Late Beethoven: Opus 127 Chiaroscuro Quartet

Image from Joss McKinley

The brilliant Chiaroscuro Quartet is committed to historically informed performance practice. In one respect, the musicians will not imitate their authentic predecessors: Beethoven's premieres were plagued by a lack of rehearsals. Opus 127, the first of three commissioned works from the Russian aristocrat Galitzin, was important to Beethoven. The Schuppanzigh Quartet turned the original performance into a farce. For contemporary string quartets, perfection is the benchmark: not as a goal, but as an indispensable means to convey the composition's grandeur.