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Track Listing:

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Beethoven: String Quartet - Opus 131 / Adagio
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Allegro molto vivace
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Allegro moderato Adagio
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Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile
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Presto
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Adagio quasi un poco andante
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Allegro

Miro Quartet :

Beethoven - Complete String Quartets, Opus 131


Miró Quartet Plays Late Beethoven on New Album

 

Recording of Beethoven's String Quartet Opus 131 forms the next installment to the Miró's Recordings 

of the Complete Beethoven String Quartet Cycle

 

On this highly anticipated recording, the Miró Quartet, who is dedicated to the core works of the string quartet repertoire, and especially those of Beethoven, performs the String Quartet Opus 131 in C sharp minor, a deeply dramatic and emotional work, which Beethoven himself considered to be his greatest achievement in the quartet form.

On ‘Complete String Quartets, Ludwig van Beethoven, Opus 131', available February 2 2018, the Miró teams up with their multiple Grammy winning producer Da-Hong Seetoo, with whom they first began recording the Beethoven Cycle in 2005, to capture the beauty and depth of this profound work (Miro Quartet Media MQM 2909-2).

The Miró Quartet has had a deep relationship to the works of Beethoven since the group's inception, having won the First Prize in the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition with a semifinals performance of the Opus 18 #6 quartet. Upon winning the 2000 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, they presented an acclaimed performance of the Opus 132 quartet for their winners' debut concert at Alice Tully Hall at New York's Lincoln Center. 

For the next two decades the Miró dedicated themselves to studying in depth and performing all of Beethoven's string quartets, in concert at such festivals as Music@Menlo, Santa Fe and Chamber Music Northwest; from 2012-2016 they toured the complete Opus 59 Quartets in a single marathon program, performing it in such venues as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall. 

In recent years the Miró has performed the Complete String Quartet Cycle of Beethoven (sixteen works in all written over the course of Beethoven's entire lifetime) in 5 marathon concerts at such prestigious venues as Tokyo's Suntory Hall. The group has also has taken pride in bringing this great cycle to unexpected audiences such as Tulsa Oklahoma, Austin Texas, and the San Juan Islands of Washington State.

The Miró Quartet began their relationship with engineer and producer Da Hong Seetoo in 2003 with the recording of Schubert's Cello Quintet in C major with cellist Matt Haimovitz for the Oxingale label. Two years later this artist/producer partnership began recording the Complete String Quartets of Beethoven, recording the six Opus 18 quartets in only two weeks of sessions at the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, releasing the two volume set on Vanguard Records in 2005. 

Subsequent volumes followed on the Naxos Label (Opus 59 in 2012), and on the quartet's own label Miró Quartet Media (Opus 74 and 95 in 2016, and opus 130 and 133 Quartets in 2017). The quartet plans to release their recordings of the entire Beethoven String Quartet Cycle as a complete set for their 25th Anniversary Season and Beethoven's 250th birthday in 2020. 

This recording of Opus 131 is the Miró's second in the series of Beethoven's Late String Quartets. These were the final works Beethoven composed before his death, and are often considered to be "some of the greatest works of art in the western world. The last two years of the composer's life 1824-1826 were almost completely given over to the writing of string quartets, and the monumental work Opus 131 that makes up this recording represents the pinnacle of Beethoven's Late Style "dramatic language" writes quartet violist John Largess.

In the liner notes to the album, Largess writes "By 1826, Beethoven's personal life had reached a desperate climax…his nephew and ward Karl bought a pistol, and having written a suicide note…shot himself in the head. This is the most shocking incident of Beethoven's entire personal life, for this boy he thought of as his son. Beethoven was forced to see himself and his family in a harsh, but mercilessly truthful light. It was time for Beethoven to let go…Amazingly, it's in the context of this terrible personal tragedy that the Opus 131 Quartet was born."

Opus 131 is unique work in that all of its seven movements are played without pause. Largess says that it "is the longest piece of uninterrupted playing that the Miró Quartet does on stage." A work "born out of immense personal suffering, yet infused with a masterly sense of joy and achievement", Opus 131 plumbs the depths of despair and desperation, while at the same time reaches the highest heights of exaltation and exhilaration. In it, Beethoven seems to speak personally of the very nature of human existence. 

‘Ludwig van Beethoven, Opus 131' was recorded September 25-29, 2017, at the Chapel on the campus of Bastyr College outside of Seattle Washington, and was produced through the generosity of arts patrons David and Amy Fulton, whose rare Stradivarius violin is heard in the hands of Miró first violinist Daniel Ching on this album. Through the generosity of this private donor, Beethoven Opus 131 will be available to the public for free download starting February 2 for 90 days, and will be permanently available from this date for live streaming, as is the rest of the Miró's complete recorded catalogue (see www.miroquartet.com for details).

Formed in 1995, the Miró Quartet is consistently praised for their deeply musical interpretations, exciting performances, and thoughtful programming. Each season, they perform throughout the world on the most important chamber music series and on the most prestigious concert stages. Based in Austin, TX, and the Resident Quartet of the University of Texas at Austin, the Miró Quartet took its name from the Spanish artist, Joan Miró, whose surrealist works - with subject matter drawn from the realm of memory and imaginative fantasy - are some of the most original of the twentieth century.