Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130

All that was issued of a projected Fitzwilliam Quartet cycle on Decca was two late quartets – Opp. 130 and 132 – as well as the Grosse Fuge. Issued over two full-price discs and unavailable for more than two decades, they are now coupled as a 2CD Eloquence reissue. Some of Beethoven’s most visionary achievements, the recordings were highly regarded upon their first (and only appearance) on CD. The Grosse Fuge is placed before the finale of the B flat major Quartet, ‘clearly intended to be a spectacular apotheosis’, as Alan George argues in his notes. Listeners can program the CD with either the Grosse Fuge as the finale or the sixth movement conventionally used as its finale.

The lengthy annotations include an introductory note by the Fitzwilliam Quartet’s viola player Alan George, reminiscing about the recordings. The original CD notes are updated and revised and an additional note on the Grosse Fuge is provided by the Quartet’s current leader, Lucy Russell. As well there is a biography of the Fitzwilliam Quartet and a note on their Decca recording team.

Collectors will be interested to learn that the Fitzwilliams’s recording of the Op. 130 and Grosse Fuge was the last recording ever to be made by Decca in one of its most prestigious recording venues, Kingsway Hall.

Beethoven remains the ultimate test for a string quartet; with their ongoing complete cycle for Virgin Classics, the Artemis Quartet are rising to the challenge.

‘The Artemis String Quartet makes chamber music spectacular: the quartet's playing is polished and precise but at the same time spontaneous, fresh and explosive as though the music is being improvised on the spot. Even the physical motions involved with the bowing are beautifully choreographed to reflect the mood of the music.’ The Enquirer

The Quartet’s debut release on the label in 2005 comprised Beethoven’s op 59/1 and op 95, followed by the second release in 2008 in the cycle bringing together op 59/2, the ‘Razumovsky’ Quartet, and the Quartet op 18/4 and which also introduced the ensemble’s latest members, Gregor Sigl (violin) and Friedemann Weigle (viola). The interpretations were warmly welcomed: in France, the release was named CHOC of the Year by Le Monde de la Musique and was also awarded a Diapason d’Or, while in Germany the recording was chosen as Chamber Music Recording of the Year in the the ECHO Klassik awards of the Deutsche Phono-Akademie. In the UK, the influential Sunday Times singled out the release, praising the “fresh, positive responses” of the Artemis Quartet: “ … their colours are vivid and they are alert to the music’s intent to push all sorts of boundaries to breaking point.”

Celebrating their 25th year together, the Vertavo String Quartet now releases its very first Beethoven recording. The works on this new hybrid SACD, the String Quartet Opus 130 and the Grosse Fugue, have been part of the Vertavo repertoire as long as the group has been in existence, and the insight that this brings is clearly evident in these memorable performances.

Formed in 1984, the Vertavo String Quartet is now established as one of the leading European string quartets, and since then they have collaborated with artists like Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Paul Lewis, and Leif Ove Andsnes. Among the many contemporary composers they have worked with are Ligeti, Adès, Widmann, Nørgård, Edlund and Asheim. The group have received a number of international awards for their recordings which so far have featured amongst others the music by Bartók (the complete quartets), Schumann, Brahms, Nielsen, Debussy, and Grieg.

The six-movement String Quartet Op. 130 was written between August and November 1825 during a rare period of relatively good health in the composer’s later years. Beethoven’s original idea was to have the Grosse Fugue as the finale of the Op. 130. Only after the Quartet was completed and premiered did he listen to the urgings of friends and issue the fugue as a separate composition. He then wrote a new and more light-hearted finale for the Op. 130 Quartet, a movement which turned out to be his very last composition.