Quartetti beethoven biography
Why beethoven is important...
Beethoven's String Quartets: John Suchet's guide to the music
If Haydn is today called the ‘father’ of the String Quartet, and Mozart took the form to new heights, then Beethoven – characteristically – took hold of it and completely transformed it.
The five Late Quartets, written in the final years of his life, transcend anything he or anyone else had ever composed.
Quartetti beethoven biography
Listening to the notes we see deep into the soul of this difficult, irascible man by now profoundly deaf. He has bared himself, exposed his emotions to us in a more profound way than words could ever express.
Early Quartets
He composed the 16 String Quartets in three fairly distinct blocks – nos.
1-6 when he was around 27-30 years of age, nos. 7-11 when he was 35-40, nos. 12-16 in the final three years of his life – leading to them being conveniently referred to in concert and on recordings as the Early, Middle and Late Quartets.
As with the Symphony, therefore, he came to the String Quartet