QUARTETTO ITALIANO – “Prima La Musica” The Complete Warner Recordings (14 CDs) WARNER CLASSICS

The finest string quartet, unquestionably, that our century has known.” In 1951, when the Quartetto Italiano first visited the USA, composer Virgil Thomson’s was enthused: “Perfection is the only word to describe this playing.” The quartet’s members, who had met while studying in Siena, made their ensemble debut in 1945. They went on to enthral audiences around the world with interpretations of proverbial beauty, insight and architectural elegance. In this collection, presenting their entire Warner Classics discography, their subtle mastery is as evident in essential Austro-German repertoire as in Italian music spanning five centuries and works by Debussy, Ravel, Milhaud, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Complementing the catalogue they built between 1953 and 1959 is their very first recording, made in 1946 when they were still known as the Nuovo Quartetto Italiano. The collection, entirely remastered, features a number of recordings appearing on CD for the first time.

The TRACK LISTING relays the “WORKS” and not the tracks on the Limited 14 CD box set.

• Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 – Quartetto Italiano (String Quartet)
• Vinci, Leonardo: Gavotta (From Soli Per Violino E Arpicordo)
• Boccherini: Quartet No. 55 (Op. 39 – G213)
• Boccherini: String Quartet Op. 58 No. 2
• Mozart: String Quartet No. 14 in G Major, K387 ‘Spring’
• Mozart: String Quartet No. 15 in D minor, K421
• Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B Flat Major, Op. 130
• Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10
• Milhaud: String Quartet No. 12, Op. 252
• Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 in B Flat Major, Op. 67
• Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 3 No. 5 in F Major
• Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 76 No. 2 in D minor ‘Fifths’
• Prokofiev: String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 92
• Malipiero: String Quartet No. 4
• Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 33 No. 3 in C Major ‘The Bird’
• Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 76 No. 4 in B Flat Major ‘Sunrise’
• Mozart: String Quartet No. 17 in B Flat Major, K458 ‘The Hunt’
• Schubert: String Quartet No. 2 in C Major, D32
• Beethoven: String Quartet No. 10 in E Flat Major, Op. 74 ‘Harp’
• Galuppi: Concerto a Quattro in G minor
• Boccherini: String Quartet in G Major, Op. 44 No. 4, G223, ‘La Tiranna’
• Cambini: String Quartet in G minor
• Gabrieli, G: Canzon I ‘La Spiritata’
• Marini, B: Balletto Primo
• Neri: Sonata V a 4
• Vitali, G: Capriccio
• Scarlatti, a: Sonata a Quattro in D minor
• Vivaldi: Concerto for Strings in E Flat Major ‘Sonata Al Santo Sepolcro’, RV130
• Schumann: String Quartet No. 3 in a Major, Op. 41 No. 3
• Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
• Ravel: String Quartet in F Major
• Mozart: String Quartet No. 3 in G Major, K156