Recording the Beethoven strings quartets is a rite of passage for any quartet. The Italian Quartetto di Cremona, still young but together a good decade, has reached that point. They play with fervour and flair. If at times in the monumental Op 132 in A minor you long for a degree more weight, more digging into the soil than skittering in the air, the reason to choose this disc is for the other work: the rarely heard String Quintet in C Op 29, with a second viola, Lawrence Dutton, as fifth player. The group’s Italianate grace comes into its own in this radiant music, with its lyrical opening, heartfelt Adagio, blithe Scherzo and fly-away Presto.
