Quartetto Italiano: Mozart String Quartets K. 499 & K. 575 - Spanish Philips 65 00 241

Jacket VG / LP NM / Spanish pressing This lovely LP from Spanish Philips (65 00 241, Spanish pressing, red/silver label, stereo) features the great Quartetto Italiano in magnificent accounts of Mozart’s String Quartets No. 20 in D Major K. 499 and No. 21 in D Major K. 575, both recorded in the warm acoustics of La tour de Peltz, Salle des Remparts in August 1971. At this time the Italians were comprised of Paolo Borciani (1st Violin), Elisa Pegreffi (2nd Violin), Dino Asciolla (Viola), and Franco Rossi (Cello). In reviewing the Quartetto Italiano’s entire Mozart cycle, The Gramophone’s critic wrote in his/her August 1987 review: “The playing of the Quartetto Italiano has a freshness, range and subtlety that vividly realizes the music in all its variety, showing that the music making can be both spontaneous-sounding and thoughtful. “This series of performances dates from between 1966 (when the six quartets Nos. 14-19 dedicated to Haydn were recorded) to 1973 and was rightly saluted on