Beethoven String Quartets

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Beethoven's string quartets have been perennially popular from his time to our own. They anchor the entire string quartet repertory and represent one of the pinnacles of all chamber music of the time. With respect to their place in Beethoven's life, they span the whole of the composer's working period but pop up at irregular intervals, causing us to wonder whether Beethoven had to be in a particular frame of mind, or perhaps to have a new idea about how to go about their composition, or a compelling commission before digging in.

Like the rest of Beethoven oeuvre, the string quartets fall into three main groups, each of which has its own personality. The early quartets (Op. 18) give distinct evidence of the composer's promise and originality. The "Rasoumovsky" quartets Op. 59 come from one of Beethoven's most fertile and productive periods. Each is a classic in its own right. Collectively they show enormous strides in Beethoven's development and imagination. Opp. 74 and 95 continue in the same directions but with significant differences of character. The remaining quartets, from Beethoven's late period, are rugged, highly individual works that inadvertently document the composer's struggle with progressive hearing loss.

Detail of a violin of 1824 by the Viennese maker M. I. Brandstaetter. National Music Museum.

Performers and Listeners of Beethoven's time

Over the whole of the eighteenth century the growth of participation of amateurs in music-making was a major force in the rise of classical music. Large churches and courts had their own musical establishments. The ability to make music at home was a sign of social status, but it is also clear from countless narratives that noblemen who played well derived a great deal of contentment from their achievement. This underlying groundswell played an important role in Beethoven's life, for without the driving force of amateur players in Vienna, Beethoven's chamber music would exist in much more limited quantity.

The foremost quartet in Vienna was the Schuppanzigh Quartet, which played in the home of Count Carl Lichnowsky. The count, who had been a pupil and friend of Mozart, hosted the quartet every Friday morning. In addition to the count (first violinist), the quartet included Louis Sina, Franz Weiss, and Anton Kraft. Each of them in turn came from families including other musicians and had connections to other noble houses in Vienna. They attracted the interest of teachers, particularly since Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776-1830), who was Beethoven's teacher in Vienna, trained so many other musicians of the time. He was held in highest esteem both as a violinist and as a conductor. He served as the concert master of Count Razumovsky. Schuppanzigh was also the dedicate of many works by other composers, among them of Franz Schubert's 'Rosamunde' Quartet.

Over the course of his life, and especially after 1815, Beethoven's quartets passed beyond the realm of capability of assiduous amateurs. This change too had parallels in the broader musical scene, as concert halls grew in popularity and attracted the interest of a more bourgeois audience. However, Schauppanzigh remained a faithful supporter to the end. The late quartets, which were difficult to play and equally difficult to comprehend on one hearing, are particularly indebted to this fidelity.

The Early Quartets: Op. 18 (Quartets Nos. 1-6)

The range of techniques used by Beethoven throughout his quartets is stunningly broad. Each work has its own intricacies. Many have intertextual relationships with other works by Beethoven and by other composers. This set of quartets offers strong evidence of Beethoven's close study of the string quartets of Haydn (1732-1809) and Mozart (1756-1791), particularly Haydn's "Russian" quartets Op. 33 (1781) and Mozart's "Haydn" quartets (K. 387, K. 421, K. 428, K. 458, K. 464, K. 465; 1782-85).

Beethoven's first published collection of string quartets (Op. 18, published in Vienna in 1801) consisted of six works he composed between 1798 and 1800. By the reckoning of some these consisted the major achievement of his early years in Vienna. He closed in the quartet medium through explorations of other string combinations including a string trio (Op. 3, Eb Major, composed before 1794), a string quintet (Op. 4, also Eb Major, 1795), a set of three trios (Op. 9, 1797-98) and a handful of other chamber works, all composed since 1790. Opp. 3 and 4 were the earliest to be published (Vienna, 1796); the trios Op. 9 followed (1798).

Anonymous portrait of F. J. M. von Lobkowitz from the Lobkowitz Palace in Prague (WikiCommons).

Franz Joseph Maximilian von Lobkowitz

A significant portion of the moral support that allowed Beethoven to focus on this cogent, wide-ranging collection of quartets was provided by a nobleman of Beethoven's generation--the Bohemian prince Franz Joseph Maximilian von Lobkovitz (1772-1816). The prince spent most of the year in a new, magnificent palace in Vienna; important components of the family legacy (including music manuscripts and family portraits) are preserved in an near Prague. Although he was a general in the imperial army, the prince had a highly cultivated love of music and played several instruments. Without his indulgence, we would lack seven of Beethoven's string quartets, three symphonies (the third, the fifth, and the sixth), and the triple concerto.

