String Quartet No. 3

The String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 18, No. 3, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1798 and 1800 and published in 1801, dedicated to Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz. Although it is numbered third, it was the first quartet Beethoven composed. Analysis It consists of four movements: Allegro (D major) Andante con moto (B-flat major) Allegro (D major) Presto (D major) According to Steinberg, this is "the gentlest, most consistently lyrical work [within Beethoven's Op. 18]", except for the fourth movement, in which "Beethoven first explores the idea of shifting the centre of gravity toward the end of a multimovement work".