Beethoven: String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130 and Große Fugue, Op. 133

Description

The ending of this highly expressive work, at whose centre is the famous "Cavatina," was originally the "Große Fugue." Yet a contemporary critic felt that this was "unintelligible, like Chinese." At the urging of the publisher Beethoven replaced it with a newly composed finale and published the "Große Fugue" with a new opus number. Ever since, it has often been performed separately. in order to respect the desire of modern ensembles to be able to perform the quartet in Beethoven's original version, Henle has included the "Große Fugue" in this edition.