Beethoven was fascinated by mechanical devices, composing for the Panharmonicon, a mechanical music machine, and adopting the metronome.
Interpretation
The Eybler Quartet's approach to tempo in this recording is influenced by early 19th-century adherents like Louis Spohr and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, who favored a steady pulse.
Compositional Technique
Beethoven's Op. 18 quartets show his passion for mechanical devices, including a movement that is a 'mechanical derivation' and a variation that sounds like a barrel organ.
Interpretation
The Eybler Quartet, the performers on this album, chose to realize these works as late 18th-century pieces, maintaining a single 'tactus' (steady pulse) within a movement.
Performer Biography
The Eybler Quartet performs on instruments appropriate to the period of the music they play, focusing on works from the first century and a half of the string quartet.
Performer Biography
The Eybler Quartet is named after Joseph Leopold Edler von Eybler, a lesser-known composer whose works the quartet explores.
