Mozart: String Quartet No. 17 in B flat major, K458 'The Hunt'

The Quartetto Italiano is regarded as one of the finest string quartets of the twentieth century. The ensemble’s repertory was broad and included the entire quartet outputs of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann and Webern, and selected works of Galuppi, Vivaldi, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Bartók, Shostakovich, Villa-Lobos, Schoenberg and many others. They were formed officially in 1945 and by the early 1950s they had achieved a measure of international celebrity, but by the 1960s the ensemble had developed a worldclass reputation. Between 1967 and 1975 they recorded all the Beethoven string quartets for Philips as well as the complete quartets by Mozart, Schumann, Brahms and Webern. They rarely collaborated with other soloists, but did so notably on Brahms’s Piano Quintet op.34 with Maurizio Pollini in 1974.

The Quartetto Italiano recorded all this repertoire in the studio, but we have here some rare BBC live performances from 1965 given in the Royal Festival Hall. They are recorded in excellent stereo and issued for the very first time.

The only performance by the Quartetto of the Boccherini to be previously released is a 1956 mono studio recording, so this live performance in stereo from nine years later is an important addition to their discography.

The Quartetto Italiano recorded all the Mozart Quartets and the Penguin Guide said ‘As a set, the performances have seen off all challengers for two decades or more.’ Mozart’s Quartet No.17 K458 ‘The Hunt’ is here presented live in a wonderfully dedicated performance.

The Beethoven Quartet No.15 op.132 has likewise been recorded in the studio – the Penguin Guide said, ‘The merits of the Italian Quartet’s performances are considerable. The sonority that they produce is beautifully blended and splendidly focused.’ Critics hailed it as the best since the Busch version, three decades earlier. This is a great performance of Beethoven’s masterpiece.

After two widely acclaimed Haydn releases, the Jerusalem Quartet now turns to an exploration of Mozart and three distinct periods in his creative life. Haydn is not totally absent from this recording, since the central quartet belongs to the glorious group of six which Mozart, now firmly established in Vienna, dedicated to his elder in 1785. Twelve years earlier, the teenage composer was still amusing himself with the Sammartinian model in the third of his ‘Milanese’ Quartets’ and four years after the ‘Haydn’ set, Mozart abandoned the divertimento style once and for all, presenting in the second of the ‘Prussian’ Quartets a score that radically renewed the practice of chamber music.

The Jerusalem Quartet was founded in 1993, and began its training in Jerusalem, under the direction of the violinist Avi Abramovitch. The young quartet soon became a force to reckon with on the international scene: in 1996 it won First Prize in chamber music at the Jerusalem Academy, and in 1997 a double prize at the Graz International Competition for its performances of works by Kurtág and Bartók. From 1999 to 2001 the quartet received support from the BBC (as BBC New Generation Artists), then in 2003 it was the recipient of the first Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.

The Jerusalem Quartet is now a regular guest on major European and American concert platforms. It took part in the Vancouver Recital Series, the Verbier Festival and the Robeco Summer Concert Series in Amsterdam. In 2007, it toured in Australia and Japan. It is Musica Viva’s Quartet-in-Residence from 2006 until 2009 (Australia).

The Jerusalem Quartet regularly partners Mitsuko Uchida, Jessye Norman, Daniel Barenboim, Elena Bashkirova, Tabea Zimmermann, Natalia Gutman, Itamar Golan, Boris Pergamenshikov, and the Vermeer and Pražák Quartets. With harmonia mundi, the quartet has recorded works by Dvořák (with Stefan Vladar), Shostakovich, Haydn and Schubert, and has been awarded several international distinctions including a BBC Music Magazine Award for their Shostakovich with Editor’s Choice and BBC Choice for their ‘Death and the Maiden’. The Quartet is grateful to Daniel Barenboim who generously loans Jacqueline du Pré's ‘Sergio Perresson’ cello to Kyril Zlotnikov.