Quartetto Altemps’new album Romanticismo Italiano brings to light two extraordinary yet long-overlooked voices of nineteenth-century Italy: Stefano Golinelli and Vincenzo Antonio Petrali. Conceived as a rediscovery of “two treasures of the Italian musical heritage” that fill the apparent void of Italian chamber music of the era, this world premiere recording reveals how two towering keyboard virtuosi— a celebrated pianist and a renowned organist— embraced the string quartet, the supreme chamber genre. In Golinelli’s String Quartet Op. 100 No. 1 in B minor (1854), operatic intensity and harmonic restlessness meet the structural clarity of the Austro-German tradition, evoking echoes of Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert while retaining a distinct Italian lyric impulse.

Petrali’s Quartet in G major, presented in its 1884 revised version, reflects a mature and deeply personal synthesis: Italian cantabile warmth intertwined with contrapuntal mastery inspired by Central European models. Rooted in meticulous research of original sources and manuscripts, Quartetto Altemps approaches this repertoire with the spirit of musicians performing music of their own time — forward-looking, vibrant, and alive. The result is more than a historical reconstruction: it is a powerful artistic statement that restores these works to their rightful place, illuminating a forgotten chapter of Romantic Italy with passion, stylistic awareness, and compelling interpretative depth.