Delos Diary

A Delos release we all anticipate is the new recording by the famed Shanghai Quartet of Beethoven's "Razumovsky" Quartets, Op. 59, Nos. 2 and 3. The CD will feature the very first Beethoven music that the Shanghai has committed to disc.

While reading through introductory notes furnished by the Quartet I was struck by one line: "They [the Beethoven quartets] also happen to be among the hardest to play." To see such a confession from a virtuoso group which does not quail before the intricacies of Brahms, Ravel, Bridge and Zhou Long, can help us understand why musicians of Beethoven's own time found these quartets so formidable. Remember that most of the string players who first performed these pieces were dilettante aristocrats who would gather together of an evening to sightread a little Cimarosa or Locatelli. Suddenly on their music stands they faced the mad ravings of the crazed Beethoven, so different from anything they had dabbled in before. It's not surprising they complained. The tide soon turned, but at the time the irascible Beethoven had the last word: "Oh, they're not for you, but for a later age."Or even better, "Do you think that I care for your damn fiddle when the spirit seizes me?" Today, no professional classical string quartet dares to ignore the challenge of these great works.