Chiaroscuro Quartet - Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartets, Op. 18 Nos. 4-6

For a string player, Beethoven�s 16 quartets are of an importance similar to that of his sonatas to a pianist and for every composer of string quartets they remain a benchmark. The Chiaroscuro Quartet have begun their cycle of these works at the same place as Beethoven did, with the Op. 18 set which occupied him intensively for the best part of two years (1798 �1800). The effort he put into these quartets was surely due to the fact that he had much to live up to � they would after all be measured against those of Haydn and Mozart.