String Quartet No. 2 (Beethoven)

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox musical composition The String Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 18, No. 2 (actually his third), was written by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1798 and 1800 and published in 1801, dedicated to Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz.

It consists of four movements:

Allegro (G major)
Adagio cantabile – Allegro – Tempo I (C major)
Scherzo: Allegro (G major) - Trio (C major)
Allegro molto, quasi presto (G major)

Of the Op. 18 string quartets, this one is the most grounded in 18th-century musical tradition.Template:Sfn According to Michael Steinberg, "In German-speaking countries, the graceful curve of the first violin's opening phrase has earned the work the nickname of Template:Lang, which might be translated as 'quartet of bows and curtseys'."Template:Sfn

The nickname may have originated from one of Haydn's last string quartets written about the same time (Op. 77, No. 1, Hob. III:81; 1799), which was also known as the Komplimentier-Quartett. Haydn was Beethoven's teacher at the time, and there are similarities in style between the two quartets. They are also both in the key of G major.<ref>"The string quartets of Joseph Haydn", Banat Blog (in German), 19 April 2009. Retrieved 10 September 2011. Template:Dead link</ref>

After he finished the quartet, Beethoven was not satisfied with the second movement and wrote a replacement. Sketches of the original slow movement survive and a complete version has been reconstructed by musicologist Barry Cooper.<ref>" 'Lost' Beethoven work to be aired", BBC News, 28 September 2011, retrieved 12 October 2011.</ref> It was performed publicly, possibly for the first time, by the Danel Quartet in the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall at the Martin Harris Centre, University of Manchester, on 30 September 2011.Template:Citation needed