String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130 and Great Fugue , Op. 133 bu Ludwig van Beethoven

• (G. Henle Verlag Urtext Edition)

The ending of this highly expressive work, at whose centre is the famous ôCavatina,ö was originally the ôGrand Fugue.ö Yet a contemporary critic felt that this was ôunintelligible, like Chinese.ö At the urging of the publisher Beethoven replaced it with a newly composed finale and published the ôGrand Fugueö with a new opus number. Ever since, it has often been performed separately. In order to respect the desire of modern ensembles to be able to perform the Quartet op. 130 in Beethoven's original version, the ôGrand Fugueö is included in this edition.