Beethoven: String Quartet No. 9

Opus 59, No. 3 is the last of the three Rasumovsky Quartets written by Beethoven on the commission of Prince Andreas Razumovsky. The other two quartets in this series feature a specified Russian theme (Theme Russe) in the work, while this work does not. Many have looked to the second movement of the quartet as a Russian movement - with decidedly different tonal qualities than were common to Beethoven's work at the time.