Alla Maniera Italiana Quartet: Presumed Beethoven

The Strad Issue: July 2026

Description: Works of questionable authorship brought to life with lively musicianship

Musicians: Alla Maniera Italiana Quartet

Works: Beethoven(?) The Six String Quartets Anh.2

Catalogue number: ARCANA A591 (2 CDs)

This world-premiere recording offers thoroughly persuasive accounts of six anonymous string quartets, preserved in manuscript parts in a copyist’s hand. These works’ authorship has long been debated. Formerly owned by publisher Domenico (III) Artaria and presently housed in Berlin’s Staatsbibliothek, they have been attributed to, among others, Haydn and Mozart; but the French musicologist Georges de Saint-Foix, with little convincing evidence, associated their composition with the young Beethoven ‘under the impulse of a most ardent admiration for Mozart, and certainly before the latter’s death’.

The period-instrument Alla Maniera Italiana Quartet interprets these engaging examples of the Viennese Classical style with musical insight, unanimity and polish, paying keen attention to details of structure, harmony, expression, timing and balance. Leader Giacomo Coletti is authoritative and nimble in the demanding high-tessitura passagework of, for example, the opening Allegros of nos.2 and 5, playing with substantial accuracy and striking facility. His clear, pure tone also resonates sonorously in slow movements such as no.1’s Adagio and no.3’s central Romance. The somewhat less-favoured lower instrumentalists ensure that accompanying figuration never lapses into routine; but they also savour their opportunities to compete on equal terms, as in the various contrasting episodes of the spirited rondo finales of nos.1–5 or when, as in the fugato Allegro of no.4’s first movement, democratic interplay is the order of the day.

Beethoven scholar Gabriele Riccobono’s booklet notes admirably set the scene for this recording; captured in a dry but sympathetic acoustic, it will hopefully inspire further musicological research into these quartets’ true creator.

ROBIN STOWELL