Beethoven - Mozart Chiaroscuro Quartet

• 1 I. Allegro con brio 04:57
• 2 II. Allegretto ma non troppo 06:57
• 3 III. Allegro assai vivace ma serioso 05:00
• 4 IV. Larghetto espressivo - Allegretto agitato - Allegro 05:25
• 5 I. Adagio 03:00
• 6 II. Fugue 04:24
• 7 I. Allegro non troppo 07:31
• 8 II. Andante con moto 08:52
• 9 III. Menuet - allegro et trio 05:22
• 10 IV. Allegro vivace 05:54
• Total Runtime 57:22

Info for Beethoven - Mozart

Following on their highly acclaimed début album, the period instrument Chiaroscuro Quartet returns with another recording of chamber music of the classical period. Their approach, firmly committed and imaginative, fits particularly well with the trail-blazing works on this recording. In its day, Beethoven's famous 'Serioso' quartet was considered avant-garde and experimental. Mozart's Adagio and Fugue is a veritable lesson in the art of counterpoint - rich with dissonance and brilliant in its subtle complexity and inventiveness.

“Vibrant, searching performances from this exciting young period-instrument quartet … the ensemble playing is little short of remarkable: the Beethoven second movement has rarely sounded so haunting, the Mozart finale so exhuberant” (Classical Music)

“the Chiaroscuro Quartet put period instrument practice to the fore, playing on gut strings, with minimal vibrato and tuning to the lower pitch of A430...It takes a moment to grow accustomed to the unfamiliar timbre but the rewards are immense.” (The Observer)

Chiaroscuro Quartet:
Alina Ibragimova, violin
Pablo Hernán Benedí, violin
Emilie Hörnlund, viola
Claire Thirion, cello

Chiaroscuro Quartet
Formed in 2005, the Chiaroscuro Quartet performs music of the Classical period with historical instruments and approach.

Recently the quartet played their first concert at the Edinburgh International Festival followed by their debut in Germany as part of the Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Highlights in the past took the young ensemble to London's Wigmore Hall, York Early Music Centre, The Sage Gateshead (recorded for BBC Radio 3), Auditorium du Louvre Paris, Théâtre du Jeu-de-Paume in Aix-en-Provence, Grand Théâtre de Dijon, Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon and a residency in Aldeburgh.

Following the critically acclaimed release of their first album in September 2011, the Chiaroscuro Quartet released its second recording for the French label Aparté in April 2013. The CD including Beethoven's Quartetto serioso, Mozart's Quartet K. 428 and Adagio and Fugue K. 546 received four out of four possible f in the French magazine Télérama and was given the best note for its interpretation in Germany's major magazine for chamber music Ensemble.

In the coming months the quartet will return to the BBC Radio 3 for a lunchtime concert in London and appear on stage of the Nikolaisaal Potsdam and Kunstverein Wiesloch. Concerts in the Netherlands (Concertgebouw Amsterdam), Belgium (Ghent, Handelsbeurs Concertzaal), France (Clermont-Ferrand and Pau) and Spain (Madrid and Bilbao) are scheduled for early 2014.

Since 2009 the Quartet has held a residency at Port-Royal-des-Champs dedicated to Mozart's quartets.

This album contains no booklet.