This recording presents, in a well considered but uncommon juxtaposition, two of the most significant among Beethoven’s string quartets. The first of these (the eighth), in modo russo, proposes the first great scherzo da camera in history of the form, leaving far behind all Haydn’s and Mozart’s minuettos or ternary allegros. The second on the CD (the famous fifteenth) is much more widely expanded: it is a form of musical, but also existential, testament… The molto adagio (third movement, also known as Thanksgiving to the divinity from a cured man) must be played 'mit innigster Empfindung' (with the most intimate feeling)… The last movements must not be limited by the technical problems given by “those sixteen wretched strings” (Beethoven’s own expression, answering to Ignaz Schuppanzigh, leader of the quartet which created all Beethoven’s last quartets) Today, the Prazaks, at their best, dominate the difficulties…
