Beethoven: String Quartets Vol. 2

For this second volume of Ludwig van Beethoven's string quartets, the Doric String Quartet has compiled a program featuring one middle-period quartet, one late quartet, and two early quartets, which stands on its own while also forming part of the complete cycle. The musicians begin with a lively performance of Op. 18 No. 2 and then play the quartet Op. 130, concluding with the "Great Fugue" Op. 133, which Beethoven had long considered as a finale. They have included the alternative finale, which was published for the first time with Op. 130, allowing the listener to choose between the two versions. Op. 18 No. 5 in A major is followed by Op. 59 No. 2 in E minor. Op. 18, Beethoven's first set of quartets, often shows influences from the quartets of Haydn and Mozart, albeit strongly filtered through Beethoven's original artistic sensibility. The second group, the three "Razumovsky Quartets" Op. 59, was written during a golden phase of the composer's creative life (alongside the Fourth Symphony, the Violin Concerto, and Fidelio) and shows both a further development compared to the earlier group and a powerful independence. Although they were misunderstood (or perceived as incomprehensible) by their first audience, Beethoven's late quartets are generally admired today as one of the highlights of Western art music. Shostakovich considered the "Great Fugue" an 'absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever'.