String quartets for an admirer
Here you can see a corrected copy of the parts for op. 132, one of the three string quartets Beethoven dedicated to Prince Galitzin. Prince Nikolas Borissowitsch Galitzin, a Russian prince, was a great admirer of Beethoven. He had various contacts in Vienna through relations and had spent several years of his childhood there. Galitzin never actually met Beethoven, even though he always hoped to do so. They did, however, regularly write to each other from 1822 up until the composer's death. Galitzin, himself an amateur cellist, not only commissioned string quartets but also bought a subscription copy of the Missa solemnis and organized its first complete performance in St. Petersburg in April 1824. In a letter to Beethoven on 29 November 1823 he claimed to own every work which Beethoven had written for piano and every other instrument. Much to his own regret he could not play the piano, thus he arranged some of the sonatas for string quartet, so as to be able to perform them himself. Time after time Galitzin complimented Beethoven's genius and considered himself lucky to be a contemporary of the "third musical hero" (after Mozart and Haydn), whom he proclaimed the "God of melody and harmony". Nevertheless Beethoven had to chase after the money for the three string quartets right until his death - it was only paid by the Prince's son, long afterwards. (J.R.)
