Luogo e data di registrazione		La Salle des Remparts, La-Tour-de-Peilz (Svizzera) - 22-30 luglio 1973
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Vittorio Negri | Joost Humeling, Gerard Janszen
	Edizione LP		Philips | 412 056-1 | 1 LP
	Prima Edizione CD		Vedi link alla prima edizione in long playing.
	Note		La collana "Musica da Camera" della Philips riedita negli anni '80 alcune registrazioni del Quartetto Italiano.

Beethoven started composing string quartets relatively late, around 1798. Possibly he wanted first to reach a certain degree of maturity in his studied of counterpoint. Evidently he regarded as essential a command of polyphonic style, fugue, canon, and part-writing. When working in a new field it was natural for him to adhere to established patterns. There is surely more than superficial significance in the fact that he began with a series of six quartets (Op. 18), such as Mozart had produced in 1785 and Haydn in 1790. A link with Mozart is very clearly seen in the A major Quartet, Op. 18 No. 5, but although the opening movement of the work to a large extent follows traditional lines, the minuet and trio bear the author's mark, and we need only a few bars of the trio, a heart-stirring Viennese waltz melody with ravishing sforzandi on the weak third beat, to recognise Beethoven in his element. This diverting movement leads beautifully into the third movement, inscribed Andante cantabile, a theme and variations - a form which was to remain a favourite with Beethoven. Here, fugal entries at the beginning of the first variation, which are not however development; hint at an increasingly polyphonic style. The fourth variation begins with a calm, almost chorale-like recapitolation of the theme, but this time the chordal accompaniment is much richet in harmony and colour. Against this, the fifth variation sets an outburst of elemental power, with its succession of linked trills, its rough sforzandi, and its dotted rhythms. The finale is in more conventional style, and lacks the individual touch. The Quartet in B flat, the most advanced in the Op. 18 set, repeatedly reminds us of its nearness to the Piano Sonata in B flat, Op. 22; sketches for both, in fact, appear together on the same sheets of manuscript. As well as the obvious coincidence of key and the same tempo indication, Allegro con brio, the first movement of each work bears signs of wresting with fragmented material. The Adagio, a type of movement in which the young Beethoven already excelled, almost completely lacks his individual touch; its only original and effective moment is a modulation, in two bars just before the end, from the prevalling key of E flat to C. In the high spirited scherzo it is obviously Beethoven's intention to confuse players and audience by masterly shifts in the centre of gravity of the music, and unexpected stresses on the weak beat, the whole effect being strenghened by retardations, amounting to syncopation. The movement ends with a fluent, light, and freely sketched trio in the style of the period. The finale which follows is quite simply one of the great leaps forward in Beethoven's quartet writing, a fitting crown for this first set. The movement begins with a gloomy, almost early atmospheric section with chromatic progressions and sudden dynamic changes, contrasts being henghtened by unusually wide intervals. But the slow introduction proves to be only the prelude to the stirring and infectious Allegretto. Once again the gloomy tones of the opening interrupt the joyous flow and threasten to wamp it; but it refuses to be stopped, and ends in a furious Prestissimo. Hans Schmidt

Illustration: Wilhelm August Rieder (1796-1880) "Romantische Landschaft" (Salzburger Landesmuseum Residenzgalerie)