Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.
Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.
Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.
Ludwig van Beethoven struggled with beginnings and endings. This creative anxiety is documented extensively in the sketchbooks that he hoarded throughout his life. Beethoven’s sketches can be read as a sort of musical diary, revealing how he returned to ideas over and over again, trying out solutions and mapping alternative possibilities until the very last moment—often after a manuscript had already been sent to a copyist, or even occasionally after publication! For instance, he drastically revised the first three of his Op 18 string quartets after they had already been presented in manuscript form to the dedicatee, Prince Lobkowitz, in the Autumn of 1799. Beethoven’s difficulty with compositional ‘full stops’ lasted until the end of his life. He famously replaced the sixth and final movement of his String Quartet in B flat major, Op 130, the monumental ‘Grosse Fuge’, with a much shorter and comparatively straight-forward movement. This new ending was the last piece that Beethoven ever wrote, and perhaps the most drastic revision of all.
While creative endings were often provisional for Beethoven, he was also acutely aware of the importance of historical beginnings. He waited until the relatively-old age of twenty-eight to write his first string quartet, a genre that had been elevated to a hallowed status in the hands of his predecessors, Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This late start did not go unnoticed in Viennese circles. Hans Georg Wegeler recounts how Beethoven was approached by Count Apponyi at a musical soirée in 1795 hosted by Prince Lichnowsky. Apponyi apparently 'asked Beethoven to compose a quartet for him for a given compensation, Beethoven not yet having written a piece in this genre'. Yet no string quartet arose from this exchange. Perhaps the stakes were too high for Beethoven at this stage in his career; Count Apponyi was, after all, the dedicatee of Haydn’s celebrated sets of string quartets, Opp 71 and 74. Or perhaps he was simply waiting for the right opportunity to make his impact. Just three years later, Beethoven responded to a commission that would place him in direct competition with his former teacher. There was certainly more than a hint of staged theatricality in Prince Lobkowitz’s simultaneous commission for two sets of six string quartets: one from the great pioneer of the genre, Papa Haydn himself, and the other from his brilliant protegé, the young Beethoven.
The theatrics did not stop there. Haydn was apparently unable to fulfil the commission, composing only two string quartets of the set, later published by Artaria in 1802 as Op 77. He also composed a third quartet around the same time, but this one remained incomplete as only two movements. Haydn allowed this fragment to be published as Op 103 in 1803, but bearing a cryptic musical incipit taken from his chorale, Der Greis. It reads: ‘Gone is all my strength, Old and Weak Am I’. That Haydn chose to publish an unfinished quartet as his last contribution to the genre is certainly provocative; and the inscription invites speculation. Is Haydn simply apologising for the incomplete status of his quartet? Or, in the context of Lobkowitz’s simultaneous commission, is there also humour at play—even a form of concession to the younger composer? In the end there was no competition. As Haydn’s career was ending, Beethoven’s Op 18 marked a new beginning: the next great composer of string quartets had entered the Viennese stage.
Viennese publisher T Mollo released Op 18 as two sets of three: first Nos 1-3 in the summer of 1801, and then some months later in October, Nos 4-6. However, Beethoven’s sketches reveal that this published order was not in fact the order of composition. The quartets were most likely composed in the following order: 3, 1, 2, 5, 4, 6. It is intriguing—and possibly reflective of Beethoven’s anxiety about beginnings—that he chose not to place his first written string quartet at the beginning of the published opus, but to position it instead as third in the set as Op 18 No 3. Beethoven knew that the beginning of his first opus of string quartets was important as a historical record, a means of securing his legacy alongside the Viennese masters, Mozart and Haydn. It is perhaps no coincidence, then, that the first movement of Op 18 No 1 is characteristically Haydn-esque with its thematic interplay and virtuosic use of motivic development across the movement. Op 18 No 5 is a more overt homage, and is clearly modelled on Mozart’s quartet in A major, K464—a quartet that Beethoven had copied out himself by hand. It was only fitting for Beethoven to reference his compositional masters in each set of Op 18, if only to show how he could surpass them.
The beginning of Op 18 was also important as a means of courting favour with a paying public. There was no better person to advise Beethoven on this than the brilliant violinist, but also savvy businessman, Ignaz Schuppanzigh—a musician with whom he would form an important and lifelong friendship. Beethoven first got to know Schuppanzigh at the musical gatherings hosted by Prince Lichnowsky at his palace. These chamber music events were not concerts in the modern sense; the listening experience was not silent and reverent, but rather thoroughly social, and likely full of lively discussion. They acted as a sort of laboratory for Beethoven to discuss ideas and take feedback from players.
It was apparently on Schuppanzigh’s advice that Beethoven placed his first quartet third in the set. Schuppanzigh’s experience of playing at such gatherings might explain why he considered Op 18 No 1 a more fitting beginning to the opus. Starting with an energetic motif played in octaves, Schuppanzigh would have known that this taut rhythmic vitality—enhanced by pregnant pauses between each entry—would cut through any extraneous chatter more immediately than the gently rising seventh and the subtle rhythmical ambiguity of the first violin’s suspensions at the beginning of Op 18 No 3. Listening ears would have surely been engaged by the forte repetition of the opening bars of No 1, ready to marvel at Beethoven’s compositional prowess as the thematic game-play with the opening motif begins: a worthy successor to Haydn indeed.
