Beethoven's string quartets have been baffling and enchanting academics, musicians, and listeners for almost two centuries. This in-depth guide to three of them combines the scholarship of Lewis Lockwood, one of the world's leading authorities on Beethoven, with the insights and experiences of the Juilliard String Quartet, brilliant and knowledgeable exponents of his work.

Not every quartet has access to masterclasses, but this book may be the next best thing...The included scores are marked with valuable annotations by the Juilliard members--not merely bowings but also flexibilities of tempo, kinds of bow-stroke, extra expression marks such as brillante and tempo pesante. Many problems inherent to Beethoven's style are discussed, none more debatable than his use of subito piano...On the included CD the Juilliard perform the three movements plus a preliminary version of the Opus 18. This superbly produced book is enthusiastically recommended to all musically literate readers, and is absolutely essential for quartets studying these particular works.

In each essay, Lockwood moves deftly from a broad characterization of the period when the quartet was written to detailed analysis of the movement in question...The transcribed five-way conversations will constitute, for most readers, the core of the book. The conversations reveal a mix of personalities, the wealth of experience that the participants draw on, and an absorbing attention to detail. Readers will find themselves referring often to the scores and eventually, with pleasure, to the recordings. We owe gratitude to Lewis Lockwood and the Juilliard Quartet for this fine book.