The Beethoven String Quartet Project: Op. 74

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. 10 in Eb MAJOR, op. 74 “Harp”
I listened to the Danish String Quartet, recorded live at the Festival Wissembourg on Saturday, September 6, 2014. It’s available on YouTube.

Poco Adagio - Allegro

Adagio ma non troppo

Presto - Piu presto quasi prestissimo

Allegretto con Variazioni

We move along in the journey today with this important quartet that Beethoven wrote in late summer/early fall of 1809 during a particularly and intensely emotional period in his personal and professional life. Peter Laki of Princeton University explains that Beethoven was “madly in love with Therese Malfatti, to whom he would soon propose marriage, only to be turned down. Haydn had died earlier that year, a few weeks after Napoleon’s troops invaded Vienna. These were turbulent times indeed, even if Beethoven had just entered a lucrative agreement with the Archduke Rudolph and the Princes Kinsky and Lobkowitz, in terms of which he would receive from them an annual sum that would guarantee him a comfortable life for the next few years. The quartet was dedicated in gratitude to Lobkowitz, who had received the dedication of the Op. 18 quartets a decade earlier.” It was nicknamed the “harp” quartet by Beethoven’s publisher because of the evocative pizzicato figures in the first movement. This work is one of three that Beethoven wrote in Eb major in 1809, the other two being the “Les Adieux” piano sonata and the “Emperor” piano concerto.

I appreciated very much the assured playing of the Danish String Quartet whose presentation is very “cool” and subtle, with a great variety of string sounds and textures. It has all the immediacy and risk-taking of a live performance combined with a certain reserve that fits the piece very well.

The first movement begins with warmth and an immediate flat-7 Db but opens up into a very emotional slow introduction punctuated by a few jarring short forte chords. The harmonies are other-worldly and lead us to the main body of the movement: a wistful, but exciting Allegro whose exposition ends with an attention-grabbing homo-rhythmic passage. In this movement, I was struck by Beethoven’s sense of emotional balance: he knows when to lay on the heaviness and when to lighten right up and that confident juxtaposition is a real hallmark of all of his writing for string quartet. There’s a furioso development section which fades into a harp-like episode that exists really on the edges of tonality, introducing some really far-out chords and harmonies brilliant leading us back to the safety of Eb major and the recap. This movement has an extraordinary coda that briefly introduces a second development section (a la Fifth Symphony first movement) before the first violin goes absolutely crazy in a wild race to a magnificent ending.

The second movement is a tender Adagio in Ab major that is heartfelt and sincere all the way through. I have to say that it’s a bit of a relief that Beethoven doesn’t go to extremes here, but stays within the realm of the home key, travelling through a lovely cantabile section with 16th note triplets, a beautiful section with 32nd notes with the theme passed hither and yon between the instruments. There is endless invention throughout leading to a rich, close harmony section near the end, a hint of Ab minor just before the end before settling into the final, gentle, warm cadence in the home key.

The C minor third movement is sensational and a wild ride, with great use of dynamics and repetition. It’s logical and economical and it goes like the wind. There’s a curious “trio” in 3/4 but Beethoven instructs the players that they “must imagine the beat in 6/8”. This section must go faster than the Presto. There’s a da capo and then the “trio” is repeated yet again, reaching a hair-raising climax before the final da capo leads to a coda that stays very quiet for a very long time and brilliantly leads directly into the final movement.

The last movement begins with a simple, chromatic, repetitive theme that leads to six variations. The first is a jaunty staccato, the second is led by the viola with a dolce feel. The quirky third variation features off-beat 8ths in the violin 1 and viola punctuating running 16ths in the violin 2 and cello. The fourth variation is simple and poignant and introduces subtle new harmonies leading to a stentorian fifth movement with the first violin taking the lead. The great last variation features a fascinating 3 against 2 rhythm with the dynamic remaining soft all the way through, giving the effect of whispering lines. This leads to an extended coda with the tempo accelerating to a thrilling unison 16th note passage and a fortissimo third-last chord followed by two quiet chords to end.

There’s an unbearable lightness of being to this quartet. The writing is original and challenging, yet not overpowering. It’s another stand-alone gem like no other.