2 String Quartets op. 51

Brahms had already composed more than twenty string quartets (he will confess to a friend having burned all these "stuff") before daring to present his opus 51. Of this work, only three works have remained, having escaped the self-censorship of the composer- many layers of correction testify to the commitment to the smallest detail. We publish both op. 51, passionate and dark, separated from an op. 67 rather playful. Our edition is based on the volume of the new complete edition of Brahms' works, a volume for which, for the first time, the edition was able to rely on sources, previously missing, from a Swiss legacy.

(Note from the editor)