Two String Quartets, Op. 8 (“Razumovsky”)

Franz Weiss (1778–1830) is best known today for his role as the violist of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, the ensemble that first brought Beethoven's string quartets into the limelight. He was also, however, a celebrated composer in his own right, one whose “ingenious compositions, related to Beethoven'sspirit, have long received the loudest and most deserved approval both at home and abroad.” This volume features Weiss's most ambitious chamber work: a pair of string quartets dedicated to the Russian diplomat and quartet enthusiast Count Andrey Razumovsky. First published in 1814, Weiss's long-forgotten “Razumovsky” quartets are significant both as creative responses to Beethoven's quartets and as explorative forays into the “public connoisseur quartet,” a subgenre that crystallized in Vienna between 1800 and 1830.