Quartetto di Cremona

Thursday, October 26, 2023 7:30 PM Weill Recital Hall

Quartetto di Cremona by Nikolaj Lund

Quartetto di Cremona is one of the 21st century’s preeminent string quartets. Hailing from Cremona, Italy—home to luthiers such as Stradivari, Guarneri, and members of the Rugeri and Amati families—they are internationally acclaimed for their exquisite sound, striking cohesion, and expansive repertoire. In this Carnegie Hall debut, they open with Wolf’s jaunty Italian Serenade, followed by Ravel’s sole string quartet, a chamber repertory favorite. The quartet then treats audiences to a late Beethoven string quartet, showcasing their treatment of the composer’s works that has been called “mastery … a glory” (The Herald).

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Performers

Quartetto di Cremona
- Cristiano Gualco, Violin
- Paolo Andreoli, Violin
- Simone Gramaglia, Viola
- Giovanni Scaglione, Cello

Program

WOLF Italian Serenade

RAVEL String Quartet in F Major

BEETHOVEN String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132

Encore:

J. S. BACH Contrapunctus I from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080

Event Duration

The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.

View Program Notes

Salon Encores

Join us for a free drink at a post-concert reception in Weill Recital Hall’s Jacobs Room.
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At a Glance

WOLF Italian Serenade

Among Wolf’s handful of purely instrumental works, the Italian Serenade is the moody Austrian composer’s ebullient valentine to the sunny Mediterranean. Max Reger praised Wolf’s short piece for its “enchanting tonal charm” and “highly original color.”

RAVEL String Quartet in F Major

Premiered in Paris in 1904, Ravel’s first and only string quartet signaled his emergence as Debussy’s artistic peer and heir apparent. The youthful masterpiece elicited favorable comparisons to the older composer’s celebrated Quartet of 1893, with which it is often paired on recordings. Recurring intervals, melodic shapes, textures, and sonorities give the four movements a strong sense of organic unity.

BEETHOVEN String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132

Beethoven’s Op. 132, the second of three quartets commissioned by the Russian prince Nikolai Golitsin, centers on its transcendently beautiful slow movement, a deeply felt “song of thanksgiving” for the composer’s recovery from illness. Like many of Beethoven’s late-period works, the A-Minor Quartet expresses spiritual struggle through extreme contrasts of mood.

Bios