Louis Spohr (1784-1859)

The Complete String Quintets, Volume 1

Louis Spohr was accepted during his lifetime as one of the most important composers of early German Romanticism whose career encompassed the period from Beethoven’s first string quartets to Wagner’s Tristan and whose compositions covered all the major genres of that era. Today’s revival of interest in Spohr was originally fuelled by the chamber music, especially the Nonet in F major, Op. 31, Octet in E major, Op. 32 and Piano and Wind Quintet in C minor, Op. 52. It was, however, music for strings which dominated Spohr’s chamber output, 36 quartets, seven quintets, a sextet and four double-quartets. Spohr was involved in chamber music all his life; some violin duos composed in 1796 when he was a twelve-year-old in Brunswick still survive and his last completed large-scale work was his 36th string quartet dating from the summer of 1857. From the time of his appointment as Kapellmeister in