Exposition: Beethoven String Quartets 1–3

About the production

This year the Lausitz Festival will present Quatuor Danel in various locations around the region performing all of Beethoven’s string quartets in the order of their composition.

The first concert, at the Bildungsgut Schmochtitz St. Benno, will include String Quartet Op. 18.3 followed by Op. 18.1 and Op. 18.2, since the opus numbers represent the order of their publication, not of their composition in 1798/99. Beethoven’s student Carl Czerny confirmed that Op. 18.3 in D major was the first string quartet Beethoven ever wrote, and also noted that there may have been musical reasons for the delayed publication, »probably because the D major quartet begins with the interval of a seventh, which was unheard of at the time.« Beethoven was inspired to write the elegiac Adagio of Op. 18.1, the second quartet in this program, by the tragic ending of Shakespeare’s »Romeo and Juliet«. The lovers’ farewell might also have an autobiographical background: while composing the piece, Beethoven met Josephine Brunsvik, to whom he is thought to have written his »Letter to the Immortal Beloved« and to whom he dedicated a setting of Goethe’s »Ich denke dein«, a version of which appears in the main theme of this melancholy movement. 

Op. 18.2 is also known as the »Komplimentierquartett« (Quartet of Bows and Curtsies), since it conveys the elegant, dance-like grace of aristocratic festivities. But the fourth movement in particular already demonstrates Beethoven’s surprisingly courageous harmonic mastery and his ability to link harmonic keys without traditional transitions.

Contemporary critics enthusiastically praised the first three quartets. The »splendid works by Beethoven […] give undeniable proof of his artistry, but they must be performed often and well, as they are quite difficult to play and by no means merely entertaining.« Today they, together with the following three quartets, are much loved and are known as the composer’s Early Quartets, which were commissioned by and dedicated to Prince Lobkowitz. In Schmochtitz, the Quatuor Danel from Brussels will guide listeners through Beethoven’s development of the genre.