Intégrale des enregistrements Rias Berlin 1951- 1963

Description

Did the record lie about the Quartetto Italiano, who were hailed as impeccable interpreters of the great repertoire in their maturity, particularly at home with Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms, bringing them this light of four absolutely equal voices? Yet their most famous record was the pairing of the Quartets by Debussy and Ravel. What, the Italiano in works of the 20th Century? This would be confirmed by an equally definitive Webern album. And yet… At the center of the recordings of the four young men for the RIAS of Berlin is the Ravel Quartet, disarming in its tenderness and poetry. But what a surprise to hear them detail the ghosts of Shostakovich's Seventh Quartet or to immerse themselves in the fauvist polytonalities of the double allegro of Malipiero's 4th Quartet, a score as splendid as it is perilous: the slightest uncertainty in intonation could be fatal here. Moreover, the portrait is complete, adding to the Italianos' discographic rarities the surprising 7th Quartet by Donizetti, devilishly Beethovenian (here's a part of his work to discover), and the grand breath of Cherubini's 5th Quartet. The two Quartets by Schumann (2 and 3) are ardent, haunted, of dazzling craftsmanship, Haydn's op. 77 no. 1 Quartet is prodigious in spirit and poetry, but the major contribution of this ensemble is indeed Schubert's 8th Quartet, played like a cry, sostenuto, feverish, with unbearable tension, true music from the edge of the abyss. And to think that such a stroke of genius had been sleeping in the archives for sixty-eight years! (Discophilia - Artalinna.com) (Jean-Charles Hoffelé)