Doric String Quartet releases new Beethoven collection

The Doric String Quartet has released the third volume of their Beethoven string quartet series through Chandos. This collection spans the composer's various musical periods, ranging from the early Op. 18 No. 3 to the visionary late works such as Op. 132 and Op. 135.

Historically, Beethoven's Opus 59 quartets, known as the Razumovsky Quartets, were commissioned by Count Andreas Kyrilovich Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna. The Count, an amateur violinist, requested that the works incorporate Russian melodies. One notable theme from the second quartet was later quoted by Mussorgsky in the opera Boris Godunov. While contemporary critics initially found these complex works difficult to comprehend, Beethoven famously remarked that they were intended for a later age.