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| Afiara Quartet |
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Sunday, October 20, 2013
The State of The Late Quartets
In
most serious music circles, when one remarks of the late quartets,
one can mean but one thing; a reference to the last string quartets
by Beethoven. In fact they were the last of his completed works and
comprise a kind of last will and testament.
This post furnishes the last of a series that began with the last post on Beethoven's Op 18 string quartets, the six that began his contributions to this form. There will be one for the middle quartets as I am currently listening to them all once again. This time we're going to focus on live performances and their recordings available at this time on the internet. We're looking for the current state of excellence when it comes to playing these works. Those of us who have known these pieces a long time regard them with some sense of awe and reverence as being timeless, eternal and without peer in this genre and somehow part of that which lies nearest the very heart of everything classical music stands for or ever intends to be. Some of us who attend chamber music concerts regard many of the players as the equivalent of superstars. It is in that spirit that this post is intended and dedicated.
When one describes the “late quartets” one means those Beethoven composed after his 9th Symphony (completed in 1824). They comprise the following:
Opus 127: String Quartet No. 12 in E flat major (1825)
Opus 130: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major (1825)
Opus 131: String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor (1826)
Opus 132: String Quartet No. 15 in A minor (1825)
Opus 133: Große Fuge in B-flat major for string quartet (1826), originally the finale to Op. 130
Opus 135: String Quartet No. 16 in F major (1826)
A song, "Der Kuss," that Beethoven had written in 1822, became his Opus 128. The lively little gen of wit, Rondo à Capriccio for piano in G major ("Rage over a lost penny") became his Opus 129. But he had written it back in 1795. His Große Fuge Op. 133 was originally intended to conclude his Op. 130 but he got into a disagreement about it with his publisher and then decided to have it come out separately as Op. 133. A four hand piano arrangement of the Große Fuge became his Opus 134 (1826). See, he really believed in his work and as it turned out, to a few of us anyway, he was right; the Große Fuge is on many of our lists as a piece we would dearly love to hear played live and by a quartet too, not a string ensemble. We'll be presenting it here as the final movement of #13, Op. 130, where we think it belongs! Beethoven's last three opus numbers, 136-138 are works that were all written much earlier. So these five quartets are Beethoven's last completed works and the Finale of Op. 130, a replacement for the difficult to grasp Große Fuge, and the finale of Op. 135 are in fact his last complete works. Modern conventions for Op. 131 are to play the movements as they will be presented here, with the Große Fuge in the place originally assigned it by Beethoven, while his replacement Finale movement is seldom heard, even though it is in fact his very last work. The Talich Quartet plays it at the inserted link above.
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Quatuor
Ysaÿe
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String Quartet No. 12 in E flat major Op. 127 (1825)
1. Maestoso – Allegro
2. Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile
3. Scherzando vivace
4. Allegro
Quatuor Ysaÿe performed this piece sometime before 20 January, 2013.
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| The Brentano String Quartet |
String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major Op. 130 (1825)
1. Adagio, ma non troppo – Allegro
2. Presto
5. Cavatina. Adagio moltoespressivo
6. Große Fuge
The Brentano Quartet performed this piece at Princeton University, April 2012.
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| The American String Quartet |
String Quartet No. 14 in c sharp minor Op. 131 (1826)
1. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo
2. Allegro molto vivace
3. Allegro moderato – Adagio
4. Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile – Più mosso – Andante moderato e lusinghiero – Adagio – Allegretto – Adagio, ma non troppo e semplice – Allegretto
5. Presto
6. Adagio quasi un poco andante
7. Allegro
The American String Quartet performed this piece live at Tel Aviv Museum, January, 2013.
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| The Avalon String Quartet |
String Quartet No. 15 in a minor Opus 132 (1825)
1. Assai sostenuto – Allegro
2. Allegro ma non tanto
3. Molto Adagio – Andante – Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart. Molto adagio – Neue Kraft fühlend. Andante – Molto adagio – Andante–Molto adagio. Mit innigster Empfindung
4. Alla Marcia, assai vivace (attacca)
5. Allegro appassionato – Presto
The Avalon String Quartet performed this piece sometime before 6 June, 2012.
