Schoenberg: String Quartet No. 2 in F sharp minor, Op. 10

Founded in 1979, The Petersen Quartett have established themselves as a highly acclaimed quartet, performing in concert halls worldwide. Famous for devoting their energies to the demands both of the classical quartet literature and of contemporary music, they are regarded in every respect as a pioneering ensemble among the new generation of string quartets. They have exceeded any ordinary repertoire of a string quartet and Phoenix Edition is delighted to present recordings of Schönberg, Webern and Berg.

The quartet are joined by Christine Schäfer, whose collaboration with the Petersen Quartett on a recording of Aribert Reimann’s collection of Mendelssohn/Schumann song transcriptions on the Capriccio label was the winner of the 2007 ECHO Klassik Award for Best Lied recording.

Both string quartet and soprano aim to broaden ther horizons by constantly searching new, exciting programme material and they accomplish this on this new CD that features the sensational re-discovery of the secret voice from Alban Berg’s “Lyrical Suite” as well as Arnold Schönberg’s string quartet No. 2 (unusual in that a soprano voice is included instead of a string quartet in the 3rd and 4th movements) and Anton Webern’s “Slow Movement”; all of them masterfully rendered.