BEETHOVEN Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4
Vera Quartet

Performed on Monday, February 3, 2020
Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia

Joseph Haydn, the “father of the string quartet,” is rightfully known for his role in creating and popularizing the string quartet in the 18th century, but Ludwig van Beethoven is renowned as the composer who elevated string quartet music to the lofty artistic position it has enjoyed though the present day.

The six quartets of Op. 18 are Beethoven’s first published works in the genre. They fall towards the end of his early period, when the influence of Haydn and Mozart was still evident in Beethoven’s style. Each quartet takes a traditional form, beginning with an allegro movement, followed by a slow movement, a minuet or scherzo, and a fast finale. But even in Beethoven’s earliest quartets, hints of his revolutionary future were already discernible. For example, the fourth quartet begins with bold statements in C minor and an ominous, unrelenting atmosphere that would become a hallmark of Beethoven’s style in the following decades.

Even this early, Beethoven took an innovative approach to the relative weight of movements within a chamber work. In earlier generations, composers usually concentrated the most exciting material in the first movement, with any additional movements taking a lighter, less serious tone. In contrast, as in this quartet, Beethoven increasingly created a dramatic arc through all the movements.
—Tom Oltarzewski

Learn more about this work:    • Vera Quartet, Intro: BEETHOVEN — Quar...  

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