Boccherini, Haydn & Beethoven Quartets

Artist: Quartetto Italiano

Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) Quatuor op.39 No.3; Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Quatuors op.76 No.2 & 4; Quatuors op.3 No.5 (attributed to Hoffstetter); Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Quatuor No.10 op.74

Founded in 1945, the Quartetto Italiano gave more than 3000 concerts all over the world, from Argentina to Zambia, throughout Western and Eastern Europe and the USA, until they dissolved themselves in 1980.
For all but four of its thirty-five years the quartet remained unchanged: Paolo Borciani, Elisa Pegreffi, Piero Farulli and Franco Rossi. And unlike so many other quartets, the members of the Quartetto Italiano didn't play on great Stradivarius, Guarnierius or Amati instruments, but on less venerable and less famous instruments. In other words, the musician was more important for the beauty of sound than his or her instrument. The four members of the Quartetto used metal strings to avoid tedious tuning sessions between movements.