quartet disbanded in 1980.
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Quartetto Italiano – Ravel: String Quartet – Stravisnky: Three Pieces for String Quartet (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 37:30 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

Historical recordings: The ensemble’s confidently-chosen name made it clear from the outset that the Quartetto Italiano saw itself not simply as an Italian string quartet among many, but as the authoritative one. The ensemble was soon recognized as a pioneer of Italian chamber music culture following the Second World War. Through their tireless obsession with detail, in-depth exploration of the works’ musical expression, and the remarkable homogeneity of their quartet sound, the Quartetto Italiano conquered a firm place in the top league of leading string quartets over the first two decades of their career.
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Quartetto Italiano – Quartetto Italiano: The complete RIAS Recordings (Berlin, 1951-1963) (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 03:32:51 minutes | 1,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © audite Musikproduktion

The ensemble’s confidently-chosen name made it clear from the outset that the Quartetto Italiano saw itself not simply as an Italian string quartet among many, but as the authoritative one. The ensemble was soon recognized as a pioneer of Italian chamber music culture following the Second World War. Through their tireless obsession with detail, in-depth exploration of the works’ musical expression, and the remarkable homogeneity of their quartet sound, the Quartetto Italiano conquered a firm place in the top league of leading string quartets over the first two decades of their career.
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Quartetto Italiano – Gabrieli, Marini, Neri, Vitali, Scarlatti & Vivaldi: Il quartetto d’archi in Italia nel XVII secolo (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 43:07 minutes | 782 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

This release features a modern transcription of Leonardo Vinci’s solo for violin and harpsichord, which we have coupled with a 1956 recording dedicated to 17th-century Italian music for string ensemble. The program runs from Gabrieli’s canzoni to Vivaldi four-parts sonatas, and includes various obscure works which have very rarely been recorded!
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Quartetto Italiano – Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13, Op. 130 (1954/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 39:49 minutes | 390 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

The great Quartetto Italiano perform Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10, Op. 74, in this beautiful legacy recording. A wonderful reference for the modern age.
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Quartetto Italiano – Brahms: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 67 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 37:44 minutes | 754 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

“The finest string quartet, unquestionably, that our century has known.” In 1951, when the Quartetto Italiano first visited the USA, composer Virgil Thomson’s was enthused: “Perfection is the only word to describe this playing.” The quartet’s members, who had met while studying in Siena, made their ensemble debut in 1945. They went on to enthral audiences around the world with interpretations of proverbial beauty, insight and architectural elegance.

In this remastered programme, the legendary group presents works from Brahms!
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Quartetto Italiano – Galuppi, Boccherini & Cambini: Quartetti per archi (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 44:35 minutes | 896 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

“The finest string quartet, unquestionably, that our century has known.” In 1951, when the Quartetto Italiano first visited the USA, composer Virgil Thomson’s was enthused: “Perfection is the only word to describe this playing.” The quartet’s members, who had met while studying in Siena, made their ensemble debut in 1945. They went on to enthral audiences around the world with interpretations of proverbial beauty, insight and architectural elegance.

In this remastered programme, the legendary group presents works from Italian classical composers Baldassare Galuppi, Luigi Boccherini & Giuseppe Cambini.
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Quartetto Italiano – Schumann: String Quartet, Op. 41 No. 3 – Mozart: String Quartet No. 3, K. 156 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 48:20 minutes | 1,78 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

Historical recordings: The ensemble’s confidently-chosen name made it clear from the outset that the Quartetto Italiano saw itself not simply as an Italian string quartet among many, but as the authoritative one. The ensemble was soon recognized as a pioneer of Italian chamber music culture following the Second World War. Through their tireless obsession with detail, in-depth exploration of the works’ musical expression, and the remarkable homogeneity of their quartet sound, the Quartetto Italiano conquered a firm place in the top league of leading string quartets over the first two decades of their career.
(more…)

Quartetto Italiano – Mozart: String Quartets Nos. 14 “Spring” & 15 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 58:33 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

“The finest string quartet, unquestionably, that our century has known.” In 1951, when the Quartetto Italiano first visited the USA, composer Virgil Thomson’s was enthused: “Perfection is the only word to describe this playing.” The quartet’s members, who had met while studying in Siena, made their ensemble debut in 1945. They went on to enthral audiences around the world with interpretations of proverbial beauty, insight and architectural elegance.

In this remastered programme, the legendary group presents String Quartets from the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart!
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Quartetto Italiano – Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 76 Nos. 2 “Fifths” & 4 “Sunrise” (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 45:59 minutes | 920 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

The six String Quartets, Op. 76 by Joseph Haydn were composed in 1797 or 1798 and dedicated to the Hungarian count Joseph Georg von Erd”ody 1754-1824). They form the last complete set of string quartets that Haydn composed. At the time of the commission, Haydn was employed at the court of Prince Nicolaus Esterh’azy II and was composing the oratorio The Creation as well as Princess Maria Hermenegild Esterh’azy’s annual mass.
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Quartetto Italiano – Debussy & Ravel: String Quartets (1967/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 56:31 minutes | 1,90 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca

It took French composers most of the nineteenth century to come up with a really good string quartet – Franck’s example in 1888. Even so, Franck’s German models – Schumann, Liszt, and Wagner – are pretty apparent. Debussy’s string quartet appeared five years later. Most of Franck’s followers hated it, which lets you know how radical the music must have seemed. While today we still see the lingering spores of German Romanticism in the work, it’s still the first string quartet that sounds French, rather than Teutonic. The Teutonicism comes from a certain harmonic cast, particularly in the first movement, and in the approach to form. Once the first movement has passed, the Franconia shows itself in the quasi-modal shape of most of the themes, and most obviously in the scherzo second and slow third movements, where we stray rather far afield from Wagnerian modulations and immerse ourselves in the parallel chord progressions so characteristic of Debussy in particular and musical Impressionism in general. The slow movement dares much with bare textures, interrupting tutti passages with one instrument singing the remnant of a song. Further, for those who think of Debussy as dopey and moonstruck, the intellectual and architectural power of the quartet hits just as hard as its beauty. Every theme derives from the first idea, and Debussy can ring an apparently endless supply changes – some that take you to the limits of intelligibility, others breathtakingly and beautifully simple. The latter impresses me the most, particularly in the slow movement, where the tempo slows to barely moving and the counterpoint reduces almost, but not quite, to hymn. Above all, one encounters even at this early date that kaleidoscopic, subtle musical “psyche” so prevalent in the late works: En blanc et noir, the Villon ballads, and the cello sonata, for example. Franck called Debussy’s scores “nerve-end music,” and although he probably meant it as a slap, he pretty much got it. This isn’t the Romanticism even of traders in the fantastic, like Hoffmann, Browning, Swinburne, or Poe, but very much a personality who revels in “unsettledness,” who needs neither resolution nor transcendence. Debussy remarked that he wanted to write music “without sauerkraut.” With this quartet, he got his wish.

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