The six String Quartets by Antonio Bazzini were composed over nearly thirty years, between 1864 and 1892, marking significant stages of his creative maturity after he retired from concert performance.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Bazzini's chamber music, including these string quartets, aimed to satisfy his ambition as a composer while also educating Italian audiences about great European chamber music, which they had lost touch with.
Composition History
Bazzini's Quartet No. 1 in C Major won a competition held by the Società del Quartetto of Milan in 1864, with Franco Faccio's quartet taking second place.
Performer Biography
The Quartetto d'archi di Venezia received their artistic training from two major schools of quartet interpretation: the famous Quartetto Italiano and the Central European school of the Vegh Quartet.
Composer Biography
Antonio Bazzini, the composer of these string quartets, was praised by Robert Schumann, a critic notoriously hostile to Italian music and fashionable virtuosos, after a concert in Leipzig in 1843.
Performer Biography
The Quartetto d'archi di Venezia, the performers on this album, have played for Pope John Paul II and the President of the Italian Republic.
Critical Reception
Arrigo Boito, a critic, described Bazzini's First Quartet as a 'fine, noble work, remarkable from all points of view, full of splendour' in an 1865 review.
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