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| Anima Kwartet |
String Quartet No. 16 in F major Op. 135 (1826)
2. Vivace
3. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo
4. “Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß (The difficult decision).” Grave, ma non troppo tratto (Muss es sein?/Must it be?) – Allegro (Es muss sein!/It must be!) – Grave, ma non troppo tratto – Allegro
Anima Kwartet performed this piece in the Nederlandse Strijkkwartet Academie on 20 November, 2011 in Utrecht, Vrendenburg Leeuwenbergh.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Beethoven's Op. 18 String Quartets
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Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowicz
(1772–1816)
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In the 1790's in Vienna, one gained a
reputation among the cognoscenti as a composer by acquiring a
commission to write something for performance in one of their palaces
and then perhaps elsewhere. Many of the ruling class in Austria and
certain among the diplomatic corps of many adjacent countries who
were in regular attendance at the Hapsburg court were amateur or
better musicians.
On another post we said that many of
the first performances of the classical period string quartets took
place within the confines of these palaces away from the attention
(or lack of it) of the general public. Ideally suited to be played
in dedicated rooms, as one hears those of the young Beethoven as they
stack up against the creations of Mozart and Haydn, one is struck by
a number of features missing in the works of the other two.
Beethoven is always an innovator throughout these, which were
Beethoven's first six string quartets and he remains throughout
always unmistakably Beethoven.
One patron was Prince Lobkowicz who
also figured in the production of Haydn's Lobkowitz quartets. Yes,
there does seem to have been at least a genial competition between
the young man from Bonn and the ageing composer from Estahaz. These quartets are played here expertly by the now
disbanded Quartetto Italiano.
These performances are thus a kind of
musical treasure or legacy, the kind that is meant to set a standard
for future performances.
Of course these remain a certain test
of the abilities of any string quartet that attempts them. Rather
than being confined to a room where only the four musicians can hear
them, these works are better suited for performance in small concert
venues where perhaps fewer than 500 can hear them at a time. We are
placing them here that more become aware of the fact that though
Beethoven's last quartets are certainly astounding, these early works
are in their way no less remarkable and in fact they actually set
down many nuances, scenes, balances of harmonic colour, structure of
themes and phrases, etc. all of which he would carry though to their
ultimate realizations in his last works. We believe it's high time
for more to recognize the remarkable first six of Beethoven's
incomparable production in this form for what they are; works
demonstrating Beethoven's remarkable genius. As a friend remarked as
we heard them together, “why should any composer bother to try and
do any better.” Well, we all stand on the shoulders of giants in
most fields of endeavour, why should it be any different in music?
One of those giants has surely always been Ludwig van Beethoven, long
may his beloved music sound!
Monday, September 9, 2013
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Haitink Conducts Beethoven's Ninth at Tanglewood
Haitink Conducts Beethoven's Ninth
Review: BSO closes with joy and majesty
It's not often that I can acquaint my readers with a musical event that I have actually attended. In this case though, not actually the performance you might get to hear at the first link on this page, but the rehearsal the previous morning. Bernard Haitink had them just play it through, though he did stop them at the beginning of the 3rd movement for playing ... not as sweetly as he wanted.
I'd have nothing much to add to what the review in the Berkshire Eagle had to say except that my personal reaction to this concert was perhaps unique in my memory. I seriously doubt whether many have felt the same kinds of things, though I might be wrong. When it was all over, both my friend and I were utterly speechless for many minutes as we passed out from under the music shed where we'd heard the performance from good seats in the middle about 24 rows from the stage. I finally managed to say between choking sobs, (come on Burton, pull yourself together!) that had it gotten much better I might have died. My friend remarked simply that it couldn't have been done any better. Neither of us had heard things quite the way they are usually heard on every recording. We'd actually each heard this piece before live when we were in our 20's. Now in our 60's we were coming back for another hard listen and we couldn't believe how much better and deeper the music had seemed to have advanced with us.
