Score Parties. Par BEETHOVEN LUDWIG VAN. When Beethoven wrote these three quartets he was 15 years old and a composition student of Christian Gottlob Neefe in Bonn. They reveal a strong Mozartian influence while the brilliant piano writing already gives a sense of the mature Beethoven. He may conceivably have written the works for the wealthy Mastiaux family in Bonn, as he gave piano lessons to one of the daughters and the other three siblings played violin, viola and violoncello. The sole source for the quartets is the autograph score which contains many overwritings that shed light on the works' original conception and possible alternative readings. Although Beethoven never published the pieces in his lifetime and is not known to have performed them, he reused their melodic and thematic material in later compositions. Beethoven preserved the autograph score to the end of his days ? perhaps an indication that the quartets meant a great deal to him. The first edition was published by Artaria in Vienna one year after his death, albeit with the pieces in a different order and with many errors in the musical text. Bärenreiter's scholarly performing edition of the Piano Quartets WoO 36 is edited by the Italian pianist Leonardo Miucci, a specialist in the performance practice of keyboard music from this period. The edition not only presents the correct readings, it also sheds light on the young Beethoven's expressive notation and provides a plausible explanation for the distinction he made between dots and strokes to indicate staccato./ Répertoire / Quatuor pour Piano, Violon, Alto et Violoncelle

Paul Mealor's 2011 piece Via Crucis (The Way of the Cross for Violin Viola Cello and Piano.

?In the evening we played Robert?s E-Flat Major Quartet for the first time ? and I was once again truly delighted at this beautiful and so youthful work? enthused Clara Schumann in 1842. Inpreparation for this work Schumann had studied String quartets by the Viennese Classical composers. This is why all of the parts in the quartet are treated equally forming a splendid ensemble. Our edition has anextensive critical commentary on account of the difficult source situation. The fold-out page in the Cello part was designed with music practice in mind. The Piano Quartet and the Piano quintet op. 44 referred toas ?sister works? were both composed in Schumann?s ?chamber music year?. For this reason we were publishing them both in the 2006 ?Schumann Year?.

Josef Suk’s Piano Quartet (1874 1935) quickly became a standard work not least as a result of the extensive concerts given by the Bohemian Quartet in which Suk was second violinist. This is however the first scholarly-critical edition of this work. It is based largely on a revision of the first edition which contains Suk’s alterations of 1914 and appeared in 1924 on the first copy as well as on newly discovered copies of the parts. Valuable information has also been extracted from printed parts of which the original copies are now no longer extant.

Commissioned by the Primrose Piano Quartet with funding from the Scottish Arts Council Mr and Mrs J. A. Pye’s Charitable Settlement the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Hope-Scott Trust. Firstperformance by the Primrose Piano Quartet on 13th July 2008 at the Pump Room Cheltenham as part of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music.