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Mozart - String Quartet K464 / Beethoven - String Quartet Op 127 | Medici Masters MM0072

Mozart - String Quartet K464 / Beethoven - String Quartet Op 127

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Label: Medici Masters

Cat No: MM0072

Barcode: 0827565021321

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Chamber

Release Date: 2nd July 2007

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

About

The Amadeus Quartet was one of the greatest of all 20th century quartets. Violinists Norbert Brainin and Siegmund Nissel and viola player Peter Shidlof were all born and raised in Vienna but as Jews, were forced to flee to England in 1938. In London, all three became pupils of Max Rostal and when the English born cellist Martin Lovett joined them during in the 1940s, the Amadeus Quartet was born. They made their concert debut on the 10 January 1948. Touring extensively, the Amadeus Quartet performed throughout Europe, Canada, the United States, Japan, and South America. Noted for its smooth, sophisticated style, its seamless ensemble playing and its sensitive interpretation, the quartet made some 200 recordings, among them the complete quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and W.A. Mozart. Though they emphasized a standard Classical and Romantic repertory, they also performed works by such 20th-century composers as Bela Bartók and Benjamin Britten (who wrote his third quartet expressly for them). The group disbanded upon the death of Schidlof in 1987.

These performances come from the first decade of the Amadeus's formation and according to the noted writer and critic, Stephen Johnson, "it is striking that the relatively early performances show the Amadeus achieving a combination of focused intensity, delicacy and intellectual power that may surprise those who know them only from their later appearances".

The Mozart Quartet No.18 in A major K.464 was written during the mid 1780s, a period now regarded as the peak of Viennese Classicism where counterpoint took on a greater importance. Mozart dedicated the group of these works Nos. 14-19 to Haydn calling them the “fruit of a long and laborious endeavour”. Beethoven’s Quartet No.12 in E flat major, Op.127 has been called the composer’s “crowing monument to lyricism”.

Once again, the sound is superb quality from WDR's original master tapes, a match for the later EMI and DG recordings issued of this same repertoire.

Mozart: String Quartet in A major, K464
Saal 1, Funkhaus, WDR Cologne: 3 February 1956
Beethoven: String Quartet in E flat major, Op.127
Recording: Saal 1, Funkhaus, WDR Cologne: 2 February 1956

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