Ludwig van Beethoven’s three “Rasumovsky” string quartets, composed in autumn 1806 and dedicated to the Russian ambassador to Vienna, were so boldly original that the players who first performed them believed they were the butt of a joke. Muzio Clementi, the composer and pianist who had once been described by Mozart as a “mere mechanician,” asked Beethoven if he really considered them music. “Oh, they are not for you, but for a later age,” he replied.

The story appears in Donald Grout’s classic “A History of Western Music,” and though other authors have told it with other protagonists, the theme rings true. Even Beethoven’s earliest attempts in the medium were path breaking. When challenged that some of the procedures in his earliest string quartet set violated traditional rules, his answer was, simply, “I allow them.”

Indeed, Beethoven, who brought to music new heights of freedom, impulsiveness, the mysterious, and the demonic, turned to the string quartet for his most intimate and abstract creations. Many still seem contemporary. The 16 quartets that spanned his lifetime fulfill writer E.T.A. Hoffmann’s claim that Beethoven’s music “sets in motion the lever of fear, of awe, of horror, of suffering, and awakens just that infinite longing which is the essence of romanticism.”

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will devote this entire month to Beethoven’s string quartets. The complete works will be performed in six recitals by the esteemed Takacs Quartet; there will also be a master class and four illustrated lectures by the Society’s music and education adviser, composer Bruce Adolphe. The first lecture will be presented tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. in Alice Tully Hall. The first recital will take place January 9 at 5 p.m.

The string quartet is a challenging genre for any composer, demanding that four individual voices retain their independence yet also blend into a single organism. Haydn brought the form to fruition and invested it with wit and surprise. Mozart’s contribution suggests the tenderness of the human voice. Beethoven’s vision is, typically, more manic, conveying a philosophy once expressed to me by pianist Russell Sherman, that “Artists should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” For Mr. Sherman, Beethoven, like Shakespeare, ultimately presents a redeeming message through the clash of opposite characters.

Because of the intense and distilled nature of the form, string quartets are often more emotionally engaging (and exhausting) for the players than for an audience. Roland Barthes once suggested that Beethoven’s music, by the sheer force of its ideas, grabs us by the collar and enlists us as metaphorical players. “The truth is perhaps that Beethoven’s music has in it something inaudible (something for which hearing is not the exact locality),” he wrote.

Perhaps that is why Beethoven’s music so easily gives rise to literary images. Violinist Arnold Steinhardt of the Guarneri Quartet once spoke of the exquisite Cavatina of Beethoven’s String Quartet, Op. 130 – during which the first violin seems to be wandering about in a different time frame – as “a kind of planned chaos; it’s like a man who’s suddenly lost himself in the depths of despair, who’s lost his bearings and is stumbling about, groping.”

Bruce Adolphe has conjured up images of his own. In his book “Of Mozart, Parrots, and Cherry Blossom in the Wind” (Proscenium), he compares Beethoven’s extravagant and formidable Grosse Fugue, Op. 133 – the original ending of his Op. 130 String Quartet, later replaced because it met with so much resistance – with Sam Shepard’s play “True West.” Shepard’s two brothers, one a wild outlaw, the other disciplined and conventional, engage in a struggle. Similarly, according to Mr. Adolphe, in that unprecedented, outlandish fugue, “Beethoven has consciously set form and content against each other in a contest of power.”

“Although I would never insist that a piece of music is about something else, by bringing nonmusical elements into the discussion, it becomes easier for audiences to comprehend what is happening,” he told me while we peered at his heavily marked and half eaten copy of the complete Beethoven string quartet scores (the eating was done by his pet parrot, the notorious Pollyrhythm). “So, I talk about music as a living organism, and instead of an analysis I give a diagnosis.”

The String Quartet Op. 95, Mr. Adolphe claimed, “has the perfect characteristics of a mental disability” – specifically, Tourrette’s syndrome. “It is tremendously full of contrasts and sudden change and outbursts,” he said. “I presented this to a conference of scientists, and two neurologists came up to me afterward and said that it was very provocative, and that they did understand the music better after considering it in that light.”

But to convey such a loss of control, Beethoven actually had to bring to bear enormous compositional control. “One of the things that studying these quartets is about is how Beethoven brings aspects of being human into music in ways that were not there before,” Mr. Adolphe told me. “Ironically, his control enabled him to break boundaries.”

The Takacs Quartet, which has recorded all of the Beethoven quartets on the Decca label to universal acclaim, will present the works out of chronological order. The String Quartet Op. 130 will be presented twice: on the first concert with its milder replacement ending, and on the last concert with its original ending – the Grosse Fugue. “It’s important to experience these pieces through a perspective, looking both forward and backward,” explained the Takacs’s violist, Roger Tapping.

The contrasts can be enlightening. “In the earliest quartets, he seemed to be working in a traditional way, based on what Haydn had done. Yet, you can already feel him nudging his aristocratic audience in the ribs. The middle quartets are larger, with an even greater range of expression. You feel the man moving toward a more romantic conception, seemingly in a kind of defiance of his deafness.”

Mr. Tapping pointed out another difference: the middle quartets were all commissioned. “When you get to the late ones, he went on, uncommissioned, to write with a depth of expression and freedom that has never been surpassed. For his String Quartet Op. 131, for example, he just decided to write a 40-minute piece without any breaks.”

And despite their difficulty, Mr. Tapping said, the works are perhaps even more thrilling to perform then to listen to. “They are all endlessly fascinating, and doing them is a labor of love,” he says. “There is such a span of emotions, so many rousing moments, and the slow movements – especially of the late quartets – give me shivers down my back, still. They simply don’t go stale.”

An Exhaustive Endeavor

The Takacs Quartet will perform all of Beethoven’s string quartets this month at Alice Tully Hall – and one twice. Tickets are still available, but limited, according to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

JANUARY 9, 5 P.M.
String Quartet in G major, Op. 18, No. 2
String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95, “Serioso”
String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130

JANUARY 11, 7:30 P.M.
String Quartet in F major, Op. 18, No. 1
String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 74, “Harp”
String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

JANUARY 21, 8 P.M.
String Quartet in A major, Op. 18, No. 5
String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4
String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132

JANUARY 23, 5 P.M.
String Quartet in D major, Op. 18, No. 3 S
String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2, “Razumovsky”
String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 127

JANUARY 28, 8 P.M.
String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6
String Quartet in C major, Op. 59, No. 3, “Razumovsky”
String Quartet in F major, Op. 135

JANUARY 30, 5 P.M.
String Quartet in F major, Op. 59, No. 1, “Razumovsky”
String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130
String Quartet, Op. 133, “Grosse Fuge”

Bruce Adolphe’s lectures on January 5, 12, 19 & 26 at 6:30 p.m. and a master class on January 12 at 10 a.m. will be held in the Rose Studio.

Lincoln Center, 212-875-5788