The three string quartets of Beethoven’s opus 59, despite being three of his most enduringly popular pieces today, incited some of the most antagonistic and negative responses that his music ever would receive. His student Carl Czerny reported, “When Schuppanzigh’s quartet first played the F major Quartet, they laughed and were convinced Beethoven was playing a trick on them and that it was not the quartet he had promised.” “Surely you do not consider this music?” asked the bemused violinist Felix Radicati. “Not for you,” replied the confident composer, “but for a later age”. Revolutionary, visionary, unprecedented in their grand and sweeping scope, the three quartets of the Opus 59 trilogy made greater instrumental and emotional demands than any string quartet yet written at that time, and they remain historical landmarks of the quartet genre, even two centuries after their premiere; indeed, the birth of the touring professional quartet and ...