Beethoven, Ludwig van: String Quartets op. 59 (Studiepartitur, urtext)

Some of Beethoven’s most enduring and unabashedly successful works stem from his so-called “Middle Period” and in the genre of chamber music the three op. 59 quartets are an excellent example.

Jonathan Del Mar’s scholarly critical edition of these quartets sets the record straight once and for all, restoring Beethoven’s articulation, dynamics and lengths of slurs just as the composer originally intended.

The interdependency of the sources and their readings are clearly laid out by Del Mar in his Critical Commentary, which also contains facsimiles pointing out ambiguities with previous editions.