We are about to begin a weekend of concerts in Perugia and Florence with the Swedish clarinet Martin Frost. This is a short and very welcome digression from our Beethoven marathon. We met with Martin in Basel to rehearse the Mozart and Brahms quintets and are about to set off on our trip to Italy. The concerts will also feature quartets by Schubert, Webern, Beethoven and one of our favourites: Britten’s Quartet No.3. This will in fact be a special occasion for us, as Axel will be playing it with us for the first time. Going through this wonderful quartet with Axel makes us feel that he has now truly become a “Belcea”. You can find out more details about our concerts with Martin on the Concert Dates page of our website…and from Florence it is onwards to Genova on Monday and the beginning of the 4th instalment of the Beethoven Cycle. This time his op.18/1, “Razumovsky No.3 and op.132. Coming to Hamburg and all our UK venues very soon!