Berio: Complete String Quartets – Quatuor Molinari

The acclaimed Quatuor Molinari continues its exploration of emblematic composers of the 20th and 21st centuries with the album Berio: Complete String Quartets.

Radical in its deepening of musical language, the work of Luciano Berio (1925-2003) dialogues with the past by modifying its grammar and syntax. On the eve of his centenary in 2025, Berio still dazzles us with the astonishing evolution of his style, particularly in his five works for string quartet, presented on this album in their entirety.

The quartets in this collection were composed between 1952 (Study — Berio’s first work devoted to this genre), and 1997 (Glosse). In 1956, he created Quartetto per archi, — music with a generalized serialism, followed by Sincronie, written in 1964 during a period of creative euphoria. In 1993, he wrote Notturno (Quartetto III), commissioned by the Alban Berg Quartet and dedicated to the conductor Lorin Maazel.