Endellion Beethoven Cycle
‘The Endellion is arguably the finest quartet in Britain, playing with poise, true intonation, excellent balance and a beautiful tone.
In music of the Viennese Classical composers it has few challengers but it has won praise in a wide repertory, its Beethoven and Bartók cycles being especially admired’.
- The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The Stradivari Trust is proud to support the Endellion String Quartet’s recording of the complete Beethoven String Quartet Cycle. The box-set will be released in September 2008, and forms part of the quartet’s 30th anniversary celebrations.
The first discs of the cycle have already been released to critical acclaim:
‘…Enter the Endellion String Quartet, on volume three of their complete cycle of Beethoven’s string music, whose command of his challenges now seems unassailable. Add to this the fact that the Quartet is playing off Jonathan Del Mar’s new edition of Beethoven scores, and this fine CD sits on the spectrum between state-of-the-art and definitive. Del Mar’s job is to correct mistakes and restore changes to the printed music that have crept in over the passage of time. A restored cello phrase in the Grosse Fugue is so outrageously taxing that the Dionysian flow of the music temporarily buckles to accommodate the leaps; the Endellion’s and Del Mar’s scholarship teleports the listener back to as pure a Beethoven experience as can now exist. Op 130 itself begins in visceral, gutsy fashion as the Endellion’s articulate Beethoven’s structural disjoints like the granite corners of a Henry Moore. Notably, the lyricism of the Andante movement is highly affecting, emerging refreshed and thoughtfully re-imagined.’
Chamber disc of the month
(five stars)
- Classic FM Magazine January 2007 Beethoven String Quartets vol 3 Warner Classics
In both works these superb musicians respond to the dark undertow so characteristic of Beethoven’s quartets as much as the gentle lyricism which invariably breaks through. With seven discs to go, the rest of this cycle is a mouth-watering prospect
- The Observer Feb 2006 Beethoven String Quartets vol 2 Warner Classics
If you would like to support this exciting project please contact us.
For further information about the Endellion String Quartet, please see www.endellionquartet.com.
