The three divertimenti, K. 136, 137 and 138, were all written for four string parts and therefore could be performed as quartets. These works, however, have never been labeled and counted among Mozart's String quartets. Consequently they have often been performed by a slightly larger ensemble with two or more instruments playing each part.

The Divertimento K. 136 shows the influence that the Italian style had on Mozart. Returning to Germany from a trip to Italy with his father, Leopold, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the precocious sixteen-year-old, demonstrated in this and the other divertimenti exactly how formative his travel experience had been in shaping his musical sensibility.

This work is in three movements. The first, Allegro, is a virtuoso piece for violins who carry on a dialogue much like those found in the concertantes which feature two solo groupings. The slow and graceful second movement, Andante, which is the most Italianate of the three, is lush and eloquent. The last, a fast movement, Presto, bears musical reference to a work the young Mozart had studied in Italy, Giovanni B. Martini's Art of the Fugue.

Opinions also vary on the origin of the chaconne. Spain and France have been suggested, and also Italy, where some claim it was invented by a blind musician, whence "cieccona" (blind in Italian is "cieco"), which went on to become "ciaccona." Another equally fanciful idea is that it could be "ciacco," which is a diminutive of Francesco.

The chaconne started as a dance similar to the passacaglia, based as it is on continuous variations of the melody on a bass, which was originally a ground bass but was treated more freely later.

Nicolo Paganini

What the link is between Naples and Venice remains unclear, even from a musical viewpoint. The theme in question was actually a counter-dance made popular in France by a musician of Italian origins, a certain Cifolelli. The highly catchy tune soon became popular in Germany, where it was known under the title "Mein Hut hat drei Ecken" ("My Three-Cornered Hat"), eventually being played on barrel organs.

The Paganini Variations date from 1829 and were dedicated to the Austrian violinist Karl Fradl, who almost certainly never actually played them. They were issued posthumously in 1851 in the version for violin and piano. Paganini himself originally supervised the orchestration of only twelve of the variations, whereas the complete collection actually reached twenty.

As in other compositions of this kind, Paganini used the scordatura (out-of-tuning) effect, raising the strings of the violin by a semitone (from A to B-flat). The greater tautness of the strings gives a more brilliant resonance to the sound. The variations cover a wide range of moods, although the tempo (6/8) and key remain the same. This presented no difficulties for Paganini because, by changing the value and arrangement of the notes, he animated the music.

The variations on The Carnival of Venice are also in technique, with a pizzicato transforming the violin into a guitar; passages for the fourth string, for thirds and tenths, and nimble flights until a final codetta put an end to the fireworks display.

He was born when Beethoven was twenty-seven years old, and died sixteen months after him, but they inhabited different Viennas. Schubert was not supported by the great families, wealthy and noble, who were for several generations involved in the careers of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Some of his friends were people "of quality," but for the most part he conducted his life as a Viennese of the lower classes, son of a schoolmaster and, for several years, one himself.

Schubert wrote over a thousand compositions in almost every form that existed in his time. He lived an extraordinarily full, long life, condensed into a short period of time. After his death the poet Franz Grillparzer, who had so eloquently eulogized Beethoven, composed Schubert's epitaph: "The art of music has buried here a precious possession - but even fairer hopes. Franz Schubert lies here."

This Quartet takes its name from the music of its second movement, a set of variations on a theme that is a slightly-altered version of the piano introduction to Schubert's song Der Tod und das Madchen ("Death and the Maiden") which he wrote in February, 1817. The text by Matthias Claudius is a dialogue in which the maiden begs Death to pass her by and he replies "I do no harm. Come, sleep peacefully in my arms." These variations were played by a small band of wind instruments when Schubert was buried, his grave only a few yards from Beethoven's.

Schubert wrote the Quartet - or perhaps only started to write it - in March, 1824. Two years later, when some of his friends played through it several times, they had freshly copied individual parts, as though the music had just been completed or revised. It is a grave work, dark in tone throughout. All four movements are in minor keys, with only the Scherzo's central Trio section in D major for relief.

