The Beethoven String Quartet Project: Op. 59, no. 2

As the necessary home confinement continues today and for the foreseeable future, I have turned to a project I intended to engage in at some point this year: listening to and reflecting upon the magnificent string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven, who was born 250 years ago. For each of the next 17 days, I hope to post a short paragraph or two on these stimulating pieces.

STRING QUARTET No. 8 in E MINOR, op. 59, no. 2
I listened to the Dover String Quartet, recorded live at the Banff International String Quartet Competition in Banff, Alberta on Sunday, September 1, 2013. It’s available on YouTube.

Allegro

Molto adagio (Si tratta questo pezzo con molto di sentimento)

Allegretto - Maggiore: Theme russe

Finale. Presto

OK, the tears have come….for many reasons. This is another off-the-charts quartet, full of invention, poignancy, mystery and grandeur. And the performance I listened to captured a brilliant live event: the finals of the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition with the exuberant and intelligent playing of the Dover Quartet. It also brought to mind the Orford String Quartet, whom I heard play this piece on more than one occasion in my youth, brilliantly led by one of my heroes, Andy Dawes. And, finally, bringing it back to the composer, this piece is an even deeper dive into the possibilities of the form and a further display of Beethoven’s inspiring compositional skills. It’s a brilliant essay on all the elements of music: melody, harmony, rhythm, form and texture, all of which combine for a profound intellectual and emotional journey in this piece.

I’ve discovered a wonderful resource for this project: the 100-page book accompanying a Beethoven quartet cycle done at Princeton University in 2016-2017. It has great program notes and articles about the history of the quartets. I was reminded of the great violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh, whom Beethoven first met shortly after he first came to Vienna. The two of them collaborated for most of Beethoven’s career and, according to John Gingerich’s article “when in 1808 Count Andrey Razumovsky asked Schuppanzigh to form a quartet and installed them with salaries and pensions as his “Kapelle,” they also became Beethoven’s personal quartet, available not only should the composer feel the need to hear a draft of a passage, but once he had finished, as his personally rehearsed representatives before his patrons and their guests.” So, my speculation yesterday about the astonishment with which his players must have greeted the op. 59 collection was not entirely accurate. They were collaborators.

This E minor quartet is the second in the collection of three that Beethoven wrote for Razumovsky, published in 1808.

The performance, by the Dover Quartet, is a great example of the energy and excitement of live performance. They are remarkably poised, all display great technique and absolutely amazing communicative skills. This filmed performance is a clinic in how chamber musicians support each other and engage in a very intimate experience. I love the small smiles that they exchange when they share thematic material or musical dialogue. I can’t say enough about this performance. I will really treasure it, and I’m envious of anyone who was in the room that night.

Movement I features two arresting opening chords that lead to a mysterious, meandering opening segment, punctuated by moments of silence. Very quickly we are led to a beautifully lyrical section mostly in G major. I’m struck by the subtle use of repetition which, in my mind, looks forward to Debussy, who routinely repeats short phrases for emphasis. This movement is full of harmonic uncertainty and displays Beethoven’s uncanny ability to pivot to distant keys on a dime. Lots of syncopation keeps us off-balance and leads us to a glorious 16th note episode. The movement is also complex rhythmically…there’s almost always a “timekeeper” keeping steady time except when he wants to stop time, as in the last section of this movement which is so tender and calm - momentarily - but leads to a crescendo and a crunchy fortissimo chord. Another crescendo leads to a final unison statement of the theme and a fading away to nothing.

The second movement comes with the instruction “treat this piece with a great deal of feeling”. The hymn-like opening sets up a heavenly atmosphere that will continue through the movement, but full of whimsical, bittersweet elements that remind the players - and us - not to take everything too seriously. It’s another very complex rhythmic and mathematical puzzle that fits together in infinite ways. I love the very short nod to the Pachelbel canon that comes twice in this movement! Beethoven uses dynamic range brilliantly and plays with our expectations in a wide variety of ways. This is music out of its time. He uses his offbeat subito forte trick near the end of the movement which leads to a poignant ending: a perfect, long E major chord, richly voiced.

Movement III is so funky! If I didn’t know better, I would say that Beethoven was a student of African drumming! The rhythmic cells of the opening theme fit together like a percussion riff, full of cross-rhythms creating the kind of prism-like effect one finds in complex drumming (or minimalist compositions). Very cool. The mood of this movement goes from mysterious to grandiose in a split second. It’s full of rich harmonies and stretches the range of the first violin to the extreme. The Maggiore section is fascinating in the way Beethoven harmonizes the Russian Theme, with great eccentricity at times. The theme is thrown around the different instruments and the accompanying material makes one’s head spin, it’s so inventive. This is the traditional spot of the “Minuet/Scherzo and Trio”, and it does follow that form, but Beethoven instructs the players to play the Maggiore section twice and the opening section three times. I could hear it many more times than that!!

The last movement puts this piece over the top. What key are we in?! It feels like C major, but then we drop to B major, leading to E minor…then, boom, we’re back in C. The rules don’t apply to Beethoven, and yet it all makes sense! There’s wonderful offbeat energy in this Rondo and the virtuosity of all the players are on display at every turn. It’s a bit like walking a tightrope at times, especially with the two-eighth/quarter fragment that is tossed around more than once: one false move and it falls apart. But it’s such fun. Beethoven includes momentary sections of repose before galloping on. The second theme of this movement is inventive and daring, as well. The buildup to the last utterance of the rondo is amazing….actually a bit like rock music, with all the instruments finally just wailing away on repeated notes before exploding into the C major theme. The “piu presto” gives a proper rocket-like end to this incredible piece.

It was such a gift to hear the Dover Quartet performance. There is so much on the line in the finals of a competition and they played with such poise, concentration and relaxation, toggling between control and wild abandon. Bravo to all of them.