Franz Weiss (1778–1830) is best known today for his role as the violist of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, the ensemble that first brought Beethoven’s string quartets into the limelight. He was also, however, a celebrated composer in his own right, one whose “ingenious compositions, related to Beethoven’s spirit, have long received the loudest and most deserved approval both at home and abroad.” This volume features Weiss’s most ambitious chamber work: a pair of string quartets dedicated to the Russia...