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The Late Quartets Vol. 2 - Beethoven Op. 130 & 133 | Shostakovich Op. 133
Ludwig van Beethoven - Dmitri Shostakovich

The Late Quartets Vol. 2 - Beethoven Op. 130 & 133 | Shostakovich Op. 133

Alma Quartet

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917200287
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Catalog number: CC 720028
Releasedate: 23-10-26
- Two revolutionary voices, one Opus 133 -  Beethoven and Shostakovich connected across nearly 150 years
- The second chapter of Alma Quartet’s ambitious multi-year Late Quartets project.
- Beethoven’s radical Grosse Fuge - a work Stravinsky called “contemporary forever”
- From intimate grief to liberation -  two deeply human works of extraordinary emotional range
- Performed by the acclaimed Alma Quartet, praised by magazines like Diapason for infusing Shostakovich with "mysterious and undeniably poetic tones"
Alma Quartet continues its ambitious Late Quartets series by bringing together two extraordinary works that share more than the same opus number. Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13, Op. 130, with the monumental Grosse Fuge, Op. 133, travels from dark humour and gentle melancholy to the profoundly moving Cavatina and a finale that was so radical in 1826 that audiences struggled to comprehend it. Nearly two centuries later, the Grosse Fuge still sounds astonishingly modern -  music Stravinsky famously considered “contemporary forever."

Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 12, Op. 133 forms a fascinating counterpart. Built around a twelve-tone series, it transforms an ostensibly modernist technique into music that is lyrical, emotional and surprisingly accessible. Its expansive second movement moves from fierce virtuosity and almost symphonic intensity towards a visceral, liberating conclusion. In Alma Quartet’s hands, these two Opus 133 worlds become part of a larger conversation across time -  the second installment of their multi-year project pairing the late quartets of Beethoven and Shostakovich.