The String Chees Incident

The Alban Berg Quartet was founded in 1971 and within a decade was established as one of the finest string quartets in the world. It was known for its large recorded sets of the complete quartets of many masters of the genre.

The celebrated Dover Quartet, the young, Grammy-nominated ensemble brimming with prestigious awards and residencies, concludes its critically acclaimed, three-volume Beethoven cycle with the composer’s five monumental, revolutionary Late Quartets and imposing Grosse Fuge.

The Doric String Quartet is firmly established as one of the leading quartets of its generation, receiving enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics around the globe. Celebrating their 25th anniversary, the Quartet here embarks on a significant new recording project – the complete string quartets by Beethoven. This first volume combines works from Beethoven’s early, middle, and late period.

The second in their award-winning series, the Calidore Quartet return with a three-disc album of the Middle Quartets. Their Beethoven performances have been described as “shockingly deep” by LA Times. The first album of Late Quartets won the Chamber Music Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2024. Their interpretation is informed by their diverse set of mentors, which includes Alban Berg, Emerson and Guarneri and yet still uniquely represents the sentiments, aesthetics and research of their generation. Their interpretations of Beethoven are already critically acclaimed with performances at the Lincoln Centre planned as part of their residency.

“In autumn 2001 four young men sat down together and played through the entire volume of Haydn’s Op. 20 – these were the Accord Quartet’s very first notes. Ever since then, they have relished the experience granted to them by the great master of the string quartet and of humour, “Papa Haydn”, as, most likely, have all musicians over the last 250 years. Genuine playfulness with musical form and part-writing, in which everything is present, from love to death, from dances to fugue. We recommend this recording most warmly not only to lovers of Haydn, but to anyone who would like to unwind, relax, dream with us, and enjoy these six amazing compositions.”

Guggenheim Fellow and ASCAP Award winning composer Elena Ruehr's six string quartets are a magnum opus in which echoes of Perotin, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak, Schoenberg and jazz can be found, although the musical language is purely Ruehr's own.

Between 2010 and 2014, the British Emperor Quartet released the three discs gathered here, with all of Benjamin Britten’s published music for string quartet – as well as his one work for string quintet, the Phantasy in F minor. Their performances of the three numbered quartets, undisputed masterpieces of 20th-century chamber music, were variously described by the critics as ‘stupendous’ (Classic FM Magazine), ‘a wonderful homage’ (Ensemble), and ‘a complete cosmos of colours and nuances’ (Fono Forum), and the discs received top marks and distinctions in magazines such as Fanfare, Diapason and International Record Review.

With the participation of Corina Belcea, Krzysztof Chorzelski, Antoine Lederlin and Axel schacher, The Belcea Quartet impress with their renditions of Beethoven quartets…

The celebrated Dover Quartet, the young, Grammy-nominated ensemble brimming with prestigious awards and residencies, concludes its critically acclaimed, three-volume Beethoven cycle with the composer’s five monumental, revolutionary Late Quartets and imposing Grosse Fuge.

The Juilliard String Quartet. For over seventy years they have been a household name in several different formations. They are connected to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York.