Beethoven: String Quartets Op. 132 And H. 34

Regular: £11.49

Sale: £11.49
Regular

Out of Stock

Unit Price: per

Cat No: 8554592

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943459225

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: BEETHOVEN

Description
Ludwig van Beethoven(1770-1827)String Quartet in Aminor, Op. 132String Quartet in Fmajor, H. 34(transcription ofPiano Sonata in E major, Op. 14, No. 1)In 1792 Beethoven lefthis native city of Bonn to seek his fortune in the imperial capital, Vienna.Five years before he had been sent to Vienna by his patron, the Archbishop ofCologne, for lessons with Mozart, but the illness of his mother had forced hisimmediate return home. Before long, after his mother's death, he had beenobliged to take charge of the welfare of his younger brothers, a task that hisfather was not competent to discharge.As a boy Beethoven hadhad an erratic musical training through his father, a singer in thearchiepiscopal musical establishment, later continued on sounder lines. In 1792he was to take lessons from Haydn, from whom he later claimed to have learnednothing, followed by subsequent study of counterpoint with Albrechtsberger andItalian word-setting with Salieri. Armed with introductions to members of thenobility in Vienna, he soon established himself as a keyboard virtuoso, skilledas a performer and equally adept in the necessary art of improvisation. In thecourse of time he was to be widely recognised as a figure of remarkable geniusand originality. At the same time he became known as a social eccentric, norespecter of persons, his eccentricity all the greater because of increasingdeafness, a failing that became evident by the turn of the century. With thepatient encouragement of patrons, he directed his attentions largely tocomposition, developing the inherited classical tradition of Haydn and Mozartand extending its bounds in a way that presented both an example and achallenge to the composers who came after him.In his sixteen stringquartets, the first set of six published in 1801 and the last published in theyear of his death, 1827, Beethoven was as innovative as ever, developing andextending a form that seemed already to have reached a height of perfection.The first quartets were followed in 1802 by an F major arrangement of the PianoSonata in E major, Opus 14, No. 1, for string quartet. The three quartetsfor the Russian ambassador in Vienna, Count Razumovsky, followed in 1805 and1806 and Beethoven returned to the form again in 1809 and 1810. It was notuntil 1823, however, that he resumed his attention to the string quartet in aremarkable final series of works, starting with the String Quartet in Eflat major, Opus 127, completed in 1824. This was the first of a group of threequartets commissioned by Prince Nicolas Galitzin, an enthusiastic patron andhimself an amateur cellist, in a letter to Beethoven in November 1822. On 25thJanuary the following year Beethoven replied, accepting the commission andasking for a fee of 50 ducats a quartet, pledging himself at the same time tocomplete the first quartet by February or March at the latest. In the eventGalitzin had to wait until March 1825 before he received the first work, afterdisguising any impatience he may have felt
Tracklisting