While Op 18 begins with Haydn, it ends somewhere else entirely. Beethoven saves the dramatic crux of his Op 18 right for the very end of the set, with the famous ‘La Malinconia’ forming the last movement of Op 18 No 6. It stages a sort of dialogue between two characters: one melancholic and uncertain, the other buoyant and jovial. The movement begins in 2/4 with a distant horn call, initially serene but immediately called into doubt by surprising registral leaps, dynamic plunges, and ominous rising chromatic scales. A different character soon interrupts in the form of a scherzo-like Allegretto in 3/8. The offbeat accentuation almost seems to poke fun at the melancholic character, who cannot seem to resist coming back on stage.
We have had hints of this theatrical ending in other quartets in the opus. For instance, the slow movement of Op 18 No 2 features a singing Adagio cantabile that is briefly interrupted by a faster scherzo-like Allegro in a different metre. The first movement of Op 18 No 5 also references the world of theatre, with its ‘curtain-up’ gesture in the opening bars, and multiple contrasting themes popping up in quick succession like pantomime characters. And there is nothing more theatrical than the last movement of Op 18 No 4, which ramps up its rhythmical velocity until the very end of a whirlwind Prestissimo. However, just as an ongoing ambiguity between C minor and C major is not fully resolved in the final bars of this quartet, so too are we left questioning whether the Prestissimo and major key ending of ‘La Maliconia’ is enough to entirely erase the insecurity of the melancholy theme. Beethoven certainly liked provisional endings.
On 26th August 1801, a review of Mollo’s first edition of Op 18 warned of their difficulties:
Three quartets provide full evidence of their art; yet they must be often and well played, as they are difficult and in no sense popular.
This review is an important reminder that although Beethoven’s Op 18 quartets might seem relatively ‘light’ and even ‘easy’ in comparison with his later quartets, they were considered artful and significantly challenging when they were first published. The Calidore String Quartet’s decision to release their quartet cycle in reverse order allows us to chart nascent trends towards theatricality and end-orientated drama in Op 18 that would be consolidated in Op 59 just a few years later—connections that their labels ‘early’ and ‘middle’ can lead us to overlook. And of course, reaching the beginning of his quartet career at the end of their cycle is fittingly Beethovenian. After all, in the words of Eliot, 'What we call the beginning is often the end; And to make an end is to make a beginning.'
Rachel Stroud © 2025
Though the Op 18’s are often most quartet players’ first foray into Beethoven’s music, they are by no means the easiest. Their transparency, elegance and robust shifts of character demand the most exacting levels of execution, poise and feeling. In Op 18 Nº 6 performers face the daringly intricate rhythmic interplay of the scherzo and in the very next movement, must grapple with the tectonic emotional shifts of the last movement’s revolutionary 'La Melanconia'. Other thrilling conclusions, such as the finales of Nos 1 and 4 make technical demands equal to anything in his later work (or that of many other composers), while the wistful melodies of Nos 3 and 5 call on their interpreters to find a just proportion of subtlety and dynamism. Beethoven demonstrates the full powers of his imagination and depth of his feeling throughout these six works.
The Op 18 quartets lay the foundation of the entire cycle, which collectively evokes the enduring relevance of Beethoven’s humanistic perspective. He was an artist who aimed to compose not for one portion of society, but rather to unite through our fundamental elements. His music’s immediacy is not contingent upon the century we live in, the country we come from, the generation we belong to, the beliefs we align with or other factors that may divide us. Beethoven’s quartets appeal to the emotional experiences we share in common as human beings, which are far more substantial than what may divide us. For these great works came to fruition through Beethoven’s courage to face, endure and overcome his life’s challenges.
In this spirit, our project came together in a very 'Beethovenian' way. The forced separation during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, made us dream of ways to immerse ourselves once more in our craft and to share our music with audiences around the globe. Recording was a dream we all shared from our very inception as a quartet. And this difficult period opened the door for the possibility to make it a reality. We are grateful to the University of Delaware—where we serve as professors and Distinguished String Quartet in Residence—for providing us with the use of the magnificent Gore Recital Hall for the six recording sessions. We were also fortunate to be introduced to the legendary producer Judith Sherman, an artist whose passion for these works and uncompromising standards have made her the perfect partner in chronicling our interpretations of Beethoven.
Now, finding ourselves at the end of this endeavor, the contents of this recording project serve as a snapshot of our fourteen years of working, growing, listening and collaborating with one another. Our interpretation speaks to the influences of our teachers and the great traditions associated with this repertoire, but also to that of our own generation, contemporary research, style and experience. Though this music speaks in a language that is hundreds of years old, its message remains immediate, relevant and comforting to listeners of today and of generations to come even, and especially, in the most challenging of times.
Calidore String Quartet © 2025