Romano, Fabrizio & Gagliano String Quartet
Martucci: Chamber Works
Despite his affinity with Central European symphonic music, there is no evidence that Giuseppe Martucci ever began writing or even planned to compose a string quartet, even though this form was favoured by every composer in that musical area. However, the brief but effective quartet interlude towards the end of the third movement of the Quintet in C, where the obvious echoes of Beethovens Heiliger Dankgesang (perhaps a tribute to Opus 132?) are tempered by the decadence typical of his later period, leaves us eager to imagine what his string quartet would have been like, extraordinarily poised between sunny Mediterranean cantabile and the misty humus of the Alps. The transcription for string quartet of the Nocturne in G-flat major Op. 70 no. 1, presented here in its world premiere, stems from this "lack". It is a reduction of the orchestral version and not an elaboration of the piano version, which is also presented on this disc as a benchmark.