CM Notes » Emerson String Quartet
February 11, 2007
Ludwig van Beethoven 1770 - 1827
There are extraordinary interest and merit in hearing three works written by the same composer at three different stages of his life. To use the cliché, “when that composer is Beethoven”, even greater value emerges from such a choice.
In a fanciful way one could trace the trajectory of Beethoven’s life through his string quartets. By the time he reached his final years, his music was stripped of all non-essentials just as his life itself had been reduced to its core by permanent deafness, inability to find the right woman, family rancor and several very serious medical disorders.
Immediately after his death, at which time he was almost denuded of hair as close friends and hangers-on snipped off lock after lock, commentators and analysts began codifying his body of work. * This was the epoch at which the standard view of his life being divided into three periods took hold.
The first to propose it was Schlosser in 1828, followed by Fétis in 1837 and Lenz in 1852. The latter was hugely influential in his day. Each was trying to match Beethoven’s compositions to his emotional life.
We have all grown up with this idea. Some serious Beethoven scholars deplore such an over-simplified classification but its durability attests to its value as a mental shorthand when listening to his work.
Currrent scholarship suggests that if we are to continue to think of his life in epochs then a fourth one has to be added: the early composing done while he was still in Bonn. The scholar who proposes this variation also believes that each of the other three, now standard, phases should be divided into two “sub-periods”, allowing for growth within the phase. This is important. We tend to forget that initially he was best known as a star pianist and went to Vienna on the strength of it.
Beethoven spent the rest of his life in Vienna. It was the only place for a great musician to be. His growth and development coincided with striking changes in the political and social spheres. Haydn and Mozart were still considered to be servants, highly regarded and very superior, but servants nevertheless. In Beethoven’s lifetime, this attitude changed. He led the way by demanding complete artistic freedom and answered to no one.
It meant a much shakier existence, grubbing a living on one’s own without the security of a fixed salary. If he were asked to play at a party and did not feel like doing it, he simply refused and left the aristocratic audience to stew in its own juice. His reputation was such that he could get away with this, but the new freedom did not extend to his aspirations for marriage. Somehow he never managed to maintain an intimate relationship with a woman and on the one occasion he came close, the lady’s superior social status made marriage impossible.
Beethoven composed slowly with a good deal of revising and polishing. It is fortunate for us today that he used a system of notebooks in which he jotted down the initial thought and then worked on it. The original transcription of his often illegible material was done by Nottebohm. Themes and phrases for the quartets are among the many pieces found in the manuscript. The notebooks illuminate some of the stylistic changes he made, altering a grace note or adding an upbeat: something that started out as workaday and even pedestrian suddenly took off.
String Quartet in c minor, opus 18, no. 4
Beethoven wrote this quartet between 1798 and 1800. It was first performed in Vienna in 1801. He dedicated it to Prince Lobkowitz. Ignatz Schuppanzigh led the quartet in Count Lichnovsky’s salon. It was one of a set of six, all of which were first performed by the same ensemble and in the same premises. The connection with the prince was through Karl Amenda, his “house” violinist. The violinist and Beethoven became very friendly and when the first of the opus 18 series was completed he gave it to Amenda.
These quartets show mastery of the classical tradition pioneered by Haydn and polished by Mozart. Before Haydn took up the form there had been many compositions played by four string instruments but he gave it the structure which has endured to the present. The strict sonata form of the first movement provides a gravity analogous to that of a symphony.
Beethoven had taken a few lessons from Haydn but chafed at the restrictions and quickly followed his own path. He said rather cutting things about his teacher but Haydn recognized Beethoven’s enormous talent and always spoke well of him.
The first quartet in the opus 18 series is often said to be the best but number 4 has its own claims to be considered. One writer notes Beethoven was moving “towards the concerto form, an almost orchestral construction, outlined by the harmony and the cluster of secondary voices, thus allowing the first violin to dominate the scene.” Another author likens the first movement to a “mini-opera”, with the first violin seeming to be an aria over accompaniment. The strong opening uses the lower register of the first violin. There is an antiphonal quality to the movement, with the second violin replying to the first from time to time.
This quartet was one of the first occasions in which Beethoven used a scherzo. Curiously it was followed by a more conventional minuet. The scherzo took the place of a slow movement. It is in contrapuntal style but still quite light and playful.
