![]() Whatever the cause, while Beethoven received a commission to write his first set of six quartets in 1795, he did not start working on them for three years. As late as July 1801, his 31st year, he wrote to a friend that he had “just learned how to write quartets properly.” ![]() More likely, he sensed the strong appeal of the symphony and quartet to his creative powers but was reluctant to attempt them until he felt technically and emotionally ready. He was not a man to be awed into inactivity by the achievements of his predecessors. ![]() Nor was Beethoven suffering from a lack of self-confidence. Since Beethoven frequented Haydn’s circle and even took lessons from him, the forms were readily available for his use. Over a 35-year period, Haydn had brought both the symphony and quartet forms to perfection, and Mozart had eagerly used them as models for his own masterworks. In the 1790s, when Beethoven was a rising composer in Vienna, Haydn was in the culminating years of his career. The reason for Beethoven’s hesitancy was certainly not a lack of opportunity. By that time, he had already written two piano concertos, a ballet, two cantatas, three sets of orchestral dances, 14 piano sonatas, and 40 other chamber works. Although he had never been shy about trying his hand at other kinds of composition, he did not complete his first symphony and his first quartet until he was 30. When it came to the symphony and the string quartet - two forms that he was to master uniquely - Beethoven was a late bloomer.
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