Formed in Lithuania, the Mettis Quartet celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2022 and has chosen to mark the occasion with fresh interpretations of two Beethoven quartets that bookend his career: the String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4, and the String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130, including the monumental 'Große Fuge', Op. 133.
Beethoven’s first set of string quartets, the six Op. 18 Quartets, were written when he was a young man and may even include material from his earliest years in Bonn. The fourth is full of purposeful energy, forthright and immediate, with a Hungarian-inspired finale that shows the influence of Haydn. 
Cut to 1825, two years before Beethoven’s death, and we find the composer in a more introspective frame of mind, wearied by deafness and the dramatic upheavals of his life, but responding by writing music of extraordinary profundity and beauty. Beethoven called the Op. 130 Quartet his “dear” quartet, but would never see it performed. In an expansive six movements, the work begins with a capricious opening movement and quicksilver scherzo, followed by a pastoral third movement and the ‘German dance’ of the fourth. Then comes the exquisite ‘Cavatina’. It is said that Beethoven was moved to tears when writing this movement: “Never did his music breathe so heartfelt an inspiration, and even the memory of this movement brought tears to his eyes”.
What follows is one of the greatest achievements in all music. Even now, the vast 'Große Fuge' sounds modern, with its jagged lines, wide leaps, dissonances, extreme contrasts of dynamic and tempo, moments of dark humour and unsettling shifts in mood. Contemporary audiences were not ready and Beethoven wrote an alternative final movement, but we hear the ‘Grand Fugue’ in all its glory, played on this recording with rigour and passion by the Mettis Quartet. The group takes its name from a Greek mythological figure known for her skill, wisdom and cunning, and these musicians bring those qualities to their interpretations of Beethoven’s music – with thrilling results.

06 - Ludwig Van Beethoven - String Quartet No 13 In B - Flat Major, Op. 130 - II Presto

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, op. 18 - I. Moderato

Songs from the Arc of Life

The Carnival of the Animals, R. 125: XIII. The Swan (Arr. for Cello and Piano)

Classical Piano Solo Collection of popular compositions from Bach, Beethoven, Pachebel, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Satie and more.

Piano Paradise Volume 1

Prelude No.4 in E-Minor ,Op.28: Largo

Chopin -  Prelude No.4 in E-Minor ,Op.28: Largo

Odradek Records is a democratic classical cooperative, non-profit and artist-controlled label and concert association, promoting new artists and fresh repertoire.

Entrance to our roster is through anonymous demo.

Our dream is utopian: to separate music-making from markets and create a just system of pure artistic meritocracy.


Odradek Records is not just a new record label. Odradek Records is the first wedge of a larger project, proposing a new way to produce and enjoy classical music. We think that the current model undermines the true essence and significance of music. We think that a model centered on just a few big names, the great concert halls, a limited repertoire that is necessarily restricted by the bonds of popularity--a model that makes its selection of new young performers from the anti-musical system of competitions, the success of which is often obtained through extravagant histrionics rather than the correctness or subtlety of interpretation--and finally, a model that is subject to the exploitation of the marketplace, and which obliges the majority of musicians to pay enormous sums to record CDs, for which the profits then go largely to the record company, thus depriving many very worthy but not wealthy musicians from the possibility of recording--is not only a model that is far from art, but is a model that even itself is in crisis. 

Ideally, music just as other primary goods, should not fall subject to the markets. We know that in a strict sense, this is utopian, but it is precisely this tension towards an unreachable utopia that guides our project.

Odradek Records is a non-profit seeking label. Once production and distribution expenses are recuperated, all of our proceeds go directly to the artist. Odradek Records selects its artists solely through the criterion of utmost quality of the recording and the interest of the proposed program. We don’t want to exclude, but rather include: we are not interested if you have won important competitions or not, neither if you have performed in important halls or signed with major labels. We are not interested in your age or where you come from. The only thing that interests us is whether you play your instrument to a very high and professional level. With us you can record Chopin, but you can also record: Berio, Scelsi, Copland, Carter, Webern, Schoenberg, Ligeti, Kurtag, Ives, and many others.

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