In the minuet the second violin shows its mettle. By the rondo Beethoven has gathered speed. He plays little games with the audience. The principal themes gallop along and six times end with a fermata. As the rondo gets going for the seventh run, the audience, which has been primed for the fermata, is then tricked by the music rushing headlong toward the end.
String Quartet in e minor, opus 59 , no.2
There are three quartets in the Razumovksy set. The second one was started in 1806 and first played in Vienna in 1808. Count Razumovksy, the Russian ambassador to Austria, was devoted to music and was Beethoven’s patron for more than 20 years. He had had a exquisite treble voice as a child in Ukraine and the Tsarina Elisabet’s scouts had taken him to the court. The Tsarina promoted him and kept him close to her side throughout his career. It has even been hinted she married him in secret. He prospered mightily, even after his voice broke.
Unfortunately, the count was recalled to Moscow in financial difficulties and Beethoven never received payment for the second and third quartets while he was alive. The money reached Vienna after he had died.
Beethoven was in his “heroic” phase when he started the opus 59 quartets. The third symphony, the Waldstein sonata and “Appassionata” sonata all date from this time but he was also grappling with yet another disappointment in love. Countess Josephine von Brunsvik was widowed during their friendship but would not consent to marry him. The rigid Viennese class structure kept them apart.
The other thing that was rigid in Vienna’s musical taste was adherence to the structures and forms of the preceding generation. As Beethoven began to incorporate more emotional tension and complexity into his music the audiences complained it was “too difficult”. That was particularly true of opus 59 no. 2. Even the musicians complained.
Three out of four movements in sonata form was heavy-going for the age. Only the scherzo was exempt. The first movement contrasts dramatic opening chords with periods of silence, a very effective manoeuvre. The development grows from both this subject and the two which follow. At the end of the exposition there is a minute “mini-development”, more elaborate than a mere coda. Beethoven seems not to have been able to let go.
A rich, deep and calm melody opens the slow movement. The scherzo is restless and syncopated. Count Razumovsky had stipulated that the quartets have at least one Russian theme. Beethoven obliged him by using the hymn “Slava Bogu Ne Nebe, Slava” (”Glory to God in Heaven, Glory”). He treated it contrapuntally. Many years later Mussorgsky used the same theme in his Coronation overture and Rimsky-Korsakoff put it in Boris Godunov. Tchaikovsky called upon it in Mazeppa.
Even the rondo, typically a happy-go-lucky sort of piece has elements of sonata form. There are a development and recapitulation. A further layer of complexity comes from the reversal of keys in the first and second themes before the movement ends.
String Quartet in F major, opus 135
This quartet is one of the last works he wrote and belongs to that almost ethereal “late period”. He wrote it in 1826, one year before he died. It was first performed posthumously, in March 1828. Beethoven dedicated this quartet to Johann Wolfmayer just a few days before he died. In spite of knowing he was extremely ill Beethoven still hoped to write more music until the very end.
There was a long blank period in the composing of string quartets. He had written none since 1810. Beethoven wrote symphonies, one successful opera, sonatas, music for various other ensembles but stayed away from the fierce discipline of the quartet.
Then in 1822, he resumed doing it but ah, with what a difference. There were the quartet in E flat major, opus 127, the quartet in a minor, opus 132, the quartet in B flat major, opus 130 and finally the one in c minor to be heard today. Mere surface prettiness had been purged from his style. The various ferments in music began reaching him early and led him to search deep for what he truly wanted to say.
In spite of the undoubted truth of these observations opus 135 does not quite fit this mould. Superficially it seems to hark back to the Classical style, with what Ratner refers to as 18th century “galanteries”. The work is shorter than it companions, three movements rather than a monumental five or six. It is only on closer examination that the hand of the mature Beethoven emerges.
He turns expected harmonies on their heads, giving some phrases an archaic sound. The last movement is headed by a rueful epigraph, both written and musical. It laments the need to write the quartet at all when what he really wanted to do was write another symphony.
He was short of money and this quartet would earn him a quick fee. The question “Must I?” is indicated by a rising set of three notes. The answer, “Yes indeed I must” inverts them to a falling set. The whole movement is based on a manipulation of these themes.
ce was extremely circuitous.
