Louis Spohr wrote 36 string quartets, more than Mozart or Beethoven, and none of them are very well known. Fortunately, all are available for listening, thanks to a complete set from Marco Polo recorded by several different groups. I’ve started listening to them in numerical order, with plans to write a little about each one. As far as I’ve been able to tell, there’s no such overview on the public Web. Probably someone has written a graduate thesis on the quartets, but I can’t find anything.

While I’m not a professional musician, I’m one of the more activate Spohr fans on the Internet, so I’m giving it a try. The scores on IMSLP and Clive Brown’s Louis Spohr: A Critical Biography have been very helpful.

This post covers the first ten quartets, published between 1807 and 1814.

Quartets 1 and 2

The first two quartets, Opus 4, Nos. 1 and 2, aren’t bad for early works. Both of their first movements show Spohr’s inclination to work a reminiscence of the first theme into the second. I particularly like the slow movement of No. 2, which has a hymn-like feeling and some nice dialogue between the first violin and the cello.

Quartet 3

The third quartet, Opus 11, is the first of the quartets to be designated “Quatuor Brillant.” It’s a showpiece for the first violin, with the other parts getting practically nothing but an accompaniment role. These quartets are sometimes referred to as chamber concertos, but the orchestra in any respectable concerto gets more to do than the supporting players here. As with most concertos, there are only three movements. Technically, the quartet shows some advances on the first two quartets; the first theme feints from D minor toward the relative major, then makes a surprise move to D-flat major before arriving for real in F.

Quartets 4 and 5

The two Opus 15 quartets (Nos. 4 and 5) were completed in 1808. Both of them show Haydn’s influence. In Opus 15, No. 1, in E-flat, the first violin dominates, but all the instruments get a significant role. The second movement has a theme which is almost a funeral march, followed by two variations and a coda. It seems there should have been more. The lively finale is called a “Rondo,” but it’s in sonata form. The development goes into A major, which is as far from E-flat as you can get, and the way it gets back to the home key is enjoyable.

Opus 15, No. 2 has only three movements. According to Clive Brown, the composer J. F. Reichardt severely criticized the slow movement, and Spohr took it out without replacing it. The scherzo is full of mischief. The main part has several Haydn-like pauses, and the trio contains a lot of third-beat accents. The finale starts with a short chorale-like introduction, and then the Allegro starts out with fugal entrances for all the instruments. Contrapuntal bits are scattered through the movement, though they seem a bit forced.

Brown writes that Spohr later regretted having published the Opus 15 quartets.

Quartet 6

When Spohr completed his sixth quartet, Opus 27, in 1812, he had a fair amount of composing experience behind him, including five violin concertos. Like Opus 4, this one is a showpiece for the first violin, but the other parts get considerably more to do this time. The slow movement has a pleasing opening melody and a contrasting, agitated middle section that jumps from E-flat major to E minor. Spohr seems in too much of a hurry to wrap it up, though. The first theme returns without a retransition, in spite of the remote key, and the restatement is shortened.

The best part of the minuet is the trio, which is effectively a Ländler. The finale in 6/8 time is lively, with two episodes in 2/4. Toward the end Spohr directs the players to speed up all the way to the finish, but the two performances I’ve heard don’t accelerate much. After what sounds like final chords comes a quiet postscript.

Quartets 7-9

The seventh quartet, Opus 29, No. 1, is the first in the sequence which I like without reservations. Written in 1814, it’s still in the 18th-century style, but it feels more confident than the earlier ones. There’s more of a sense of conversation among the instruments. All the players have to be skilled, though the first violin still gets the biggest share of the fun. The quartet is in E-flat major, but it starts out in C minor for a couple of measures. The development includes a section full of quiet suspense.

The second movement, a set of variations, is in C minor, but the theme includes a codetta in C major. Not all the variations use the codetta; Spohr probably figured it was redundant in the C major variation and the one which leads up to it. The scherzo in E-flat shows Spohr’s fondness for jumping into remote keys, as the trio is in B major. The lively finale gives all the performers a chance to show off their skills.

The highlight of the second quartet of Opus 29 (quartet No. 8), in C major, is the second movement (Adagio). The feeling is like entering a cemetery close to sunset. Everything is peaceful and natural, but you can’t shake the sense that there are ghosts lurking. The movement is mostly in the major mode, and the music doesn’t resort to clichés. The scherzo is a bit more conventionally creepy, but the finale sweeps the worries away with a cheerful showpiece for the first violin.

Quartet No. 9 in F minor, published as the third of the Opus 29 set, is less successful. The scherzo is lively and full of counterpoint, but it’s slightly marred by Spohr’s tendency to beat a motif to death. The quartet as a whole is a showpiece for the first violin, with sometimes excessive decoration, and the end of the finale feels tentative. Clive Brown writes that it was the earliest written of the three quartets and “is less satisfying as a whole than the other two quartets of the set.” (I like it when a music scholar agrees with me.)

Quartet 10

The tenth quartet, Opus 30, came not long after the Opus 29 quartets. It’s in A major and sets up a contest between the lyrical and the virtuosic. At times I want to say, “Too many notes, my dear Spohr.” The F major Adagio, for instance, opens with a very nice tune, and the disruption by fancy passages strikes me as annoying. The most interesting movement is the last one. It’s a rondo which opens with a theme in A major, marked Moderato. This theme resembles the one that opened the first movement. (It may remind you of the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.”) The secondary theme is marked Vivace and starts in A minor before finding its way through several other keys. The conflict between the two styles is most effective in this movement. The quartet nearly ends in A minor, but a Picardy third in the last chord saves the major mode.

It was four years till Spohr published another string quartet, so this makes a good breakpoint. Spohr was still headed toward his peak in 1814.