“The Serenissima” is the title of the final movement of Britten’s Third String Quartet. In this movement, which he wrote in Venice, Britten quotes from his opera Death in Venice. He was extremely weak and could hardly attend the rehearsals of the Amadeus Quartet and died two weeks before the premiere. The meditative work ends with an unresolved chord, called “a question” by Britten – a remarkable conclusion to a grandiose oeuvre.

Schubert also reaches depths in the monumental String Quintet, one of his last works, that only reveal themselves on the border between life and death. This masterpiece is played often, but a truly excellent ensemble like the Belcea Quartet is needed to do the quintet full justice. In Britten’s First Cello Suite, Antoine Lederlin demonstrates the quality that characterizes the individual Belcea players.