During Beethoven’s lifetime, Viennese music performance gradually became more public and popular, but at the time of the Opus 18 String Quartets, such music was mostly limited to the salons of the aristocracy, some of whom were skilled enough to play Beethoven’s music themselves.
Early performances of Beethoven’s Opus 18 String Quartets took place in the home of Prince Lobkowitz, who commissioned the six quartets, and to whom they were dedicated, and who was apparently quite a good violinist. After publication in 1801, anybody could play them.
Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 3 was the first of the Opus 18 set to be composed, probably mostly between August 1798 and January 1799. It is often gentle and sedate until the playful and agitated Presto finale comes barreling through all the way to the surprise ending.
#Beethoven250 Day 127
String Quartet No. 3 in D Major (Opus 18, No. 3), 1799–1800
This quartet ensemble apparently doesn’t have a name. All I know is that they’re performing in Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
In his book on “Beethoven’s Chamber Music,” Angus Watson hears a “celebratory peal of bells” at measure 60 (1:50 in the video) when the 2nd violin and viola mimic a passage about 10½ minutes into Haydn’s Creation when the chorus sings of “a new created world.” A new world indeed!