Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) certainly owes his fame and success to his operatic output (L'Elisir d'amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Pasquale, La figlia del reggimento), but few know that he was also a prolific composer of string quartets, and was certainly the most important Italian composer of the genre in the nineteenth century. In fact, Donizetti wrote as many as 18 complete quartets between 1817 and 1836. • From a formal, aesthetic point of view, Donizetti is a classical composer in every way. The great masters represented a point of reference for him, a model he could refer to. Nevertheless, he never imitated them tout court. The differences between Donizetti's compositional choices and Viennese style are quite distinct in formal structure, distribution of the parts, and musical quality. This may be attributed to his personal theatrical genius, to the extent that one can almost recognize real Donizettian opera scenes among the pages of these quartets. • This CD presents the String Quartets Nos. 15, 17 and 18, fully mature masterworks of their genre. • Performed with obvious enthusiasm and taste by the Italian Quartetto Delfico, who previously recorded for Brilliant Classics string quartets by Manfredini (94786).