UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Eybler Quartet, a period instrument ensemble based in Toronto, will perform two long-forgotten string quartets by 19th-century composer and viola virtuoso Franz Weiss at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 31, in the School of Music Recital Hall on Penn State's University Park campus. The concert, which will open with a brief look at Weiss and his quartets, also will be livestreamed at musicmedia.psu.edu/livestream.

Mark Ferraguto, associate professor of musicology at Penn State, has spent the past several years working on the first modern edition of Weiss’ opus 8 quartets.

“Like his more famous colleague Ludwig van Beethoven, Weiss dedicated these quartets to the Ukrainian-born Russian diplomat Count Andrey Razumovsky. While Beethoven's ‘Razumovsky’ Quartets have long been celebrated, Weiss’ have been all but forgotten since their last performances by the Schuppanzigh Quartet in the 1820s,” explained Ferraguto.

Ferraguto recently did an interview with Patrick Jordan, the violist of the Eybler Quartet, where he discusses how the quartets reflect the tastes of Razumovsky, their experimental nature, and the steps in making his modern edition. Read the interview here.

The concert was made possible by grants from the College of Arts and Architecture and the Maureen Carr Endowment for Music Theory and Musicology Research.