Program Notes

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
String Quartet no. 11 in F Minor, Op. 95 (1810)
Performance time: 22’

Ludwig van Beethoven

In 1810-11, Illinois’s population was 12,282, slightly less than Salem, MA (no city of Chicago yet) Nicolas Appert in France invents food canning process for Napoleon’s army; Jane Austen anonymously publishes Sense and Sensibility.

Though Beethoven planned to follow the Opus 74 of 1809 with a least one other quartet to form a set (sketches for a never-written C Major quartet exist), life, full of publishers and business as usual, got in his way, and it wasn’t until more than a year later, in 1810, that he settled down seriously to write his next quartet, the Opus 95 in F minor, a piece which stands all on its own within the Beethoven Quartet Cycle.

The Opus 95 quartet, subtitled “Serioso,” is one of the best known of all Beethoven’s quartets, and truly it encapsulates the stereotyped personality of his middle-aged years that we most associate with the composer today. Terse (it is one of the shortest quartets), shocking, angry, unpredictable, impetuous, and dramatic are all words that could describe the wild-haired man himself as well as this music. Gone is the tender dream world of Opus 74; in its place is taut raw emotion. Each movement is very short, almost compressed — so much coming through in such very little time. The drama of the first movement, the mystic song of the second, the heroic anger of the third and the pleading anxiety of the last all whirl by at breakneck speed. The fact that the last movement ends with some of the swiftest and most exhilarating music ever written for quartet seems in seconds to whisk the listener off his feet and into the air in a way only the middle-aged Master could accomplish.

Beethoven was clear in his letters that Opus 95 was “written for a small circle of connoisseurs, and never meant to be heard by the general public.” Indeed, though complete, Beethoven did not even pursue publishing the work until several years later in 1816. Nonetheless, because of its special intensity, unique emotional moments, and its brevity, it has become one of his most popular string quartets with audiences today. And it is always an exhilarating ride for us onstage!

John Largess, violist with the Miró Quartet, recommends the following performances of this Beethoven quartet, movement by movement:

I. Allegro con brio, https://youtu.be/7T34f2gFo58, by the Alban Berg Quartet (click here for more on the Alban Berg Qtt);

II. Allegretto ma non troppo, https://youtu.be/4WWUgtG00hY
starting at 4’40”, by the Budapest Quartet (click here for more on the Budapest Quartet);

III. Allegro assai vivace ma serioso https://youtu.be/4WWUgtG00hY starting at 11’40”, by the Budapest Quartet;

IV. Larghetto espressivo; Allegretto agitato; Allegro;
https://youtu.be/6qId6p0eilc, by the Miró Quartet themelves.

Program notes by John Largess, Miró Quartet

Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet no. 12 in E-flat Major, Op. 127 (1825)
Performance time: 39’

String Quartet no. 12, op. 127, Maestoso (first movement) sketch

In 1825, The Erie Canal opens, running from Albany, New York to Lake Erie. Scottish factory owner Robert Owen founds New Harmony, Indiana utopian community; Washington Irving publishes The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

During the period between composing the “Archduke” piano trio in 1811 and until the early 1820’s, Beethoven produced few major works. He suffered from poor health, and starting in 1816, his developing deafness was complete. Difficulties with his guardianship of his nephew Carl and also a multitude of financial issues severely plagued him. Then, in 1822 Beethoven was approached to write three string quartets by Prince Nikolai Galitzin, a Russian nobleman and amateur cellist. These three quartets and two more were written in the two and a half years between May 1824 and November 1826 (just four months before Beethoven’s death). These five string quartets, plus the Grosse Fuga (a single movement work for string quartet), known as the Late Quartets, were his final compositions, and are considered his crowning achievement. To quote critic Lucy Miller Murray, “how this music emerged from a time so fraught with illness and despair is one of its ultimate mysteries, explained only by the sheer force of genius—a genius that itself remains inexplicable. These quartets represent a culmination of greatness that defies definition, an endless source of wonder for performer, scholar and listener.”

Galitzin was mystified by Opus 127, the first quartet of this commission, because of its enormous stylistic differences from the earlier quartets he had admired. Apparently, its premiere suffered from being under-rehearsed, and critics were also puzzled by its change in style. This quartet, like the other late quartets, stands in two different tonal worlds: the Classic and the Romantic. Initially, the work promises to unfold with the coherent regularity of earlier classical compositions. But then it develops with rhythmic subtleties and harmonic ambiguities that obscure the classical clarity of its underlying structure.

The opening Maestoso (see the sketch above), while ostensibly similar to other Beethoven introductions, establishes a questioning mood. These opening measures recur in the following Allegro section where they serve to stabilize the free harmonic section and lyricism of the movement as it develops. The second movement, Adagio, is a set of five variations based on two deceptively simple themes. These subtly elaborated variations move through daring and remote key modulations to achieve moments of true sublimity. The third movement, Scherzando, does not have the usual fury of many Beethoven scherzos—perhaps it points to an older and wiser Beethoven. The Finale returns to Classical-style roots, with an exploration of two folklike themes. Multiple themes are developed, some related, some entirely new. Beethoven appends a coda in a strikingly different key, meter and tempo, creating a new tonal world and rhythmic pattern, though it is based on the movement’s opening theme., and brings the work to an exhilarating conclusion.

Here is a profound and spirited performance of this work by the Quatuor Ebène, an exciting ensemble based in Paris and Berlin, and who perform primarily in Europe. They recently completed a recording project of all 16 Beethoven string quartets.

Program Notes by Louise K. Smith
With thanks to John Largess, Lucy Miller Murray,
Melvin Berger, and Nancy Monsman.