貝多芬：弦樂四重奏第六集 Beethoven: Complete String Quartets Vol. 6

Early and late – with Beethoven this always implies developing
questions and expanding compositional ideas. In the case of the
works recorded here, the A major Quartet from the Op. 18 set
and the B-flat major Quartet, Op. 130, the focus is on folk music
and its integration into art music: a recurring, central subject for
the composers of "Viennese Classicism" which also guaranteed
general accessibility to their music. The variations on a simple
theme in the Andante of the Quartet Op. 18 No. 5 represent
such a case of looking towards popular music, as also does the
"Alla danza tedesca" from the late Quartet Op. 130, where the
rhythm and character of the good old German dance is alienated
to such an extent that it seems to appear as a damaged recollection,
more than as an actual dance.

In all other aspects, however, the styles of these two string quartets
could not be more different. "Who would not remember
the enthusiasm created by his first symphonies, his sonatas, his
quartets", a contemporary wrote not long after Beethoven's
death. "All music lovers were delighted to find, so soon after
Mozart's death, a man emerge who promised to replace the
sorely missed. But alas, albeit gradually, though increasingly, he
departed from his initial path, insisted on cutting a new one, and
finally went astray." This "going astray" is today considered the
most fascinating late oeuvre in musical history, to
be experienced here in passionate and painstaking
interpretations by the Quartetto di Cremona as
part of their recording of the complete Beethoven
Quartets.