Neither of us had fathomed the depths of tragedy and indifference to it that the first movement contained, nor how sad much of it really was. The second movement seemed to shine with many specific instrumentalists and groups of instrumentalists contributing the unique colourings of this great music. The third was literally a landscape in sound, Elysium, with the sense of depth created by layering of instrumental groups. The fourth movement literally blew us away: the epitome of this performance was clarity, on so many levels; if the music is allowed to sound at proper tempo allowing each sound, each phrase to have a chance to resonate and that without excessive affectation or vibrato, then Beethoven's messages become stunningly more modern and immediate, especially those where he is clearly against war.
Later my friend sent me a link to Leonard Bernstein's comments on Beethoven's Ninth (the third link). My own ideas concerning this work are tied up with the other work Beethoven was working on contemporaneously with this one, his Missa Solemnis Op 126. That piece too has an anti war undercurrent and is probably overdue a re acquaintance.
Finally, I leave you all with Bernstein's Beethoven's Birthday Celebration in Vienna. Despite Bernstein's critique of Beethoven as a person, one perhaps way too easy for anyone to make, he seems to have little regard for Beethoven's condition as representing the effects of child abuse by his father and of the natural affects of enduring a terrible physical disability, especially for any musician, of losing one's hearing. We can't even imagin whatever other injuries were done to him as a child that may have resulted in other physical and mental abnormalities. The issue with his nephew was actually more direct and involved the plain facts of a terribly handicapped person needing someone to help him and look after him. Yes, before state intervention and socialism, such matters were the matters of families, as probably they should begin to become once again. Am I disagreeing with Bernstein's assessment? Not really. If you had been around in Beethoven's day or in Vienna, and had encountered him, no doubt you would have been repelled. It's just that a lot of it wasn't totally his fault. We have Beethoven's often miraculous music (Fidelio, the largest subject in Bernstein's Celebration, really isn't). The ninth symphony however, has no equal in all of music.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Dvořák's New World Symphony turns 120
This year's Tanglewood Festival gave us
another opportunity to hear an old warhorse live once again. We each
remarked just how American this music really was and still is, that
is except for the trio of the third movement which is certainly
completely Czech. Sitting under 20 rows from the stage, we got to
experience all the Boston Symphony Orchestra had to deliver.
There are two versions of this piece for this post, an old favourite and a newer transcendental version. The first is by the redoubtable Cleveland Orchestra under the often inspired leadership of Georg Szell. I recall vividly how those who regarded his conducting as the best were called Szellots. Contrast that performance, along with some of the more traditional orchestral tone with the newer approach of a Munich Philharmonic under the direction of Sergiu Celibidache who certainly had far different ideas concerning tempi and the critical parts played by solo instrumentalists throughout this unique masterpiece.
This symphony written and performed in 1893 must have been written rather quickly, taking the composer no more than a few months. It's difficult for us to understand just how much “local colour” he could have managed to get within himself in such a short period of time. It would be entirely fair to credit Dvořák with incredible powers of perception. Here he was, 52 years old, across a vast ocean in a new and very different country from Europe, a vast open country that spanned a continent, full of its own natural wonders and terrors. He would be in America about 3 years, he and his family. During that time he would write without question some of his greatest works. The same would later be true of other great European composers.
Listen now, once more to this music. Those who hear it for the first time, believe me when I say it, it still speaks tremendously about much that is true, real and everlasting concerning America.
Antonín Dvořák Symphony #9 in e “From the New World” Op. 95
1. Adagio – Allegro molto
2. Largo
3. Scherzo: Molto vivace
4. Allegro con fuoco
Version 1: Cleveland Orchestra, Georg Szell
Version 2: Munich Philharmonic, Sergiu Celibidache
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