Beethoven
Quartetto Doré

Quartetto Doré

Ilaria Taioli, violin

Samuele Di Gioia, violin

Salvatore Borrelli, viola

Caterina Vannoni, cello

L. van Beethoven (1770-1827)

String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59 No. 2 “Razumovsky”

40’ | Ticket 8 €

Composed between 1805 and 1806, Op. 59 No. 2 is the second of the three quartets dedicated to Count (later Prince) Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador in Vienna and one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s most generous patrons. A great connoisseur of music and an amateur violinist himself, Razumovsky not only financed the work but also maintained a resident quartet at his own expense, allowing Beethoven to venture into bold formal and sonic solutions. The work marks a turning point in the string quartet repertoire, adopting a symphonic approach that treats the four instruments as a single sonic organism, rich in tension and contrast.

The piece opens with a tense and fragmented Allegro in E 'or, followed by the Molto Adagio in E major, the expressive heart of the work: an intensely evocative chorale marked “con molto di sentimento” (“with deep feeling”) and, according to Carl Czerny, inspired by the contemplation of a starry night and the movements of the heavens. The Scherzo (Allegretto) pays tribute to the dedicatee through the quotation of a Russian folk theme, reworked in contrapuntal writing. The finale, a driving Presto, leads to a conclusion of overwhelming energy.

The performance features the Quartetto Doré, a young ensemble active on the international scene, whose music will resonate through the spaces of the Museo Virgilio, where the memory of the poet lives on among the historic walls of the Palazzo del Podestà and modern multimedia installations.

Text by Desirée Blundi