Beethoven 2020

with the Vega Quartet

Audio: Excerpt from Beethoven’s Quartet in F, Op. 59 No. 1 by the Vega Quartet. Click HERE to learn more about this recording.

“What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.” - Ludwig van Beethoven in a letter to Prince Karl Lichnowsky, 1806

While the string quartet repertoire has a wealth of repertoire from many different composers, we always return to Ludwig van Beethoven. His 16 string quartets, spanning as they do not only Beethoven’s entire compositional life but also the breadth of the human experience, are a major focus of our Quartet. It is no coincidence that our Quartet motto is “in Beethoven we trust!”

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, we will perform his complete works for quartet at Emory University over the course of 2020.

While 2020 seems far off, in the context of preparing a Beethoven cycle it is all too soon! Our first task is to divide the 16 quartets into 6 concerts, each of which must be a balanced self-contained event as well as a logical part of the entire cycle. These decisions will then guide our preparation as we dive deep into this incredible body of work.

Cheers,

The Vega Quartet