Roffredo Caetani (1871‐1961) was born into a noble family in Italy. His godfather was no body less than Franz Liszt, who first recognised his musical talent, and who entrusted him to the care of his own pupil Sgambati.

Caetani’s first string quartet was written when he was 18 years old, modelled on the middle quartets by Beethoven. Twenty years late he wrote his second String Quartet, an homage to his great inspiration Franz Liszt. The work is in one continuous movement using the Hungarian scale, lending a unity to the melodic material .

The Alauda Quartet was founded in 2011 by (then) students at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Since then they played in important venues like the Purcell Room of the Queen Elisabeth Hall and the church of St‐Martin‐in‐the‐Fields