CDLXXI. CHERUBINI, Luigi: String Quartet #2 in C Major

CDLXXI. CHERUBINI, Luigi (1760-1842)

String Quartet #2 in C Major (1829)
1. Lento -- Allegro
2. Lento
3. Scherzo: Allegro assai
4. Finale, Allegro vivace
Accademia Sannita String Quartet
(32:44)

Beethoven regarded Cherubini as "the great of his contemporaries."

Perhaps he had heard Cherubini's First Quartet (1814) -- widely considered a masterpiece -- but he would not have heard this rather tepid work, written two years after his death.

It is mostly a transcription from his Symphony in D Major (1815), and certainly contains elements of Beethoven's daring harmonic adventure, but little of the shattering musical surprises and profound revelations of any one of the Late Quartets.

Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable work with much to be said for it

First Movement

A page of a slow introduction, moving right into a spirited Allegro.

Second movement

Third movement

Scherzo

Trio

 

Fourth movement