After close to a quarter of a centruy building a distinctive musical voice that connects the great canon of string quartet literaure with rare jewels of the repertoire, the internationally acclaimed Cuarteto Quiroga returns with a new CD album — 9th release of their discography— which represents a tribute to an amazing composer that has accompanied the ensemble since the very beginning of their musical career: Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga.
Because even if Arriaga only got to live 19 years the prodigy of his genius caused great admiration during his lifetime (he was called the Spanish Mozart) and is still today subject of awe and well-deserved fascination.
How much would he had developed, had he lived longer and had he had the chance to mature? Would we be now talking of one of Europe’s greatest composers of the 19th Century?
His 3 string quartets, written when he was only 16 years of age (!!!) can be easily compared to those that Schubert, Mozart or other great composers wrote at such early age. Arriaga’s masterful command of the most demandig of all musical genres, the String Quartet —a mastery few others could proof at such early age— certi es the stature of his genius.
Cuarteto Quiroga celebrates such greatness by portraying the outstanding value of Arriaga’s 3 string quartets in this CD, through a recording on gut strings formulated with a serious historical informed performance practice approach, after more than two decades researching this brilliant scores, performing them worldwide and working on them intensively and extensively.
A CD containing three musical jewels, that is in itslef —because of its unique interpretational approach, born out of more than twenty years of exhaustive research and experience— a rarity and a precious collector’s item.