The Beethoven Quartet was founded between 1922 and 1923 by graduates of the Moscow Conservatory

Moscow Conservatory

The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...

: violinists Dmitri Tsyganov (replaced in 1977 by Oleh Krysa

Oleh Krysa

-Early life:Oleh Krysa was born in Uchanie, now Gmina Uchanie in the Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, into a family of Ukrainian aristocrats. In 1945, as a result of the so-called Operation Vistula, Oleh's family found itself in Lviv, where he grew up and spent his school years.Although none of the...

) and Vasily Shirinsky, violist Vadim Borisovsky

Vadim Borisovsky

Vadim Vasilyevich Borisovsky was a Russian violist.Born in Moscow, Borisovsky entered Moscow Conservatory in 1917 studying the violin with Mikhail Press. A year later, on the advice of violist Vladimir Bakaleinikov, Borisovsky turned his attentions to the viola. He studied with Bakaleinikov and...

 and cellist Sergei Shirinsky. In the course of its fifty year history, the quartet performed more than six hundred works and recorded more than two hundred Russian and international classical works. In 1931 they changed their name from the Moscow Conservatory Quartet to the Beethoven Quartet.

From 1938 it collaborated closely with the composer Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....

 and premiered the majority of his string quartets. His third

String Quartet No. 3 (Shostakovich)

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 3 in F major was composed in 1946 after his Symphony No. 9 was censured by Soviet authorities. It was premiered in Moscow by the Beethoven Quartet, to whom it is dedicated, in December 1946. The work was furiously denounced due to the horrors the music...

 and fifth

String Quartet No. 5 (Shostakovich)

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 5 in B flat major was composed in autumn 1952. It was premiered in Leningrad in November 1953 by the Beethoven Quartet, to whom it is dedicated...

 quartets were dedicated to the Beethoven Quartet, while quartets numbers eleven to fourteen were individually dedicated to each of the members of the quartet.

Quartets 2-13 (see Fay, page 359) were premiered by the Quartet, as was the Piano Quintet

Piano Quintet (Shostakovich)

The Piano Quintet in G Minor, opus 57, by Dmitri Shostakovich is one of his best known chamber works. Like most piano quintets, it is written for piano and string quartet ....

 with the composer at the piano, and the second piano trio

Piano Trio No. 2 (Shostakovich)

The Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67, by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in 1944, in the midst of World War II.-Composition history:The composition was dedicated to Shostakovich's good friend, Ivan Sollertinsky, a Russian polymath and avid musician, who had recently died at age 41. The work...

 likewise with two of the Quartet's players. (Quartet 11

String Quartet No. 11 (Shostakovich)

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 11 in F minor was composed in 1966. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet and is dedicated to Vasily Shirinsky, the quartet's veteran second violin.The piece has seven movements:...

 to the memory of Vassily Shirinsky, Quartet 12

String Quartet No. 12 (Shostakovich)

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 12 in D flat major was composed in 1968. It is dedicated to Dmitry Tsyganov, the first violin of the Beethoven Quartet, which premiered the work....

 to Dmitri Tsyganov, Quartet no. 13

String Quartet No. 13 (Shostakovich)

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 13 in B flat minor was first conceived in 1969, and completed in 1970 as Shostakovich was undergoing treatment at an orthopedic clinic in Kurgan.The work consists of one movement:...

 to Vadim Borisovsky, and Quartet 14

String Quartet No. 14 (Shostakovich)

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 14 in F sharp major was composed in 1972-1973. It was dedicated to Sergei Shirinsky, the cellist of the Beethoven Quartet, the ensemble which premiered most of Shostakovich's quartets.It has three movements:...

 to Sergei Shirinsky. )

Fyodor Druzhinin

Fyodor Druzhinin

Fyodor Serafimovich Druzhinin, also Fedor, was a Russian violist, composer and music teacher.Druzhinin studied viola at the Moscow Central Music School with Nikolai Sokolov and at the Moscow Conservatory with Vadim Borisovsky . In 1957, he won first place at the All-Union Competition of...

 took over from Borisovsky in 1964, giving a runthrough of the ninth quartet

String Quartet No. 9 (Shostakovich)

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 9 in E flat major was composed in 1964 and premiered by the Beethoven Quartet. The Ninth Quartet was dedicated to his third wife, Irina Antonovna Shostakovich, a young editor whom he had married in 1962....

 with the rest of the group.

Sergei Shirinsky died during rehearsals of Shostakovich's 15th quartet

String Quartet No. 15 (Shostakovich)

The String Quartet No. 15 in E flat minor was Dmitri Shostakovich's last quartet. It was completed on 17 May 1974 and premiered in Leningrad by the Taneyev Quartet on 15 November...

.