Beethoven - String Quartet 5 [The Miro Quartet]Here's Beethoven's first foray into the String Quartet medium, and like Mozart and Haydn before him, he's issued a set of six String Quartets, and the actual works show Beethoven as trying to equal the best works of his forbears, it would only be in his next String Quartets that he would pass way beyond them into another realm.
The Miro Quartet are new to me, but they have been going for about 15 years now, they are based in the United States.
Again i bought this set, not only because i like these String Quartets, but also because the booklet image was fantastic, looks like a great pic by Faustinus Deraet, now i think it's four different photos collaged together, but really nice all the same, plus the orange theme works very well with the wood of the string instruments.
The fifth String Quartet of this set is my favourite, and i'm definitely impressed with the first movement, it has that easy going simple tunefulness which Schubert would have been proud of, the first violin has such an exuberance about the tune [0:00-0:30], it's so wonderful when the repeat of the opening comes around again [4:31-5:07], it's not complex Beethoven, and it really is the 'young' Beethoven stretching his wings, full flight would come later, but in this String Quartet i hear the first prototype of String Quartet 7 [composed roughly six years later], the Miro Quartet seem a little rigid round the edges, there isn't quite that liquidness about them yet, but they're young and they'll get better, but i enjoyed hearing this String Quartet again.
Here's the first movement being played on YouTube.
