LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-127)

 

BACKGROUND TO THE MIDDLE PERIOD STRING QUARTETS

 

Beethoven returned from writing his Heilingenstadt testament in 1892 resolved to face the future. His second symphony was in the making at the time but it gives no evidence of the mental torment he had been through. This brought to the end a period in his life which had not been some early apprenticeship but one of a Beethoven already accomplished as a musician, both as composer and performer.

Post Heilingenstadt was to bring about a completely new phase of a Beethoven who was an even more assured composer and whose revolutionary output was to bring about a complete change in musical sound. Mozart had died ten years before. Haydn was near the end of his creative career and died in 1809. He was still the revered master, the model for others still to emulate but it was now Beethoven who bestrode the world. Within five years he would make the eighteenth century drawing room as obsolete in much the same way as effect of the steam locomotive on the horse and carriage.

Beethoven was not to write any more string quartets between 1800 with the completion of the Opus 18’s and1806 with the three Opus 59’s, the Rasumovskys . Two further quartets follow in this middle period, the Harp, Opus 74 in 1809 and the Serioso, Opus 95.

To follow Beethoven’s development in the early part of the middle period would be better understood by listing some of his principal works, particularly the better known orchestral ones. They are not in exact chronological order of composition as opus numbers reflect the date of publication and not that of composition. and therefore I have omitted such opuses or opi (or, to satisfy our didactic crossword addicts), opera, as the two lovely violin romances which were written in the 1790’s

1800-03	Piano Concerto No 3 Op 37
1805	Symphony No 3 Op 55 (Eroica)
1805	Triple Concerto Op 56
1803/5	Fidelio (original version: Leonora)
1806	Piano Sonata Opus 57 (Waldstein)
1806	Piano Concerto No 4 Opus 58
1806	Three quartets dedicated to Count Rasumovsky Opus 59
1806	Symphony No 4 Opus 60
1806	Violin Concerto Opus 61
1806	Coriolan Overture
1807	Symphony No 5 Opus 67
1807/8	Symphony No 6 (Pastoral) Op 68
1807/8	Cello Sonata No 3 (p 69
1809	Piano Concerto No 5 Op 73 (Emperor)

 

What is immediately apparent is not just that this list contains between 1803 and 1808 four symphonies, two piano concertos, the violin and triple concertos, an opera (which under its original title of Leonora turned out to be a failure and was rewritten as Fidelio in 1814) and several of the mighty classic sonatas but that it contains simply great iconic (and I rarely use that word) masterpieces, one after another. Bearing in mind Beethoven’s compositional methods of subjecting each idea to minute exploratory dissection – Matthew has already illustrated the numerous ways Beethoven recorded in his sketchbooks just the opening phrase of the first Opus 18 quartet – and bearing in mind the length of these works compared to those of Haydn or Mozart, Beethoven would have in fact written four or five times as much as the final product in an outpouring of unstoppable creativity.

Another aspect is the change in character of these works from those of his earlier period. They are longer, more powerful, more dramatic, more fortissimo more monumental. The orchestra has grown, extra horn in the Eroica; trombones, contra bassoon and piccolo in the fifth symphony, with extra strings to balance, and it is interesting to pursue the reason for this. Is it simply because Beethoven had the sound locked up within his system and it simply was waiting to emerge? A composer has to have a suitable venue for performance of his compositions. Haydn’s London symphonies were far more powerful than their predecessors because they were played at the Hanover Square Rooms, far larger than any salon that Prince Esterhazy could provide, and with a larger orchestra recruited by Salomon. Haydn revelled in the sound it made and he continued to compose music to reflect the ambiance. Beethoven’s first two symphonies were commenced in the late 1790’s and performed in 1801 at the Theater an der Wien.  This theatre was built first in 1791 and housed the first performance of The Magic Flute. It was rebuilt in 1801 and my own theory is that Beethoven must have realized that here was somewhere to mount the performance of an orchestral style he could only have dreamed about earlier.

Beethoven had become not just a mover and shaker but an earthquake maker. The Eroica was a statement of monumental heroism with its links to the earlier ballet, Prometheus, as well as to its intended dedicatee, Napoleon, whose name Beethoven angrily erased from the title page on hearing he had declared himself emperor. The fifth symphony was a statement of personal triumph against the fate which had knocked at Beethoven’s door. It was too much for most, the work of a madman firing off his Big Bertha. Heard on period instruments it evidences its classical origins. By the way the Beethoven orchestra never contained 70 or so players. This became a later practice on which we have been all been weaned. We have learned to listen to Bach Handel and Mozart with size appropriate orchestras but with Beethoven for some reason we are forever stuck with a tradition created by the Weingartners and the Furtwanglers. On this basis why not have quartets for eight players!

