Product Overview
Beethoven Quartets Nos. 11 & 9 / Guarneri String Quartet / Introduced by Hal Linden / Jason Starr, producer-director / Jerry Bruck, audio director / Alison Landes, Jason Starr, executive producers / Video Artists International, Inc. / DVD
Format: NTSC
Run time: 58 Minutes
UPC: 089948433996
- Aspect Ratio : 1.33:1
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 1.6 Ounces
- Audio Description: : English
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Closed-captioned, Color, Classical, NTSC
- Run time : 58 minutes
- Release date : June 14, 2005
- Actors : Guarneri String Quartet
- Subtitles: : German, English
- Studio : Video Artists Int'L
- Number of discs : 1
The Guarneri String Quartet performs two Beethoven quartets in this 1986 performanes. String Quartet No. 11 in F Minor, Op. 95 "Quartetto serioso," String Quartet No. 9 in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3, "Rasumovsky".
Founded in 1964 and heralded as "the world's master of chamber music" by Time Magazine, the Guarneri String Quartet is considered preeminent in its interpretations of the Beethoven string quartets and has presented the complete cycle to audiences around the world.
Part of the magic of a string qaurtet is that it is simultaneously vast yet intimate. As broad in its form as a symphony, a quartet relies on a small group of players to articulate thoughts and feelings as personal as a conversation between friends or lovers. No other musical form, not the symphony or the sonata, spans Beethoven's life so fully as his sixteen string quartets.
The Quartet in F minor, played first on this program, is a visionary work which looks toward the 20th century. An economy of gesture and intense psychological probing create a powerful new world of high tension and fury. The Quartet in C Major, last of the "Rasumovsky" trio of quartets, was completed in 1806. In these three quartets, Beethoven merged the expansive canvas of the symphony with the more intimate world of chamber music to convey a very powerful yet deeply personal vision of the human condition.
This program was videotaped at the magnificent Old Westbury House and surrounding gardens on Long Island, thirty miles east of Manhattan. The mansion, built in the style of a late 17th-century English manor house, provides an environment similar to the settings for which Beethoven's quartets were written and first performed.
BEETHOVEN
Quartet No. 9 in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 "Rasumovsky"
Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 "Serious Quartet" with Arnold Steinhardt, violin John Dalley, violin Michael Tree, viola David Soyer, cello
Introduced by Hal Linden
Jason Starr, producer/director
Jerry Bruck, audio director
Ferd Manning, lighting director
Alison Landes, Jason Starr, executive producers
1986 THE BEETHOVEN QUARTET CYCLE COMPANY, LTD. (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)
PACKAGING, DESIGN AND DVD AUTHORING 2005 VIDEO ARTISTS INTERNATIONAL, INC.
COVER PHOTOS COURTESY OF ARTS VIDEO PRODUCTIONS, LTD.
PRODUCTION COORDINATION AND DESIGN: RAYMOND EDWARDS
AUDIO: Stereo VIDEO: 4:3, Color REGION CODE: 0 (Open All Regions)
SUBTITLES: None. RUNNING TIME: 58 minutes
Video Artists International, Inc.
