Somehow they have it with Italy, the four string players from Paris. They chose the famous painter from Livorno as their namesake, and the greatest violin makers from Cremona built their instruments. And now the quartet is also looking programmatically towards the Apennine Peninsula: the young composer (and violinist) Élise Bertrand has written the "Modiglianis" a work on Italian themes with "Lui e Loro". And Mediterranean lightness also reigns in Mozart and Hugo Wolf. Beethoven's Opus 59 No. 1, on the other hand, can be considered one of the most daring and ambitious string quartets of the 19th century. Written in 1806 for Count Rasumowsky, the Petersburg envoy to the Viennese court, it prominently quotes a Russian theme.