Together with his symphonies and piano sonatas, Ludwig van Beethoven’s sixteen string quartets represent one of the main pillars of his oeuvre. They are unique in the context of the entire quartet literature for their musical language, their enormous degree of invention and their demands on the performers. Tonight we will hear String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2, from the composer’s middle creative period, and String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 130, written at the end of his life. This quartet has two final movements; the original finale was published separately as Grosse Fuge, Op. 133.
String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 is one of the three quartets which Beethoven composed between 1806 and 1807. Six years had passed since his last work in this field (namely a series of six quartets presented under Op. No. 18), and in the meantime the composer had undergone considerable development in music and thought, creating compositions such as Symphony No. 3 in E flat major “Eroica” and the opera Fidelio. For several years Beethoven had been affected by disabling hearing loss, which was a severe blow forcing him to withdraw more and more from society. All three quartets have a symphonic character and their style and musical language has already departed completely from the quartet music of the 18th century. While most of the previous quartet literature could be played by skilled amateur musicians, with the three quartets, Op. 59, Beethoven has begun an era when the performance required the highest level of mastery.
The introductory movement begins abruptly with two chords (minor and major) followed by a pause. The pianissimo slowly evolves into a theme, but the key changes and the swinging in the sixteenth notes create tension. The contrasting Molto adagio in E major provides the desired reassurance and is undoubtedly one of Beethoven’s most beautiful slow movements ever. According to Carl Czerny, Beethoven’s pupil and friend, Beethoven got the inspiration to write the second movement of the quartet when he contemplated the starry sky and thought of the music of the spheres. It gives the impression of an endless melody that seems to pay tribute to the infinity of the universe and the beauty of nature. The trio of the following movement uses a theme of a Russian folk song. This was a friendly gesture towards the commissioner of the work, Count Rasumovsky, the Russian ambassador to the Viennese court, in whose palace the quartet was premiered. (However, the composer made some mischief to the original lofty theme.) The whole piece concludes with a dance-like light rondo.
Beethoven’s late string quartets form a world of their own. The composer was so ahead of his time that they remained misunderstood and unappreciated by the majority of the musical public for a long time. They were composed between 1824 and 1826, i.e., after his Ninth Symphony. For Beethoven, the string quartets together with his piano sonatas were the means by which he could express his intimate feelings, giving us a glimpse into his innermost world. Compared to the other quartet literature of the time, Beethoven’s late string quartets made much higher demands on the attention and musical maturity of listeners and their polyphonic nature made them difficult to access as well.
