String quartets op. 18 No 1-6
BEETHOVEN

Beethoven turned relatively late to the string quartet. When Prince Lobkowitz ordered him quartets op. 18 he was already 28 years old, 30 years old when he finished them. They are therefore works of maturity which clearly differentiate themselves from Mozart's quartets, in particular by their technical requirements, while approaching them musically. The quartet in A major K. 464 clearly served as a model for op. 18 no 5. But the six quartets op. 18 by Beethoven are completely autonomous works and constitute one of the most important contributions to this genre.
The copies of the quartets produced at Beethoven's request in order to transmit them to Prince Lobkowitz, their sponsor, were again available for consultation in the 1980s. They constitute a stage prior to the final version of the first edition and include indications of nuances and richer articulation, which makes them interesting, especially from a practical point of view. Like the manuscripts of the six quartets op. 18 have not been kept, these copies obviously have a special meaning. They could be taken into account for the first time within the framework of this Urtext edition offered by Henle editions.