Beethoven String Quartet, Op. 59, No. 1

In 1806, the 36 year old Beethoven received a commission from the
Russian ambassador in Vienna, Count Andreas Razumovsky.
Razumovsky wanted a set of string quartets for what would soon be
his house string quartet which included some of the finest
players Vienna had to offer. As part of his commission,
Razumovsky asked Beethoven to include a Russian theme in each one
of the quartets. Beethoven obliged him in 2 of the quartets, and
the Razumovsky quartets, Op. 59 1, 2, and 3, were born. 1806 was
near the height of Beethoven’s astonishing so called Middle
Period, where the scale of his music drastically expanded from
his earlier works and he began writing in a so called heroic
style, with much more brash and adventurous music. This all
started in 1803 with his Eroica Symphony, but Beethoven did not
limit his adventures and his expanding palate to his symphonies.
Everything with Beethoven’s music was expanding, including his
string quartets. 


These middle quartets form part of the core of most string
quartets repertoires. They are astonishing works in every regard,
where Beethoven starts pushing limits we didn’t even, or maybe he
didn’t even, know he had. From the expansive 59, 1, to the
intensely felt and taut 59, 2, to the often fun loving 59, 3,
Beethoven explores every facet of string quartet playing and
brings that heroic and passionate new style to the genre of the
string quartet. For today, we’re going to go through Op. 59, 1, a
remarkably expansive and brilliant piece that explores every
facet of string quartet playing, pushing quartets to their
technical and emotional limits in ways that were absolutely
shocking at the time and still unbelievably challenging today. If
you come to this show for symphonies, that’s great, but for me
and many other musicians, Beethoven’s string quartets are the
greatest collection of pieces by any composer in any genre. I
hope that today’s exploration will help convince you of that!
Join us!