THIBAUD PAVLOVIC-HOBBA violin
WILMA SMITH violin
HELEN IRELAND viola
ZOE KNIGHTON cello

AGATHA YIM, POLYPHONIC PICTURES filming and editing
THOMAS GRUBB, MANO MUSICA sound engineering, editing and mastering

Filmed November 2022 at Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank

This project was made possible through support from the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, Australia Council and the Besen Family Foundation.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN  1770-1827
String Quartet No. 1 in F major, Op. 18, No. 1 (composed 1799) 

I. Allegro con brio 
II. Adagio affettuoso ed appasionato 
III. Scherzo: Allegro molto 
IV. Allegro 

Before Beethoven wrote his string quartets, they were largely meant for amateurs to play in their homes for the amusement of guests (and themselves). Beethoven was largely responsible for the rise of the professional string quartet, simply by writing more technically demanding music for the four players. Living in the shadow of Mozart’s prodigious talent and also that of Haydn, Beethoven’s father, Johann, lied about his age to make him appear more gifted than he actually was. Imagine Beethoven’s surprise as an adult when he finally discovered he was two years older than he actually was.

The set of six Op. 18 quartets are perfectly taut specimens of the classical era. This particular quartet in F major foreshadows the genius exhibited in the Grosse Fugue by using a very short motif as the whole genesis for the first movement. Beethoven uses this motif no less than 130 times as an exhibition of intense creativity through restricted means. Beethoven attributes his inspiration in the second movement to Shakespeare’s tomb scene from Romeo and Juliet; Shakespeare had recently been translated to German and this obviously had a profound effect.