Beethoven: String Qurtets, Vol. 1

To celebrate their 20th anniversary, Cuarteto Casals presents the first release in a new complete cycle of the Beethoven quartets. The group devised an innovative structural arrangement for its recordings. The works are not presented in the typical grouping of early, middle and late periods: rather they are arranged according to each quartet's place within Beethoven's musical development. The three sets will be titled Inventions (works of inspiration and exploration), Revelations (works with in which the full potential of Beethoven's language is fully realized) and Apotheosis (works of ''transfiguration''). This ingenious juxtaposition reveals as never before how Beethoven's superhuman struggle for perfection gave birth to a musical language of breathtaking originality without precedent in this genre, of which Beethoven is the uncontested master.

Price: $51.98