1-String Quartets Op 51 No 1~~ 2-String Quartets Op 51 No 2~~ 3-String Quartet Op 67~~ Gunter pichler-1st violin~~~ Gerhard Schulz-2nd violin~~~ thomas Kakuska-Viola/alro~~~ Valentin Erben-Violocello~~ Awards: Diapason d'Or Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du disque

- 5CD set includes Czech, Argentian and core Austro-German repertoire, plus Beethoven's sublime Grosse Fuge - Alban Berg Quartett founded 1970 - Set also features pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja and clarinetist Sabine Meyer

Britten's long friendship with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich was one of the most inspiring and fruitful musical collaborations in history. It led directly to the composition of some of the most important works for cello of the twentieth century. On this superb recording, Alban Gerhardt performs this body of works in its entirety. In the Cello Sonata he is partnered by Steven Osborne, whose Hyperion recording of Britten's Piano Concerto received a Gramophone Award. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Manze join Gerhardt for the Cello Symphony, Britten's only substantial piece of absolute symphonic music. The astonishing Suites for solo cello complete the set. These works acknowledge their debt to Bach but also demonstrate all the imagination and emotional scope for which the composer is revered.

The tracks ara: 1. - 18. Schumann's Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13, 19. - 25. Beethoven's "6 Variations" in F, Op. 34, 26. - 31. Beethoven's "5 Variations" in D, WoO 79 on "Rule Britannia", 32. - 38. Beethoven's "6 Variations" in G, WoO 70 on "Nel cor piu non mi sento".