The first movement is a powerful musical drama that opens with a fierce call to attention, Allegro. Second is the theme and five variations, Andante con moto, which is followed by a Scherzo, Allegro molto, that takes much of its rough vigor from the displaced accents of its syncopated theme and the last movement, Presto, is one of Schubert's great stormy galloping finales.

Gustav Mahler experimented several times with the idea that the great masterpieces of the string quartet repertoire would sound best I the large halls where orchestral concerts were ordinarily given if they were subjected to various levels of adaptation and arrangement for full orchestra. In Vienna in the late 1890s he played Beethoven's Op. 95 and Op. 131 Quartets with the Philharmonic. He played the Death and the Maiden variations in Hamburg as early as 1894.

Long afterward, Mahler's widow gave his Schubert Quartet scores to the scholar Donald Mitchell, who found among them indications for the performance of the entire Quartet by string orchestra. The original music is essentially unchanged, but there are certain changes of color and weight as Mahler adds double basses and occasionally redistributes the other parts. Mitchell collaborated with the composer David Matthews in preparing the arrangement for publication in London in 1984. The first performance of the entire work was given in New York on May 6, 1984, by the American Symphony Orchestra, with Moshe Atzmon conducting.

The Orchestra da Camera Italiana, founded in 1996, is the direct result of eleven years of experience in teaching at the Stauffer Academy in Cremona, a small town in Lombardy, Italy, where Antonio Stradivari and others created their masterpieces.

Salvatore Accardo, together with his friends and colleagues Bruno Giuranna, Rocco Filippini and Franco Petracchi, set up the Academy in the very home of the best stringed instruments ever made. They had a precise aim: to give young players from Italian conservatories the opportunity to develop qualities which those institutions might have muted.

The orchestra and its director meet for two sessions a year to prepare concerts and recordings. In 1997 the musicians began their first tour, performing in many prestigious Italian and European music halls. They gave the first concert ever in the chamber of the Italian Senate to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Constitution of the Italian Republic.

The group made its German debut in 1998 and later that year toured Spain and Portugal. In 1999 came the first South American tour and, in December, a trip to perform in China, Japan and Viet Nam. In 2000 the orchestra will make its U.S. debut tour, as well as its Paris debut. Other engagements are scheduled in Germany and Jerusalem.

The Orchestra da Camera Italiana has recorded The Virtuoso Violin in Italy and Masterpieces for Violin and Strings, as well as all six Paganini Concertos.

Salvatore Accardo gave his first professional recital in 1954 at the age of 13, in a program that included the Paganini Capriccios. In 1956, when he was 15, Mr Accardo won the Geneva Competition and in 1958 became the first winner of the Paganini Competition in Genoa. His fast repertoire ranges from pre-Bach to post-Berg; composers like Sciarrino, Donatoni, Piston, Piazzolla and Xenakis have written for him.

In addition to playing regularly with the world's leading orchestras and conductors, Salvatore Accardo is also a renowned recitalist and chamber music player. In 1992 he founded the Accardo Quartet and, because of his deep involvement with young people, founded the Academy Walter Stauffer in Cremona together with Bruno Giuranna, Rocco Filippini and Franco Petracchi. In 1996 he re-founded the Orchestra da Camera Italiana, whose members are the foremost students of the Walter Stauffer Academy.

In recent years Salvatore Accardo has also devoted part of his activities to conducting and has appeared with a number of important European and American orchestras. His repertoire is wide ranging and he also has recorded as a conductor with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. In 1987 he made his highly-praised debut as an opera conductor at the Rossini Opera Festival. He has subsequently conducted at the Rome Opera House, the Monte Carlo Opera, at Lille, and at the Naples Opera House.

In 1992, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Rossini's birth, Mr Accardo conducted the first-ever modern edition of the Messa di Gloria, which was recorded live. His extensive discography also includes all the Paganini Concertos, recorded in 1999 with the Orchestra da Camera Italiana for EMI Classics.

Maestro Accardo owns two Stradivarius violins, the Hart ex Francescatti 1727 and the Firebird ex Saint-Exupéry 1718