The Beethoven String Quartet Project: Op. 131
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. 14 in C# MINOR, op. 131
I listened to the Jasper String Quartet, recorded live at the Soka Performing Arts Center in Aliso Viejo, California on Sunday, November 24, 2013. It’s available on YouTube.
Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo - attacca:
Allegro molto vivace - attacca:
Allegro moderato - attacca:
Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile - attacca:
Presto - Molto poco adagio - attacca:
Adagio quasi un poco andante - attacca:
Allegro
One gets to this point in the cycle and begins running out of superlatives. Opus 131 reaches yet another level of originality and formal design, spinning out endlessly fascinating and entertaining musical material. It’s high level musical thinking on the one hand and an in-depth analysis yields one revelation after another; but, on the other hand, it’s such passionate and engaging music that has one on the edge of one’s seat wondering what’s going to happen next.
The numbering of the final quartets of Beethoven is a little out of order, in terms of the other of composition. He wrote his three quartets for the commission for Prince Galitzin in the following order: opus 127, 132 and 130. Those were finished by the end of the fall of 1825 (though the Grosse Fuge was replaced, as I wrote yesterday, by a different finale for op. 130 in the fall of 1826). Rather than being tired of the string quartet genre, Beethoven was emboldened to write two more in 1826: this piece, opus 131 and his final quartet, opus 135. William Kinderman explains the unique, linked structure of opus 131 brilliantly: “The Quartet in C# minor is perhaps the most fully realized of all Beethoven’s intrinsically musical narrative designs. In op. 131 he merges tendencies from some of his earlier works to forge a unique seven-movement sequence without any breaks between movements. The large-scale rhythmic continuity is only one aspect of the integrated network of relationships that holds together these seven movements, which are explicitly numbered in the score.”
Not surprisingly, Richard Wagner was enamored of this work, as were Schubert, who said “after this, what is left for us to write?” and Robert Schumann, who wrote that this pieces seems to stand “on the extreme boundary of all that has hitherto been attained by human art and imagination'“. It is a great work. Of that there can be no doubt. But it is accessible and shouldn’t stand apart on Mount Parnassus or wherever and not be approached. It communicates warmth, simplicity, pain, longing, regret, joy, triumph: all human emotions and passions.
The live performance by the Jasper String Quartet is absolutely brilliant. They communicate intimately and clearly and I must say that I was particularly struck and moved by the radiance of their second violinist Karen Kim, who seemed to be having a wonderful experience throughout the whole performance. This is string quartet playing of the highest order.
Peter Laki’s general note on op. 131 is instructive and interesting: “Free from any considerations a commission might have imposed, Beethoven moved even further away from the conventions of quartet-writing than he had done in the “Galitzin” quartets. An external sign of this is the layout in seven movements, played without a break—certainly a major departure from the norms that leaves the listener totally unable to predict the course the work will take at the next turn. But form in Beethoven is always inseparable from content, and the revolutionary structure of this quartet was made necessary by the exceptional emotional range of what Beethoven had to say.”
The opening fugue has a magnificent, tense subject and as the movement unfolds it brings to mind the Art of Fugue of Bach: pure music, full of all of the contrapuntal elements of good fugue-writing, such as augmentation, diminution, stretto, etc., but moving forward and outward in an other-worldly way. I keep coming back to Beethoven’s approach, which is - to put it simply - a combination of heaviness and light…he knows when to lighten up and draw us in. The A major section is glistening. The whole movement is a world unto itself ending with a C# octave leapthat leads to movement 2.
The C# rises by a semitone to D and the glorious octave D becomes the motive for the second movement, which comes as a total relief, lightening things up and flying along, featuring episodes that move heavenward. This is primarily happy music, celebratory, poignant, joyful. It ends somewhat haltingly, leading to a kind of recitative, short movement that bridges the D major celebration with a gorgeous, more contemplative, lengthy set of variations that make up the fourth movement.
Beautiful back and forth between the violins highlight the opening of the theme, with resonant cello pizzicato. This is simple, tender, elegant music. The variations one by one get more rhythmically active. The piu mosso section is lovely with its back and forth between violin 1 and cello. A subsequent variation begins with those two instruments and opens up into a canonic riff on a rising stepwise tetrachord. The following adagio variation is charming with its use of pizzicato. The open-string little essay is inventive and folky. The 9/4 section is inspired. There’s a glorious return of the opening theme at the end and the movement just fades away. This is clearly the heart and soul of opus 131, this set of variations.
The Presto fifth movement which follows is fun and somewhat foreboding, full of twists and turns and lovely effects. Beethoven adds some instructions, mainly to do with how the players are to feel the rhythm, such as “ritmo di quattro battute”, just meaning to “feel it in four”. His use of pizzicato in this movement is wonderful and the ponticello section near the end puts the icing on the cake. This movement displays a staggering compositional virtuosity on Beethoven’s part.
Movement six is a short, tragic adagio full of simplicity and regret with a wide dynamic range, full of subitos and crescendos. It’s compact and impactful and leads to the final movement. We’re back in C# minor and galloping forward. The second section of the opening reminds us of the theme of the first movement, which is another unifying element in this extraordinary quartet. The tender second theme in E major is a lovely contrast, but it doesn’t last long. We go on a grand tour of keys and the harmonic distance that we travel in this movement is staggering. Beethoven’s brilliant use of silence is on display here and the descending scales - which become more and more drawn out (first in 1/4s, then 1/2s then whole notes) are majestic and haunting. It’s a powerful final movement and the last section brings the piece to a sensational close with one of the greatest “tierce de picardie” moments in music (a tip of the hat to Bach?): those beautiful short final C# MAJOR chords!!
For any student of music, opus 131 is a textbook full of interest and fascination. It’s a gift to all of us from a brilliant and benevolent composer.
Larry Beckwith (Thursday, April 2, 2020)