BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 11 in F minor (Op. 95) ’Serioso’ Score

“Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95, is his last before his late string quartets. It is commonly referred to as the “Serioso,“ stemming from his title “Quartett[o] Serioso“ at the beginning and the tempo designation for the third movement. It is one of the shortest and most compact of all the Beethoven quartets, and shares a tonality (F) with the first and last quartets Beethoven published (Op. 18, no. 1, and Op. 135). In character and key, as well as in the presence of a final frenetic section in the parallel major, it is related to another composition of Beethoven’s middle period — the overture to his incidental music for Goethe’s drama Egmont, which he was composing in the same year he was working on this quartet. The autograph manuscript for this quartet is inscribed “October 1810“, but the paper on which it appears does not match the variety Beethoven is known to have used at that time. It is more likely that he finished it several months later. It premiered in 1814 and app