Of course the world did not change overnight. There were those who, like today’s audiences, would not go in for all this modern music and were happier to stay with the likes of Dussek and Dittersdorf. Berlioz in his memoires relates taking his teacher, Le Sueur, to the first performance in Paris of Beethoven’s fifth symphony, suitably edited by Fétis, in 1823. Le Sueur’s response was that people should not write music like that and that he had to hold his hat to make sure his head was still there. To the world at large, including many other composers, Haydn was still the man at the top of the pedestal.

Another important background consideration was the changing world. Austria was largely unaffected by the French revolution but these works were written to the backdrop not only of Napoleon’s coronation but of war spreading throughout Europe. Austria had already been invaded and large parts were under French occupation. In 1806 an uneasy truce was signed and the French occupied Vienna. Maybe there is something of the blitz spirit about some of the music or conversely, as in the slow movement of the second Rasumovsky quartet, a sense of intense sorrow, of keeping the home fires burning.

In 1806 Beethoven, being in a depressed state following the failure of Leonora was invited by Count Lichnowsky to accompany him to Tropau near Gratz. When Beethoven first settled in Vienna in 1792 he had brought with him a letter from Waldstein with an introduction to Lichnowsky. The latter gave Beethoven his first accommodation and was a faithful patron. It was he who gave Beethoven an annuity which ended in 1806 after a quarrel which was never repaired. At Gratz there were French officers anxious to meet Beethoven, although Beethoven was not anxious to meet them, and when one of them asked Beethoven if he could also play the violin he got an answer back such as Nigel Kennedy might have delivered. Lichnowsky tried to repair the damage but Beethoven wrote to him, before leaving, “Prince, what you are, you are by circumstance and birth. What I am, I am through myself. Of princes there have been and will be thousands. Of Beethovens, there is only one”. Proof, if ever it were needed, that nobody was too mighty for him. The result of all this was that Beethoven who had taken with him his newly written appassionata sonata (opus 57) left in a storm, both literal and metaphorical, his manuscript smudged by the rain, and having to make his way back to Vienna.

One introduction by Lichnowsky was Count Rasumovsky who was the Tsar’s ambassador in Vienna. He was what one describes as stinking rich. He had built the most extravagant palace at Vienna, later burnt down, an example of money to burn. I was informed from a spurious source that he had taken Catherine the Great to bed. As every one else seems to have done so, it is of more exceptional interest that he had not taken Catherine the Great to bed. One tome states that his diplomacy did not match up to his love affairs with the ladies of society who were said to include the Queen of Naples. He was accomplished enough to play with the Schuppanzigh quartet and Schuppanzigh himself described him as “an enemy of the revolution but a friend of the fair sex”. The spirit of Rasumovsky lives on (for the time being) in Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Rasumovsky commissioned a set of three quartets from Beethoven with a request that each include a Russian or a Russian sounding tune. Thus for the first time since the Opus 18’s we have in 1806 the first of Beethoven’s middle period quartets. I do not intend to analyze them but one thing is certain. The three quartets taken together are about as long as the six opus eighteens. Like their orchestral fellows they sound bigger and louder. This raises a question I cannot answer, one I hope Matthew will deal with. An orchestra becomes bigger and louder by adding more instruments. Simple. With a quartet you cannot add an extra instrument without it ceasing to be a quartet. So how does he manage this effect?   This music has qualities of being attentively silent; more serious; more spiritual; more reverential. Whatever, this is Beethoven big time and sublime.

You sense a new world for the string quartet from the opening of No 1 which has a repetitive accompaniment , somewhat reminiscent of the opening of the Waldstein sonata. No 1 has been described by Robert Simpson as chamber music’s equivalent to the Eroica and he went on to describe its second movement as a dark Adagio, a kind of private funeral march as opposed to the public one in the “Eroica”.

The Russian themes are found in the last movement of No 1, not a particularly well known Russian tune as is that in the middle section of the double decker scherzo in No 2 which was used by Mussorgsky in the coronation scene in Boris Godunov.

Number three is particularly notable for its mysterious introduction which seems to owe something to the strange tonalities at the beginning of Mozart’s K465, “the Dissonance”. The lugubrious pizzicato of the slow movement is totally original.

