It was with some (justifiable) trepidation that, in 1798, the 28 year old Beethoven approached the task of writing his first string quartets. He had turned down a 1795 quartet commission from Count Apponyi, seemingly feeling that he was, then, unprepared for such a task. Why the hesitation? The answer’s simple: Haydn.
Haydn had single-handedly elevated the ensemble of two violins, a viola and a cello from pleasant pastime status to being the most significant of chamber groups; and, when Beethoven was in his twenties, the elder composer and Beethoven’s – rather sporadic – teacher was still writing for the medium. In fact, when in 1798, Beethoven received his quartet commission from Prince Lobkowitz, the Prince had also asked the 66 year old Haydn for what were to be the final completed works of his 68 string quartets, his Op. 77.
Serious pressure on a young composer!
All of which is not to say that Beethoven hadn’t had a few dry runs at writing for smaller combinations of strings. The string trios, Op. 3, Op. 8 and Op. 9 are serenade-like pieces (i.e. multi-movement); you can sample the first of them (Op. 3) below:
Allegro con brio 0:00
Andante 12:11
Minuetto. Allegretto 19:00
Adagio 23:20
Minuetto. Moderato 31:25
Finale. Allegro 35:22
Like Mozart before him (famed for the speed and fluency of his writing, Mozart, unusually, took a great deal of time and enormous care over the six quartets that he dedicated to Haydn), Beethoven was at great pains to ensure the quality of his work – the six quartets, Op. 18 took two years to be completed.
This is Op. 18, No. 1 in F, judge for yourselves:
I. Allegro con brio 0:04
II. Adagio affettuoso ed appassionato 9:57
III. Scherzo — Allegro molto 18:58
IV. Allegro 22:21
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The Art of Listening 