STRING QUARTET NO. 13 / QUINTET FOR PIANO AND WINDS

Edding Quartet / Nothernlight

In deze opname zetten het Edding Quartet en het Ensemble Northernlight twee kamermuziekwerken van Beethoven tegenover elkaar, die als het ware aan het begin en het einde van de carrière van de componist staan: Het Kwintet voor piano en blazers Op. 16, gecomponeerd in 1796, en het Strijkkwartet Op. 130, slechts een jaar voor zijn dood voltooid. De nauwkeurige maar altijd frisse opname overtuigt over de hele linie.

The pairing of the two works on this album is unique in that one comes from the dawn, the other from the dusk of Ludwig van Beethoven’s career. Indeed, whereas the composer wrote the Quintet for winds and piano, Op. 16 when he was only 26 – the talented young man also excelled as a successful pianist –, he did not finish his String Quartet Op. 130 until a year before his death. The Edding quartet proposes here the original version of the work, with the Grosse Fuge, op.130, as final. The direct comparison of these two works on the same disc intelligently sheds light on the fantastic distance the composer covered between these two points in time. Two years after the success of their Schubert album, very warmly received by the press and public alike, the Edding Quartet and Northernlight felicitously join together once again on the same album to give new readings of these masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. Having become major interpreters of the Classical and Romantic repertoires, the two ensembles offer expert performances, refined and precise, of two of the German composer’s finest scores.

Beethoven:
 String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130
 Quintet in E flat major for piano and winds, Op.16
 Grosse Fuge in B flat major, Op. 133

"De balans binnen het kwartet is perfect, de vier spelers kunnen samen smelten tot één klank, die zó mooi is dat je daarvan op zich ook al kunt genieten."
LUISTER MAGAZINE 720 - LUISTER TIEN