LvB250 – STRING QUARTETS, part 1

Spanish string quartet Cuarteto Casals will perform all of Beethoven’s string quartets in 2020 – the big Beethoven year. The 16 quartets came in three phases throughout his lifetime – and each phase comprised a dizzying stride forward for the art of the quartet. The acclaimed Cuarteto Casals debuted at Konserthuset in 2007 and have returned several times, most recently in 2016.

Here, the ensemble begins their grand Beethoven initiative with two of the six quartets from Beethoven’s first collection, Opus 18. Both the Quartet in D Major and No. 2 in G Major are bright, with a lyrically pastoral atmosphere. After the introductory original theme which then dominates the first movement of the Quartet in D Major, Beethoven paints the slow second movement in broad strokes, while the finale is brilliant and exhilarated.

In the Quartet in G Major, the elegant introductory movement transitions in the middle movement to a lyrical melody, while the jovial scherzo has a contrast in the dazzling finale.

The Quartet in F Major, Opus 59, is the first in the collection with three quartets known as the Razumovsky Quartets. Their presentation is infused with symphonic intensity, and Beethoven uses the entire register of the instruments, often in extreme ways that recur later in all of the subsequent quartets.