The remaining two quartets (about which Matthew will speak a week on) are the Harp, opus 74 and the Serioso, opus 95. From those opus numbers they appear to be like distant planets out on their own. In fact they could be coming out of the same stable. Beethoven’s output did slow down from 1808 but there came the Emperor piano concerto Opus 73 in 1809, the year of Haydn’s death. The emperor by the way was not the emperor but a name said to have been given by the English piano maker, J B Cramer, to the concerto which he perceived as an emperor of concertos.  The Harp quartet immediately followed. The Serioso’s opus number is misleading. Beethoven’s seventh and eighth symphonies were composed in 1812 and first performed in 1814. Their opus numbers were respectively 92 and 93. Little wonder therefore that one would assume the Serioso, opus 95, being even later. In fact it was written in early 1810 and only published later and it makes a natural partner to the Harp but they are by no means identical twins.

The Harp commissioned by Prince Lobkowitz obtains its name from the pizzicato playing in the first movement which gave its baptiser the impression of that instrument. Its use was quite unusual for its time and, in the more popular repertory of the string quartet , we have to wait till Debussy and Ravel for pizzicato to be more greatly exploited. Its main point of interest is Beethoven’s re-employment of motifs from his 5^th symphony. The morse V abounds in the first movement and again in the scherzo. The middle section of the third movement of the fifth symphony, a rumbustious double bass and cello theme is clearly used again in the scherzo of the Harp. One feels that Beethoven must have had other ideas for these themes and could not resist using them again.

The Harp harks back to fifth symphony. The Serioso seems to look forward to a distant world not yet arrived. Beethoven’s quartets of this period could all be described as serious but the opening of this one is particularly bewildering, sounding like a firework going off in circles. It sounds like music to play in the waiting room of a psychoanalyst. It certainly could not have been played in any 18^th century surround. The serioso is the shortest of the quartets and looks towards the last quartets to be written more than ten years ahead. More of them anon.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)   – 

BACKGROUND TO THE LATE STRING QUARTETShttps://blackheath-music.co.uk

 Matthew left us last in the year 1810 with the Serioso Quartet, with its experimental sounds, looking in some future direction. Its mood possibly reflected the outbreak again of hostilities with the French in 1809 with Vienna being bombarded and Beethoven sitting in a cellar covering his ears to prevent further damage. We must never forget the surrounding circumstance affecting the artist. His rate of production had slowed (comparatively) and he was now in the late middle period which produced five great piano sonatas, the best known of which is the “Les Adieux”. In 1812/13 he was writing his seventh symphony which was first performed at a concert for soldiers wounded at the battle of Hanau. The seventh went down well with the boys and the allegretto had to be repeated. An even bigger hit was his Battle Symphony played at the same concert. In 1813 the Spanish were defeated by the English under the newly ennobled Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Vittoria. Beethoven wrote a symphony and here I have to eat my words in my last note when I mentioned the limited size of the orchestra in Beethoven’s day. The Battle Symphony was scored for a large orchestra which included contrabassoon, four horns, six trumpets, three trombones, timpani, a large percussion battery (including muskets and other artillery sound effects), and an enormous string section. It has “God Save the King” (first subject) and the French march, “Malbrouck”, which sounds like “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”. You won’t often hear it now and it is best described as “A top notcher’s rock bottom”. It was dedicated to the Prince Regent whose enthusiasm was boundless and a typical example of unchanging Royal taste.

The eighth symphony which followed was a disappointment appearing to return to what was now a bygone age particularly with its minuet of all things and seemingly small scale. 1814 also saw the opening of the Congress of Vienna and the whole world gathering there. Political participants included familiar names such as Rasumovsky and Lichnowski. Many former patrons were however to lose their power and influence and Beethoven needed to look elsewhere and further afield for commissions. The Congress formed the background for the revival of Fidelio which had been considerably overhauled and with four overtures into the bargain.

1814 to 1817 was a fairly fallow period with Beethoven in litigious dispute in adoption proceedings over his nephew, Karl. As head of the family, Beethoven had earlier objected to his brother, Carl, marrying his five month pregnant housekeeper whom Beethoven regarded as a slut, wicked and vicious. Carl however did marry her and he made a will giving both his wife and Beethoven joint custody of Karl. He then deleted reference to Beethoven and with Carl’s death bitter litigation followed. Beethoven considered the mother unfit and morally degenerate. The boy was transferred from one to the other following various appeals. By this time Beethoven was becoming impossible to deal with both in business and domestically with servants coming and going. The boy did not find it fun living with a grumpy and deaf uncle. He eventually attempted shooting himself but missed. Beethoven ultimately did win custody but the relationship was never easy and in the end Karl enlisted as a soldier. All of this resulted in almost three years loss of productive output during which time Beethoven’s physical prowess and hearing were getting worse.

