QuartettodiCremona has been performing Beethoven’s string quartet repertoire regularly since 2014, when they performed the complete Beethoven quartet cycle in Milan. Riding the heels of that concert success, they went into the studio to record all of Beethoven’s quartets.
The fifth volume of the recordings is out now on the German recording label Audite.de, and it includes a work which is not in the string quartet repertoire: a piece requiring an extra viola player. I had the opportunity to chat with Quartetto di Cremona violist Simone Gramaglia about their Beethoven project, and about Beethoven’s only “true” string quintet.