Antonio Bazzini (1818-1897)
Quatuor à cordes n° 2 en ré mineur, op. 75
Quatuor à cordes n° 4 en sol majeur, op. 79
Quatuor à cordes n° 5 en do mineur, op. 80

Quartetto Bazzini

Daniela Sangalli, violon
Lino Megni, violon
Marta Pizio, alto
Fausto Solci, violoncelle

Ces quatuors à cordes ne sauraient laisser indifférent. La rigueur de leur composition et le souci de leur construction sont manifestes. Étonnamment, peu ou pas de ritournelles à l’Italienne. Ceci confirme la volonté de ce virtuose du violon d’écrire une musique de chambre selon les standards de l’école allemande de son siècle. Il en a fréquenté les plus dignes représentants tels Robert Schumann ou encore Félix Mendelssohn dont il fut d’ailleurs le premier exécutant de son concerto pour violon. Voici donc l’opportunité de découvrir avec ce disque du quatuor éponyme de leur auteur une partie du corpus des six quatuors à cordes d’Antonio Bazzini. Et ainsi à ne pas en rester à la seule « ronde des lutins » bien connue des virtuoses du violon. À souligner également l’excellente interprétation et la prise de son impeccable de cet enregistrement. (Olivier Mazzerbo)

Antonio Bazzini, violinist and composer, was born in Brescia on 11 March 1818 and died in Milan on 10 February. At the age of eight, he began to study the violin under the guidance of Fausto Camesani (or Camisani); at thirteen, he published his first composition; and at seventeen, he had six symphonies for great orchestra performed at the theatre of Brescia. In 1836, when he was eighteen, he was auditioned by Paganini, who encouraged him to embark on a career as a concert performer. From that time onwards, he was constantly successful. He held concerts in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark, England and Belgium. He met many contemporary composers, one of whom was Robert Schumann, who praised him saying: “Since many years no virtuoso has given me such an intimate joy and such pleasant, happy moments as Antonio Bazzini has done. It seems to me that he is too little known, and that, even here, he has not been appreciated as much as he deserves.” With this album the Quartetto Bazzini completes the recording of Bazzini’s string quartets (originally printed in the nineteenth century) started in 2018 with the previous CD (TC810202). The new album is including quartets n. 2, no. 4 and n. 5, shorter than the monumental n. 1 and n. 3 of the previous CD, testify - as the composer Arrigo Boito reminds us - a great intelligence by years of performances and studying of the great German quartets, an experience that allowed him to remain, unlike many contemporaries, independent of the dominant melodramatic context .