Beethoven Quartets, Vol. 1: Late String Quartets Calidore Quartet

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827): String Quartet No. 12 in E-Flat Major, Op. 127:
• 1 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12 in E-Flat Major, Op. 127: I. Maestoso 07:06
• 2 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12 in E-Flat Major, Op. 127: Ii Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile 15:22
• 3 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12 in E-Flat Major, Op. 127: Iii. Scherzando vivace 08:02
• 4 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12 in E-Flat Major, Op. 127: Iv. Finale. Allegro 07:10
• String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131:
• 5 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131: I. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo 06:48
• 6 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131: Ii. Allegro molto vivace 02:54
• 7 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131: Iii. Allegro moderato 00:43
• 8 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131: Iv. Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile 13:26
• 9 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131: V. Presto 05:01
• 10 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131: Vi. Adagio quasi un poco andante 01:59
• 11 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131: Vii. Allegro 06:38
• String Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat major, Op. 130:
• 12 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat major, Op. 130: I. Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro 13:39
• 13 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat major, Op. 130: Ii. Presto 01:59
• 14 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat major, Op. 130: Iii. Andante con moto ma non troppo. Poco scherzando 06:55
• 15 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat major, Op. 130: Iv. Alla danza tedesca (Allegro assai) 03:24
• 16 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat major, Op. 130: V. Cavatina (Adagio molto espressivo) 07:00
• Grosse Fuge in B-Flat Major, Op. 133:
• 17 Beethoven: Grosse Fuge in B-Flat Major, Op. 133 15:32
• String Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat major, Op. 130:
• 18 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat major, Op. 130: Vi. Finale. Allegro 10:13
• String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132:
• 19 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132: I. Assai sostenuto - Allegro 09:57
• 20 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132: Ii. Allegro ma non tanto 09:01
• 21 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132: Iii. Molto adagio 17:32
• 22 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132: Iv. Alla marcia, assai vivace 02:17
• 23 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132: V. Allegro appassionato 06:41
• String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135:
• 24 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135: I. Allegretto 06:38
• 25 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135: Ii. Vivace 03:15
• 26 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135: Iii. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo 07:48
• 27 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135: Iv. Grave ma non troppo tratto - Allegro 06:43
• Total Runtime 03:23:43

Info for Beethoven Quartets, Vol. 1: Late String Quartets

BEETHOVEN: The Late Quartets, is the Calidore String Quartet’s third album and most ambitious project to date on the label following their acclaimed albums BABEL (2020) and Resilience (2018). The three-album set marks the first instalment of the Calidore’s full Beethoven cycle to be released on Signum over the next three years. It has been twelve years since friends Jeffrey Myers (violin), Ryan Meehan (violin), Jeremy Berry (viola), and Estelle Choi (cello) formed the Calidore String Quartet while students at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. “Performing the Beethoven cycle is the musical equivalent of scaling Mount Everest,” says violinist Ryan Meehan. “It is a gruelling nine hours of music comprised of some of the most technically intricate and emotionally demanding music ever conceived, to which we have dedicated much of our studying and performing since the quartet’s inception.”

The Calidore String Quartet has been continually drawn to Beethoven’s music for the enduring relevance of his humanistic perspective. Meehan says, “He was an artist who aimed to compose not for one portion of society, but rather to unite us through our fundamental elements. His sixteen string quartets sonically weave a tapestry of human emotion; from vulnerability and hope as in the ‘Heiliger Dankgesang’ of op. 132, to terror and anger subsiding to joy like in op. 135’s ‘Der schwer gefasste Entschluss’. Our public performances affirmed to us that Beethoven’s Quartets appeal to the emotional experiences we share in common as human beings, which are far more substantial than what may divide us. These great works are also the result of Beethoven’s struggles to overcome the challenges of his own life.”

“This recording serves as a snapshot of our twelve years of working, growing, listening and collaborating with one another. Though this music speaks in a language that is hundreds of years old, its message remains immediate, relevant and comforting to listeners of today and of generations to come even, and especially in the most challenging of times.”

During the 2022-23 season, the Calidore String Quartet perform Beethoven Quartets in concert throughout North America and around the world with engagements in Vancouver, Costa Mesa and Denmark, and at Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw and Kennedy Center. This summer, the ensemble presents the complete Beethoven Quartet cycle at Music@Menlo with additional complete performances in 2023-24 to be announced later this year.

Calidore String Quartet

Calidore Quartet
Performances of the Calidore String Quartet are renowned for their “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” (New York Times). Their unique “balance of intellect and expression” (Los Angeles Times) is complemented by the feeling that “four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one” (Washington Post). After over a decade of performances and residencies in the world’s most esteemed venues and festivals, the release of numerous critically acclaimed recordings and lauded with significant awards, the Calidore String Quartet is recognized as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of a vast repertory; from the cycles of quartets by Beethoven and Mendelssohn to works of celebrated contemporary voices like Grygory Kurtag, Jörg Widmann and Caroline Shaw.

In their most ambitious recording project to date, the Calidore are amidst recording the complete cycle of Beethoven’s String Quartets for Signum Records. The recording will involve multiple releases beginning in March 2023. The 22-23 season includes debuts in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Prague, Madrid, Vancouver and Key West. Their concert activities also see returns to Wigmore Hall, Kennedy Center, Copenhagen, Florence, Montreal, St. Paul, Houston and Los Angeles. In September 2022, the Calidore performs at Carnegie Hall with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, in a memorial concert honoring the late composer Andre Previn. They also enjoy collaborations this season with the Emerson Quartet, clarinetist Anthony McGill, bassist Xavier Foley, violist Matthew Lipman, harpist Bridget Kibbey and pianists Ivo Kahanek and Sophiko Simisive.

Recipient of a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, the Calidore String Quartet first made international headlines as winner of the $100,000 Grand Prize of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition. The quartet was the first and only North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and is currently in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Highlights of recent seasons have included performances in major venues throughout North America, Europe, and Asia including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Brussels’s BOZAR, Cologne Philharmonie, Seoul’s Kumho Art Hall, and at significant festivals including the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Music@Menlo, Rheingau, East Neuk, and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The Calidore has given world premieres of works by Caroline Shaw, Hannah Lash and Mark-Anthony Turnage among others. Its collaborations with esteemed artists and ensembles include Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Marc-André Hamelin, Joshua Bell, David Shifrin, Inon Barnatan, Lawrence Power, Sharon Isbin, David Finckel and Wu Han. The Calidore has collaborated and studied closely with the Emerson Quartet and Quatuor Ébène, and has also studied with Andre Roy, Arnold Steinhardt, Günter Pichler, Guillaume Sutre, Paul Coletti, and Ronald Leonard.

As a passionate supporter of music education, the Calidore String Quartet is committed to mentoring and educating young musicians, students, and audiences. In 2021 the Calidore joined the faculty of the University of Delaware School of Music and serve as directors of the newly established Graduate String Quartet Residency. Formerly, they served as artist-in-residence at the University of Toronto, University of Michigan and Stony Brook University.

The Calidore String Quartet was founded at the Colburn School in Los Angeles in 2010. Within two years, the quartet won grand prizes in virtually all the major US chamber music competitions, including the Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs competitions, and it captured top prizes at the 2012 ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg. An amalgamation of “California” and “doré” (French for “golden”), the ensemble’s name represents its reverence for the diversity of culture and the strong support it received from its original home: Los Angeles, California, the “golden state.”

Booklet for Beethoven Quartets, Vol. 1: Late String Quartets