Ravel’s String Quartet
Learn about Ravel’s life and the story of his beautifully colourful string quartet.
Passion and expression
The second movement of Beethoven’s Quartet in F major transports us to another world. We are no longer in sunny F major; we are in a dark and tumultuous D minor. With is mournful melodies, impassioned outbursts, and deafening silences, Beethoven explores tragedy, loss, and terror in this excellent early example of emotional exploration in music.
Beethoven’s First Quartet
In 1787, at the age of 17, Ludwig van Beethoven left his native Bonn, Germany to travel to the musical epicentre of the world: Vienna. In going there, he had intended to study with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Unfortunately, Beethoven’s Viennese séjour was cut short to only two weeks when he was abruptly called back home because of his mother’s death. Before he could return to Vienna a few years later, Mozart had met his untimely demise.