Beethoven: Early String Quartets Narratio Quartet

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827): String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18:
• 1 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18: I. Allegro 08:14
• 2 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18: II. Andante con moto 07:47
• 3 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18: III. Allegro 03:10
• 4 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18: IV. Presto 07:35
• String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18:
• 5 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18: I. Allegro con brio 10:29
• 6 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18: II. Adagio affettuoso ed appassionato 08:59
• 7 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18: III. Scherzo Allegro molto - Trio 03:46
• 8 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18: IV. Allegro 07:20
• String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18:
• 9 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18: I. Allegro 08:18
• 10 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18: II. Adagio cantabile - Allegro - Tempo I 05:47
• 11 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18: III. Scherzo Allegro - Trio 04:56
• 12 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18: IV. Allegro molto - quasi Presto 05:53
• String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18:
• 13 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18: I. Allegro 07:50
• 14 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18: II. Menuetto - Trio 05:20
• 15 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18: III. Andante cantabile (con variazioni) 11:05
• 16 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18: IV. Allegro 07:33
• String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18:
• 17 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18: I. Allegro ma non tanto 09:36
• 18 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18: II. Andante scherzoso quasi Allegretto 07:41
• 19 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18: III. Menuetto Allegro - Trio 03:46
• 20 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18: IV. Allegretto - Prestissimo 04:54
• String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18:
• 21 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18: I. Allegro con brio 07:03
• 22 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18: II. Adagio ma non troppo 06:32
• 23 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18: III. Scherzo Allegro - Trio 03:47
• 24 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18: IV. La Malinconia - Questo pezzo si deve trattare colla più gran delicatezza - Adagio - Allegretto quasi Allegro 07:58
• Total Runtime 02:45:19

Info for Beethoven: Early String Quartets

Viola de Hoog: I have often wondered which of the “great spirits” might provide a new impulse and a different direction for what we call classical music in this early part of the twenty-first century. Narratio Quartet have been immersed in all of Beethoven’s string quartets for over fifteen years now. We experience time and again how Beethoven explored and then overcame the limits of the Classical style and the instrumental difficulties that were prevalent at the start of the nineteenth century. What we hear has been enriched by the passing of two centuries and the gaining of wider experience. Progress indeed, might be your first thought, but perhaps we have also lost something along the way? The ability to feel how groundbreaking and visionary this music was in those days. My colleagues and I feel that using instruments that are comparable to those of the time has helped us enormously in getting somewhat closer to the surprise, the bewilderment and the rapture that the musicians in Schuppanzigh’s quartet must have felt when they first came face to face with the newest and most innovative chamber music of the day.

Narratio Quartet:
Johannes Leertouwer, violin
Viola de Hoog, cello
Franc Polman, violin
Dorothea Vogel, viola

Narratio Quartet
The narrative of the Narratio Quartet began in 2009 when it was invited to perform Beethoven’s last five string quartets on five consecutive nights at the Early Music Festival Utrecht. It is precisely these late Beethoven quartets which are rarely played on period instruments, using gut strings and 19th-century bows.

Since then the quartet has worked backwards, as it were; it has now played the complete cycle of Beethoven quartets several times in the Netherlands and recently also in Switzerland. Their repertoire has expanded to the later 19th century with the three Brahms quartets in combination with Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn. In the course of 2024/2025 Challenge Records will release their recording of the complete Beethoven cycle played on period instruments.

Johannes Leertouwer
performs as a soloist, chamber music player and conductor. For many years he was concertmaster of Anima Eterna and the Netherlands Bach Society. He is artistic director and conductor of the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht and violinist of Ensemble Schönbrunn since its foundation. In addition to teaching at the Conservatory of Amsterdam he is a professor at Seoul National University and obtained his doctorate in 2023 from the University of Leiden on research into the performance practice of orchestral repertoire by Johannes Brahms.

Franc Polman
is a violinist in the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and has played in prestigious baroque orchestras such as Musica Antiqua Köln and Les Musiciens du Louvre. He is active in several chamber music ensembles. Polman plays on a number of Amsterdam violins from the seventeenth century, built by Hendrik Jacobs and Pieter Rombouts.

Dorothea Vogel
studied in Switzerland, the USA and London, where she has lived since her studies. She was violist of the Allegri Quartet for 20 years and is a member of the Primrose Piano Quartet. She also performs with the English baroque ensemble The Kings Consort. Dorothea teaches at the Royal Welsh College in Cardiff.

Viola de Hoog
is a versatile musician. Her international career takes place in the world of early music, but for 20 years she also travelled all over the world as a member of the renowned Dutch Schönberg Quartet. She is cellist of Ensemble Schönbrunn, principal cellist of the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht and The Kings Consort. Viola has been professor of baroque cello, cello and chamber music at the conservatories of Amsterdam, Utrecht and Bremen since 1990.

Booklet for Beethoven: Early String Quartets