Beethoven: The Early Quartets, Op. 18, Nos. 1 - 6 (Remastered) Juilliard String Quartet

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827): String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18/1:
• 1 String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18/1: I. Allegro con brio 06:29
• 2 String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18/1: II. Adagio affettuoso ed appassionato 10:11
• 3 String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18/1: III. Scherzo. Allegro molto 03:25
• 4 String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18/1: IV. Allegro 06:41
• String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18/2:
• 5 String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18/2: I. Allegro 06:00
• 6 String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18/2: II. Adagio cantabile 07:03
• 7 String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18/2: III. Scherzo. Allegro 04:19
• 8 String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18/2: IV. Allegro molto quasi presto 05:13
• String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18/3:
• 9 String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18/3: I. Allegro 07:20
• 10 String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18/3: II. Andante con moto 08:30
• 11 String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18/3: III. Allegro 03:09
• 12 String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18/3: IV. Presto 05:41
• String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18/4:
• 13 String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18/4: I. Allegro ma non tanto 08:25
• 14 String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18/4: II. Scherzo. Andante scherzoso quasi allegretto 05:42
• 15 String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18/4: III. Menuetto. Allegretto 03:24
• 16 String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18/4: IV. Allegro 04:18
• String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18/5:
• 17 String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18/5: I. Allegro 06:30
• 18 String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18/5: II. Menuetto 04:45
• 19 String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18/5: III. Andante cantabile 10:44
• 20 String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18/5: IV. Allegro 06:02
• String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18/6:
• 21 String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18/6: I. Allegro con brio 05:42
• 22 String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18/6: II. Adagio ma non troppo 08:15
• 23 String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18/6: III. Scherzo. Allegro 03:07
• 24 String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18/6: IV. La malinconia. Adagio - Allegretto quasi allegro 08:50
• Total Runtime 02:29:45

Info for Beethoven: The Early Quartets, Op. 18, Nos. 1 - 6 (Remastered)

The Juilliard String Quartet. For over seventy years they have been a household name in several different formations. They are connected to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York.

A great adage attributed to Malraux insists that an artist paints a tree not because he has seen a tree, but because he has seen a painting of a tree. A musical style is born not with its first pioneer but with the first follower. Joseph Haydn was the original string quartet pioneer, establishing the genre in a remarkable series of works that reached first maturity in 1771. Mozart was the first follower. Around the age of 28, freshly relocated to Vienna, he plunged into a multi-year study of Haydn's quartets (along with Bach's counterpoint) and with significant labor, produced his six masterworks dedicated lovingly to Haydn himself. There were slews of Haydn imitators, but history has winnowed our awareness down to the few of startling originality and expressive power. First Mozart. Then Beethoven. In an odd parallel to Mozart, Beethoven, around 28, freshly relocated in Vienna and, armed with recent lessons in counterpoint from Albrechtsberger, turned to the string quartet for the first time. He too focused obsessively for nearly two years and produced, along with piles of sketchbooks, his set of six quartets, Op. 18 that were published, auspiciously, in 1801, the first year of the 19th century. In a thirty-year period, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven crystallized the high Classical style of Viennese chamber music in a magnificent canon of quartets that represented a radical innovation, a sea change from the Baroque into a new, highly refined rhetoric of music discourse, expression and exploration inseparable from this new-fangled ensemble called the string quartet.

The String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1 begins one of the greatest cycles of music in the entire Western Classical canon, the sixteen quartets of Beethoven spanning the whole of his creative life. Composed between 1798 and 1800, the six Op. 18 quartets show an astonishing mastery of the language of Haydn and Mozart, a language that Beethoven used nonetheless to express his own emerging personality and to demonstrate his own relentless innovative creativity. These are "classical" works in the truest sense: Beethoven's closest "imitation" of Haydn and Mozart before he would revolutionize the genre with his next set, Op. 59. Naturally considered to be from Beethoven's "early" period, the Op. 18 quartets reveal, in all their variety and complexity, all the elements of Beethoven's middle and late styles albeit clear perhaps only in retrospect. Actually the second quartet that he composed, the F Major was placed first within the published Op. 18 set by Beethoven. For its energy, drama and craftsmanship, it is a perfect opening move, a showcase for this new young maverick to break ground in a daunting and already mature tradition. ... (Kai Christiansen)

Juilliard String Quartet

Digitally remastered

Juilliard String Quartet
widely known as the quintessential American string quartet, welcomes its new cellist, Astrid Schween, and celebrates its 70th anniversary during the 2016/17 season with return engagements in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Toronto, Louisville, Cleveland, Tucson, and New York’s Alice Tully Hall. The JSQ premieres Fragments, String Quartet No. 6 by renowned Argentine-American composer Mario Davidovsky, jointly commissioned by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music and the Juilliard School. In January, the Quartet tours Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Turkey, including appearances at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, and the Berlin Konzerthaus.

Last season, a yearlong celebration of Joel Krosnick’s remarkable 42-year tenure as cellist of the JSQ, featured tours of Asia and Europe, concerts throughout the US and Canada, as well as special performances of the Schubert Cello Quintet with Astrid Schween in Detroit, New York City, and at the Ravinia Festival. In 2015 the Quartet was featured in the groundbreaking interactive app on Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” Quartet, released by the innovative app developer, Touchpress, in collaboration with the Juilliard School.

The Quartet’s recordings of the Bartok and Schoenberg Quartets, as well as those of Debussy, Ravel and Beethoven won Grammy Awards, and in 2011 the Quartet became the first classical music ensemble to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In 2014 Sony Classical reissued the Quartet’s landmark recordings of the first four Elliott Carter String Quartets together with the more recently recorded Carter Quartet No. 5, making a complete historical document. Devoted master teachers, the members of the Juilliard String Quartet offer classes and open rehearsals when on tour. At the Juilliard School, where they are the String Quartet in Residence, all are sought-after members of the string and chamber music faculty and annually, in May, they are hosts of the 5-day Internationally recognized Juilliard String Quartet Seminar.

In performance, recordings and incomparable work educating the major artists and quartets of our time, the Juilliard String Quartet has carried the banner of the United States and The Juilliard School throughout the world.

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