Franz Berwald

As a violinist/violist and a periodically ardent performer of chamber music, he possessed an intimate knowledge of the string quartet as a medium of composition, and he was no doubt fully aware of the high standing of the genre also internationally. Both of the last quartets from 1849 bear the deep imprint of artistic and formal originality, and mark the beginning of a creative “chamber music decade” for Berwald. Neither seems to have been performed publicly during his lifetime, but they can now be regarded as belonging to the finest expressions of Swedish chamber music from the nineteenth century.

Berwald’s string quartets in A-minor and E-flat mayor are here performed by the Frydén quartet; Lars Frydén and Tullo Galli, violins, Björn Sjögren, viola and Bengt Ericson, cello.