Summer 1945. The war has ended and Italy has to be rebuilt.
Three boys and a girl meet in Reggio Emilia to make music together: Paolo Borciani (first violin) lives in Reggio, Elisa Pegreffi (second violin) comes from Genoa, Franco Farulli (viola) from Florence and Franco Rossi (cello) from Venice. They had met in Siena during the war, in the summer of ‘42, at master classes held at the Accademia Chigiana, and played the Debussy Quartet on the final student concert. The war split them up, but when it was over, they sought each other out and on 20 August they met at Paolo’s home. They practised day and night for months and on 12 November they made their debut. It was a dream come true: to make music together in a Quartet named for a reborn Italy. The four would become, give three-thousand concerts, and leave memorable recorded interpretations from Beethoven to Webern.
A story which begins with Mussolini’s Italy and crosses war and resistance, Toscanini, Pollini and Furtwängler.
