Amadeus Quartet - Complete s On Deutsche Grammophon

Founded 70 years ago, The Amadeus Quartet was the most successful and highly-regarded Quartet of the 20th century. DG is proud to present what could be the most extensive chamber music boxset ever compiled: 70 CDs celebrating their 70th anniversary, handsomely presented in the style of DG’s highly successful Karajan ‘decade’ sets. Included are several unreleased s and an expansive book with an introductory note by Martin Lovett, the sole surviving member of the Amadeus Quartet, who is available for interviews. The Amadeus were the most successful and highly-regarded Quartet of the 20th century. Benefitting from the jet aeroplane and from the record industry’s ability to reach out to world, they dominated chamber music making for nearly 40 years. But concert tours are only successful if reviews are ecstatic and audiences delighted. They both were. For nearly 40 years, the Quartet (who styled themselves ‘The Wolf-Gang’) roved the world, argued, celebrated and worked like no other group, and changed not a single member: Norbert Brainin, Siegmund Nissel, Peter Schidlof and Martin Lovett had a career from 1951 to 1987, ending only with the death of Peter Schidlof in 1987. These 70 CDs – presenting almost their entire discography, together with distinguished and extensive presentation – form one of the most extensive chamber music sets ever created, and stands as eloquent testimony to their thoughtful musicianship, technical calibre and to the immense esteem in which the world held them. • This 70CD set presents the Amadeus Quartet’s Complete s on Deutsche Grammophon on the occasion of the Quartet’s 70th Anniversary • Several s released for the first time ever, others new to CD • Each album presented in original jackets with facsimiles of original session reports • 180-page book presents new notes by Daniel Snowman (author of The Amadeus Quartet: The Men and the Music), plus an introductory note by Martin Lovett, sole surviving member of the Amadeus Quartet; and previously unpublished photographs from the archives of the Quartet’s families HIGHLIGHTS • The key Austro-German quartet repertoire – Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert & Brahms – with several works recorded more than once of the course of the Amadeus’ career • Key masterpieces by Bruckner, Dvořák, Smetana & Tchaikovsky • The group’s rarer forays into contemporary repertoire: Bridge, Britten (whose final string quartet was written for the Amadeus), Fricker, Rainier, MacMillan • Multiple s of certain repertoire make for fascinating comparisons over the course of a career which spanned 1951 to 1987 THE AMADEUS QUARTET The Amadeus Quartet debuted at the Wigmore Hall on January 10, 1948 to an enthusiastic reception. Though their repertory was mainly the Austro-German greats, they were also the vanguard of chamber music ensembles introducing audiences to composers as Bartók and Britten (who wrote his third quartet expressly for them). Over their nearly forty years together, they made some 200 s – mostly for Deutsche Grammophon – and toured extensively throughout Europe, Canada, the United States, Japan, and South America; at their height they were on the road for eight months of the year. Life in the quartet was not always calm. On occasions Brainin or Lovett would storm out of rehearsal threatening never to work with the other again; when travelling they always sat separately on planes; hotels were implored to find them non-adjoining rooms. But the four men shared a devotion to each other and stuck to their vow that they would play string quartets with no other musician and when Schidlof died a replacement was never in discussion; this sad occasion marked the end of a quartet whose universal musicianship to this day transcends any changes in style that quartet playing might have undergone since.

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