DOROTHY' MABELTILLETT (Soprano)
THE JOHN FRY STRING Quartet
BEETHOVEN realized very well that a String Quartet is no job for an inexperienced or immature composer, and when he was offered quite a generous fee, in 1795, to compose one for a wealthy patron, lie declined on the ground that he was not yet sufficiently master of his art; he was then twenty-five. Although he declined the commission, however, he sot to work, for his own education, to composing string quartets, although the two which he is known to have embarked on both turned into other things. It was only four years later, when his style was already maturing towards the great middle period, that he composed the six string quartets which, as Opus 18, are dedicated to Prince Lobkowitz.
Slight in structure and design as compared with the noble quartets of his middle period and the great string quartets which were among the last things he wrote, these first six are all full of fresh and breezy melody, and all so clear in their form as to be easily followed and enjoyed, although that very simplicity demands that they shall be finely played.