Explore Beethoven’s string quartets with the Audubon Quartet on a great listening adventure. These 16 monumental works outline the course of Beethoven’s career as one of Vienna’s most famous musicians.
BONUS: 50-minute pre-concert lectures entitled "Beethoven's World" precede all concerts
- Program I
- Friday, September 11, 2009, 8:00pm at Shenandoah University (PAL Series)
This opening program includes the first and final complete string quartets composed by Beethoven. Program I concludes with the second “Razumovsky Quartet” containing a “Russian theme”, in honor of Prince Razumovsky, Russia’s ambassador to Vienna in 1792.
- Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3
- Quartet in F Major, Op. 135
- Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2
- Program II
- Saturday, September 12, 2009, 8:00pm at Shenandoah University (PAL Series)
This program begins with the only Op. 18 string quartet composed in a minor key. Program II includes the first quartet of Beethoven’s late period, and climaxes with the third “Razumovsky Quartet”.
- Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4
- Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127
- Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3
- Program III
- Sunday, September 13, 2009, 3:00pm at Shenandoah University (PAL Series)
This program begins with one of Beethoven’s early quartets, composed shortly after Beethoven moved to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn. Beethoven’s sketch of the F Major quartet (Op. 18) shows his intention to depict the tomb scene of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. This program also includes the dramatic and defiant work in F Minor, composed in 1810, known as “Quartetto Serioso”. Program III concludes with the exquisite Quartet in B-flat Major, which contains one of Beethoven’s most profoundly intimate utterances, the “Cavatina” movement.
- Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1
- Quartet in F Minor, Op. 95
- Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130
- Program IV
- Friday, January 29, 2010, 8:00pm at Shenandoah University (PAL Series)
Program IV provides the listener with an important reference point, marking the end of the early period and beginning of a new era, with the quartet known as “La Malinconia”. The program concludes with the Quartet in C-sharp Minor, a seven-movement work, played without break, considered to be Beethoven’s favorite quartet.
- Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6
- Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131
- Program V
- Saturday, January 30, 2010, 8:00pm at Shenandoah University (PAL Series)
This program opens with Beethoven’s homage to Wolfgang Mozart, as found in his Quartet in A Major (op. 18), modeled after a Mozart quartet in the same key. One on Beethoven’s most famous and controversial compositions, the “Grosse Fuge” is featured on this program. The “great fugue” is the original final movement of the Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130 (composed 1825). Program V concludes with the most virtuosic of the three “Razumosvsky Quartets”, from Beethoven’s middle period.
- Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5
- Quartet in B-flat Major “Grosse Fuge”, Op. 133
- Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1
- Program VI
- Sunday, January 31, 2010, 3:00pm at Shenandoah University (PAL Series)
The Audubon Quartet concludes the “Beethoven Cycle” with a quartet from each of Beethoven’s compositional periods, beginning with the Quartet in G Major (Op. 18) nicknamed the “Compliments”. This series finale also includes Quartets in E-flat Major (Op. 74), nicknamed the “Harp Quartet”, and the Quartet in A Minor (Op. 132), containing the famous “Heiliger Dankgesang” movement, expressing Beethoven’s gratitude for recovery after an illness.
- Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2
- Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74
- Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132
- Guest Speakers
- 9/11 Clyde Shaw
- 9/12 Elizabeth Temple
- 9/13 Andrew Flory
- 1/29 Warren Hofstra
- 1/30 David Levy
- 1/31William Averitt