Quiroga Quartet: Arriaga

The Strad Issue: August 2026

Description: Gutsy performances of a short-lived genius

Musicians: Quiroga Quartet

Works: Arriaga: String Quartets nos.1–3

Catalogue number: COBRA RECORDS 0101

Much is made in this album’s publicity blurb, and indeed its artwork, of the fact that the Quiroga Quartet is performing on gut strings: ‘Arriaga with guts’, as the album’s cover proudly proclaims. We are not told which brand of strings is used but, tuned at modern pitch, they certainly agree with the instruments, which are in modern set up and were indeed made for the most part in the 21st century. Caught in a warmly resonant acoustic, the foursome astutely underline the individual strings’ colours, gut coming into its own through their natural use of open strings.

Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga’s death in 1826 a few days short of his 20th birthday was certainly one of music’s biggest losses. The three quartets he wrote in 1824, the only pieces published during his lifetime, are idiomatically written – he was a violin student of Pierre Baillot – and beautifully laid out for the four instruments, uniquely mixing academic forms with insinuations of Spanish traditional music. The bagpipes of the composer’s native Basque Country are audible at several moments, most notably in the Third Quartet’s Pastorale, a movement that strongly suggests that Arriaga was familiar with Beethoven’s recent homonymous symphony.

The Quiroga’s advocacy of its compatriot’s music is infectiously enthusiastic in both word (violinist Cibrán Sierra offers heartfelt booklet notes) and performance, the players’ careful use of vibrato and agogics perfectly tailored to the music’s mercurial character.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE