Ludwig Van Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1

Description

The Dover Quartet, “the young American string quartet of the moment” ( The New Yorker ), launches its emerging, three-volume complete Beethoven quartet cycle with the six Opus 18 quartets, often cited as the epitome of the classical string quartet as developed by Haydn and Mozart while foreshadowing Beethoven’s future innovations. In concert, the quartet has presented three complete Beethoven cycles, including the University at Buffalo’s renowned “Slee Cycle” — which has offered annual Beethoven quartet cycles since 1955 and has featured the likes of the Budapest, Guarneri, and Cleveland Quartets. The Dover is featuring Beethoven’s Quartet in G major, Op. 18, No. 2, in its 2020–2021 season programming. The Dover Quartet’s recording of Mozart’s final string quartets K. 589 and K. 590 plus his string quintet K. 406 (with Guarneri Quartet violist Michael Tree) on Cedille Records, an homage to their Guarneri Quartet mentors, was hailed by the Sunday Times of London as “a deeply affecting debut disc” performed “with surpassing beauty, a glorious timbral richness governed by what feels a continuous thoughtfulness.”