Lobkowitz was an ardent fan of the music of his time. He was particularly fond of the music of Handel and Haydn. He studied the violin and cello. He was a member of Vienna's Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. He met Beethoven in 1795 and two years later, upon turning 25, he established a Kapelle of five musicians in the family's Viennese palace. Its concerts between 1798 and 1806 featured string and piano quartets, arias from recent operas, and other chamber works.

In 1807 Lobkowitz assumed the direction of productions at the Hoftheater (the court theater). Johann Friedrich Reichhart wrote of the count in 1808/09 that "he lived for music day and night." Under his direction the quantities of musicians he employed rose steadily. At one point they totalled 43 instrumentalists and 36 singers. The payroll became unmanageable. To underwrite his costs Lokowitz recruited a number of noblemen to the cause of his musical enterprises. Among them were Count Kinsky and Archduke Rudolf. By 1814, however, Lobkowitz himself was almost bankrupt. He fled the city. The Kapelle was dissolved in 1814, but the Lobkowitz Palace was remembered as the home of an "Academy of Music." The count died in 1816.

The Middle-Period Quartets

Op. 59 (Quartets Nos. 7-9)

The three quartets of Op. 59 (popularly known as the "Rasumovsky" Quartets) are among the best loved of Beethoven's chamber works. They were composed in 1806, a pivotal year in the fortunes of Vienna.

Andreas Kyrillowitz Rasumovsky, the quartets' patron, was born in St. Petersburg in 1752. He began to serve as a diplomat at the age of 24. When he arrived in Vienna in 1794 he had already served posts in Venice, Naples, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. Like Lobkowitz he had a solid musical education and played the violin well. The sister of Rasumovky's wife Elisabeth was married to Count Carl Alois Lichnowsky, another of the great lovers of chamber music in Vienna. His relationship to Beethoven and his quartets Op. 59 began in 1804. The works themselves were published in 1808.

In 1814 Rasumovsky undertook an unprecedented reconstruction of his palace, newly redesigned to accommodate up to 700 guests for the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) and the arrival of the Czar Alexander I. In subsequent years Rasumovsky, having left diplomatic service, spent less and less time in Vienna. He died in 1836.

Op. 74 (Quartet No. 10)

Beethoven's "Harp" quartet, composed in 1809 and published a year later in Leipzig and London, was dedicated to Count Lobkowitz.

Portrait of F. J. M. von Lobkowitz by A. F. Oelenhainz. Wiki Commons.

Op. 95 (Quartet No. 11)

The Late Quartets

Op. 127 (Quartet No. 12)

Op. 132 (Quartet No. 13)

Opp. 130 and 133 (Quartet No. 14, Versions A and B]

Op. 131 (Quartet No. 15)

Op. 135 (Quartet No. 16)

Scores (downloadable)

 Opus  Title  Key  Nickname  Date CCARH score
(PDF)
B&H score
(PDF)
Op. 18, No. 1    String Quartet No. 1 F  Major 1798-1800     full [1]
Op. 18, No. 2 String Quartet No. 2 G  Major 1798-1800 full [2]
Op. 18, No. 3 String Quartet No. 3 D  Major 1798-1800 full [3]
Op. 18, No. 4 String Quartet No. 4 C  Minor 1798-1800 full [4]
Op. 18, No. 5 String Quartet No. 5 A  Major 1798-1800 full [5]
Op. 18, No. 6 String Quartet No. 6 B Major 1798-1800  full [6]
Op. 59, No. 1 String Quartet No. 7 F  Major "Razumovsky" 1805-6 full [7]
Op. 59, No. 2 String Quartet No. 8 E  Minor "Razumovsky" 1805-6 full [8]
Op. 59, No. 3 String Quartet No. 9 C  Major "Razumovsky" 1805-6 full [9]
Op. 74 String Quartet No. 10 E Major "The Harp" 1809 full [10]
Op. 95 String Quartet No. 11 F  Minor 1816 full [11]
Op. 127   String Quartet No. 12 E Major 1825 full [12]
Op. 130 String Quartet No. 14a B Major 1825-27 [ ] [13]
Op. 131 String Quartet No. 15 C Minor 1825-27 full [14]
Op. 132 String Quartet No. 13 A  Minor 1825 [ ] [15]
Op. 133 Grosse Fuge [Quartet No. 14b] B Major 1825-27 [ ] [16]
Op. 134 String Quartet [Quartet No. 14b-2] B Major 4-hand arrangement 1827? [17]
Op. 135 String Quartet No. 16 F  Major 1826-27 [ ] [18]

Audio examples from each movement of the three Op. 59 quartets are provided by the Digital Archive of the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, the city of Beethoven's birth.[19]