Ludwig van Beethoven 1770 - 1827
There are extraordinary interest and merit in hearing three works written by the same composer at three different stages of his life. To use the cliché, “when that composer is Beethoven”, even greater value emerges from such a choice.
In a fanciful way one could trace the trajectory of Beethoven’s life through his string quartets. By the time he reached his final years, his music was stripped of all non-essentials just as his life itself had been reduced to its core by permanent deafness, inability to find the right woman, family rancor and several very serious medical disorders.
Immediately after his death, at which time he was almost denuded of hair as close friends and hangers-on snipped off lock after lock, commentators and analysts began codifying his body of work. * This was the epoch at which the standard view of his life being divided into three periods took hold.
The first to propose it was Schlosser in 1828, followed by Fétis in 1837 and Lenz in 1852. The latter was hugely influential in his day. Each was trying to match Beethoven’s compositions to his emotional life.
We have all grown up with this idea. Some serious Beethoven scholars deplore such an over-simplified classification but its durability attests to its value as a mental shorthand when listening to his work.
Currrent scholarship suggests that if we are to continue to think of his life in epochs then a fourth one has to be added: the early composing done while he was still in Bonn. The scholar who proposes this variation also believes that each of the other three, now standard, phases should be divided into two “sub-periods”, allowing for growth within the phase. This is important. We tend to forget that initially he was best known as a star pianist and went to Vienna on the strength of it.
Beethoven spent the rest of his life in Vienna. It was the only place for a great musician to be. His growth and development coincided with striking changes in the political and social spheres. Haydn and Mozart were still considered to be servants, highly regarded and very superior, but servants nevertheless. In Beethoven’s lifetime, this attitude changed. He led the way by demanding complete artistic freedom and answered to no one.
It meant a much shakier existence, grubbing a living on one’s own without the security of a fixed salary. If he were asked to play at a party and did not feel like doing it, he simply refused and left the aristocratic audience to stew in its own juice. His reputation was such that he could get away with this, but the new freedom did not extend to his aspirations for marriage. Somehow he never managed to maintain an intimate relationship with a woman and on the one occasion he came close, the lady’s superior social status made marriage impossible.
Beethoven composed slowly with a good deal of revising and polishing. It is fortunate for us today that he used a system of notebooks in which he jotted down the initial thought and then worked on it. The original transcription of his often illegible material was done by Nottebohm. Themes and phrases for the quartets are among the many pieces found in the manuscript. The notebooks illuminate some of the stylistic changes he made, altering a grace note or adding an upbeat: something that started out as workaday and even pedestrian suddenly took off.
String Quartet in c minor, opus 18, no. 4
Beethoven wrote this quartet between 1798 and 1800. It was first performed in Vienna in 1801. He dedicated it to Prince Lobkowitz. Ignatz Schuppanzigh led the quartet in Count Lichnovsky’s salon. It was one of a set of six, all of which were first performed by the same ensemble and in the same premises. The connection with the prince was through Karl Amenda, his “house” violinist. The violinist and Beethoven became very friendly and when the first of the opus 18 series was completed he gave it to Amenda.
These quartets show mastery of the classical tradition pioneered by Haydn and polished by Mozart. Before Haydn took up the form there had been many compositions played by four string instruments but he gave it the structure which has endured to the present. The strict sonata form of the first movement provides a gravity analogous to that of a symphony.
Beethoven had taken a few lessons from Haydn but chafed at the restrictions and quickly followed his own path. He said rather cutting things about his teacher but Haydn recognized Beethoven’s enormous talent and always spoke well of him.
The first quartet in the opus 18 series is often said to be the best but number 4 has its own claims to be considered. One writer notes Beethoven was moving “towards the concerto form, an almost orchestral construction, outlined by the harmony and the cluster of secondary voices, thus allowing the first violin to dominate the scene.” Another author likens the first movement to a “mini-opera”, with the first violin seeming to be an aria over accompaniment. The strong opening uses the lower register of the first violin. There is an antiphonal quality to the movement, with the second violin replying to the first from time to time.
This quartet was one of the first occasions in which Beethoven used a scherzo. Curiously it was followed by a more conventional minuet. The scherzo took the place of a slow movement. It is in contrapuntal style but still quite light and playful.
