Beethoven's String Quartets, Op. 59, were composed in 1805 and 1806, commissioned by Count Andreas Kyrillovitch Razumovsky, a diplomat and amateur musician.
Compositional Technique
The first movement of Beethoven's Quartet No. 1 in F major, Op. 59, No. 1, features his most impressive counterpoint to date: a double fugue.
Composer Biography
Beethoven's hearing began to degenerate by the late 1790s, a loss he openly acknowledged in the 1802 Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter to his brothers.
Recording & Production
This album was recorded in April 2005 at Skywalker Sound, a Lucasfilm Ltd. Company, in Marin County, California.
Instruments
The Tokyo String Quartet performs on 'The Paganini Quartet,' a group of renowned Stradivarius instruments once owned by the legendary virtuoso Niccolò Paganini.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The Op. 59 quartets, following Beethoven's Third Symphony (Eroica), marked a new period in his music, achieving a new scale and seriousness.
Performer Biography
The Tokyo String Quartet, formed in 1969, has been quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music since 1976.
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