Rispetti E Strambotti String Quartet

Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973) was an Italian composer, musicologist, and editor. He drew on his extensive research into Italian musical history when he wrote his first String Quartet, Rispetti E Strambotti , in 1920. It pays tribute to the two forms of early Italian poetry in the title, but also depicts wider themes from Renaissance music, from free polyphony to operatic recitatives. However, the structure of the piece is distinctly modern, deliberately attempting to break with the all-pervading Sonata form and the wider Romantic Movement in general. The result is a memorable, mesmerising construction, that is modern and dramatic, but with a fusion of undeniably medieval flavours.