George Onslow

The epithet ‘French Beethoven’ remained familiar – as did the story of the hunting accident which gave the string quintet in C minor op. 38 ist nickname ‘La balle’, or the ‘Bullet’ quintet. Otherwise little was remembered of the composer George Onslow (1784-1853), whose contemporaries regularly and confidently ranked Onslow’s quartets alongside those of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Recently, ensembles such as the Mandelring Quartet and conductors such as Johannes Goritzki have recorded Onslow’s music. Viviane Niaux has published a comprehensive study of the composer’s works, and Bert Hagels and Hans-Ruprecht Bitterhof have worked on new editions of scores.

This collection of scholarly essays on aspects of Onslow’s work has ist origins in a ‘George Onslow Day’ featuring music and lectures and organised by the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy College of Music and Theatre in Leipzig.