Spohr: String Quartets, Opp. 29 and 45

Louis Spohr’s string quartets span his career as a composer and engage with the main trends in quartet writing of the time. There are virtuoso quartets, which are intended to showcase the first violinist; concertante quartets, which are suitable for performance in the home by amateurs; and connoisseur quartets, which show compositional skill and challenge the listener. Spohr’s quartets not only span all three categories but also frequently blend these types of quartet in ways that contemporary performers and listeners found artful and appealing. This is especially true of the quartets that Spohr composed in the middle of his career. This volume includes two such sets, each of three quartets: op. 29, composed 1813–15 (first published ca.1815); and op. 45, from 1818 (first published 1819).