BEETHOVEN'S STRING QUARTETS
(Op. 18)
Played by THE KUTCHER STRING QUARTET:
Samuel Kutcher (violin) ; Frederick Grinke (violin) ; Raymond Jeremy (viola) ; Douglas Cameron (violoncello)
Quartet in F, Op. 18, No. i (concluded;
4. Allegro
Quartet in G (Op. 18, No. 2)
1. Allegro; 2. Adagio cantabile, Allegro, Tempo I
BEETHOVEN'S six string quartets, Op. 18, composed in 1800, were his first essays in this form that he considered worthy of being played and published. They are as rich in material and as finished in craftsmanship as any of the quartets of I laydn, with whose idiom they have much in common. All these six quartets attain a high level of achievement and show the working of a great and original creative mind which is perhaps at its most charming and happy in No. 2 in G, expressive and serious in the No. 3 in D and in the slow movement of the No. I in F, and at its most brilliant and vigorous in the No. 4 in C minor.