Quasi Minuetto, moderato - Allegretto vivace

'It seems as if the composer - after proving himself and the world in the first quartet in C minor that he has the command of the quartet style - had lost a certain 'pressure to perform' and could now devote himself to composing a quartet in a more relaxed way. The expert already realizes the 'depth' of this quartet in the first two beats. The initial four notes of the first violin a'-f"-a"-e" have been interpreted as an anagram of Joseph Joachim's motto 'Frei - aber einsam' - 'Free but lonely', which Brahms secreted into several of his works...
Music Web outstanding: 'The Verdi Quartet give us performances that are near to perfection as can be either imagined or wished for '