Since the beginning of their career, the legendary Amadeus Quartet regularly came to make recordings at the studios of the RIAS in Berlin. A representative cross-section of the ensemble‘s repertoire therefore came into being in the archive there, which is being released by Audite in a total of six volumes.

At the beginning of this new series is the (almost) complete Beethoven cycle, recorded 1950-1967 and now being made available to the public for the first time. The recording documents how the Amadeus Quartet develops the Beethovenian quartet cosmos with continuous aspiration towards the highest standards. The development of the Beethoven interpretations also shows the evolution of the ensemble as a whole.

The String Quintet in C major, Op.20, recorded together with the viola player Cecil Aronowitz, is by no means merely a substitute for the String Quartet in E-flat major, Op.74, which was not taken into account in the production plans of the RIAS.

The RIAS studio recordings are also distinguished for the fact that each movement of a work has been recorded in one continuous take. The resulting intensity combines the excitement of a live situation with the advantages of the studio setting. These recordings thus stand in contrast to later studio productions of the same repertoire.