DISCOGRAPHY
PRESUMED BEETHOVEN
The Six String Quartets, Anh. 2
Quartetto Alla Maniera Italiana
Casa discografica: Arcana - CD doppio
In 1927, during the centenary commemorations of Beethoven's death, the distinguished French musicologist Saint-Foix drew attention for the first time to a manuscript collection of six string quartets, formerly owned by the publisher Domenico (III) Artaria and now preserved at the Berlin State Library (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). He proposed that these works might represent the earliest attempts of a still adolescent Beethoven in a genre that he would formally inaugurate in 1801 with the publication of Op. 18.
On the basis of this theory, the collection was included in the Beethoven catalogue, where it remains pending further scholarly investigation and musicological study. This world-premiere recording of the Six Quartets, Anhang 2, brings to light a precious collection of chamber music still shrouded in mystery. Presented in a historically informed performance, it offers an original contribution to the ongoing commemorations of the bicentenary of Beethoven’s death.
Francesco Zappa (1717 – 1803)
6 DUETS FOR VIOLIN AND CELLO
ALLA MANIERA ITALIANA ENSEMBLE
His six Duets for violin and cello, published in Paris and presented here, sound like a polite parlour conversation. If Zappa chooses a classical gallant style, his music is never superficial, and he clearly proves a first-rate composer whose unmistakable trait is his Italian melodiousness.
Francesco Pasquale Ricci (1732- 1817)
SIX STRING QUARTETS OP. VIII
ALLA MANIERA ITALIANA ENSEMBLE
In cooperation with ARCHIVIO DELLA SINFONIA MILANESE
Mozart defined it as a Minor light inside the European musical panorama. However the Galant style of F.P. Ricci had great success still around the 1770, reasserting an Italian way of understanding music.