In the minuet the second violin shows its mettle. By the rondo Beethoven has gathered speed. He plays little games with the audience. The principal themes gallop along and six times end with a fermata. As the rondo gets going for the seventh run, the audience, which has been primed for the fermata, is then tricked by the music rushing headlong toward the end.
String Quartet in e minor, opus 59 , no.2
There are three quartets in the Razumovksy set. The second one was started in 1806 and first played in Vienna in 1808. Count Razumovksy, the Russian ambassador to Austria, was devoted to music and was Beethoven’s patron for more than 20 years. He had had a exquisite treble voice as a child in Ukraine and the Tsarina Elisabet’s scouts had taken him to the court. The Tsarina promoted him and kept him close to her side throughout his career. It has even been hinted she married him in secret. He prospered mightily, even after his voice broke.
Unfortunately, the count was recalled to Moscow in financial difficulties and Beethoven never received payment for the second and third quartets while he was alive. The money reached Vienna after he had died.
Beethoven was in his “heroic” phase when he started the opus 59 quartets. The third symphony, the Waldstein sonata and “Appassionata” sonata all date from this time but he was also grappling with yet another disappointment in love. Countess Josephine von Brunsvik was widowed during their friendship but would not consent to marry him. The rigid Viennese class structure kept them apart.
The other thing that was rigid in Vienna’s musical taste was adherence to the structures and forms of the preceding generation. As Beethoven began to incorporate more emotional tension and complexity into his music the audiences complained it was “too difficult”. That was particularly true of opus 59 no. 2. Even the musicians complained.
Three out of four movements in sonata form was heavy-going for the age. Only the scherzo was exempt. The first movement contrasts dramatic opening chords with periods of silence, a very effective manoeuvre. The development grows from both this subject and the two which follow. At the end of the exposition there is a minute “mini-development”, more elaborate than a mere coda. Beethoven seems not to have been able to let go.
A rich, deep and calm melody opens the slow movement. The scherzo is restless and syncopated. Count Razumovsky had stipulated that the quartets have at least one Russian theme. Beethoven obliged him by using the hymn “Slava Bogu Ne Nebe, Slava” (”Glory to God in Heaven, Glory”). He treated it contrapuntally. Many years later Mussorgsky used the same theme in his Coronation overture and Rimsky-Korsakoff put it in Boris Godunov. Tchaikovsky called upon it in Mazeppa.
Even the rondo, typically a happy-go-lucky sort of piece has elements of sonata form. There are a development and recapitulation. A further layer of complexity comes from the reversal of keys in the first and second themes before the movement ends.
String Quartet in F major, opus 135
This quartet is one of the last works he wrote and belongs to that almost ethereal “late period”. He wrote it in 1826, one year before he died. It was first performed posthumously, in March 1828. Beethoven dedicated this quartet to Johann Wolfmayer just a few days before he died. In spite of knowing he was extremely ill Beethoven still hoped to write more music until the very end.
There was a long blank period in the composing of string quartets. He had written none since 1810. Beethoven wrote symphonies, one successful opera, sonatas, music for various other ensembles but stayed away from the fierce discipline of the quartet.
Then in 1822, he resumed doing it but ah, with what a difference. There were the quartet in E flat major, opus 127, the quartet in a minor, opus 132, the quartet in B flat major, opus 130 and finally the one in c minor to be heard today. Mere surface prettiness had been purged from his style. The various ferments in music began reaching him early and led him to search deep for what he truly wanted to say.
In spite of the undoubted truth of these observations opus 135 does not quite fit this mould. Superficially it seems to hark back to the Classical style, with what Ratner refers to as 18th century “galanteries”. The work is shorter than it companions, three movements rather than a monumental five or six. It is only on closer examination that the hand of the mature Beethoven emerges.
He turns expected harmonies on their heads, giving some phrases an archaic sound. The last movement is headed by a rueful epigraph, both written and musical. It laments the need to write the quartet at all when what he really wanted to do was write another symphony.
He was short of money and this quartet would earn him a quick fee. The question “Must I?” is indicated by a rising set of three notes. The answer, “Yes indeed I must” inverts them to a falling set. The whole movement is based on a manipulation of these themes.
ce was extremely circuitous.