One could say the third period began round about 1817 principally with the Hammerklavier sonata at which Beethoven pounded away. Yet another example of his returning to the mighty fugue. Remember Albrechsberger who instilled the discipline for this in the 1790’s? This is the great muscular Beethoven compared for instance to the last of his 32 piano sonatas, opus 111, the arietta of which is more in the spirit of the late string quartets.

By 1819 Beethoven was working on the Missa Solemnis dedicated to Archduke Rudolf. It is an enormous work written alongside the ninth symphony. His only previous mass had been the Mass in C written for Esterhazy back in 1807. This time Beethoven did not quite come out as the unchallengeable top dog. He wasn’t going to be second either. God was in pole position but Beethoven shared the front grid.

One large undertaking during the same period were the Diabelli Variations written for piano. It started with Diabelli, known as a light music composer, inviting several composers, including Beethoven, each to write a single variation on a simple theme he had composed. At first Beethoven was not at all interested but the idea got hold of him so much that he interrupted composition on his Missa Solemnis to make a start with 23 variations. He then returned to it in 1823 and wrote a further 9 variations and a coda. Why 33, such an odd number? Two explanations have been offered. One is that Bach wrote 32 variations for his Goldberg Variations and that this was Beethoven’s idea of one-upmanship. The other is that Diabelli had collected in 32 individual variations and this was Beethoven’s idea of 33-upmanship!

The ninth symphony was a project on which he worked for a number of years and the final form took a long time to bed down. It had been commissioned some years before by the Philharmonic Society in London but it did not get its first performance there. Its immense power showed that Beethoven had not lost his composing prowess but a new maturity is discernible. In addition to the clean cut sculptured phrases with which one has become so familiar there has crept in a sense of themes weaving their way round, in and through the themes and development. The first movement weaves its way through, instrument after instrument, searching a way as if exiting a maze to some goal the direction to which only Beethoven knows. Its success is illustrated by the well known account that Beethoven, at the end of the music he had hardly heard, had to be turned to face the audience in order he might witness the applause and cheering that he could not hear.

We come to the late quartets. There are five plus the Grosse Fuge.
• Opus 127: String Quartet No. 12 in E flat major (1825)
• Opus 132: String Quartet No. 15 in A minor (1825)
• Opus 130: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major (1825)
These first three (note that the published order is in a different sequence) were commissioned in 1823 by Prince Galitzkin. They continue as follows
• Opus 131: String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor (1826)
• 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)
As with the Harp and the Serioso these were all individual quartets. I find it difficult to remember which is which by opus number whereas I have no such difficulty with the symphonies. Maybe they would have been more popular had they each been accorded an individual name tag. I have been tempted to make some random comments but, as previously, I defer from giving any running commentary. There are twenty eight different movements and my descriptions will not enlighten you as will Matthew’s lecture and the music itself. Therefore, just a few thoughts.

Beethoven’s last quartets have always been presented as being difficult and abstruse. The nineteenth century continued to view them as unlistenable.

“The late string quartets of Beethoven were written by a deaf man and should be listened to by a deaf man”. (Sir Thomas Beecham)

This kind of remark was totally unacceptable as well as putting many like me in total fear of these quartets. Many of our generation revered Sir Thomas both for his interpretations and his waggery. His musicality and dedication were unquestionable but no longer so his public utterances. If he did believe his own quote then maybe he never did understand the difference between a string quartet and a lollipop.

Quartets no 12 and 13 each starts with a short introduction. Nothing necessarily unusual about that but the introductions, unlike their predecessors, form an integral part of the later development. Schubert did the same in his Unfinished Symphony composed in 1822.

Quartets 13 and 14 have respectively six and seven movements. I have noticed that some commentators have described them as suites. There is nothing, other than the precedent of Haydn, to limit a quartet to four movements. It was the convention. To add further movements, as Beethoven did with his opus 9 trios, does not put them in the same category as the Nutcracker Suite. These remain quartets where Beethoven was exploring new sounds and, where, if he needed more movements, it might just be because he had a lot more to say. These extended quartets could be likened to Mahler symphonies of eighty years later. They are, by reason of their varied nature and profundity, akin to symphonies written for string quartet!

One cannot leave without mentioning the last movement of Number 13. The original intention was that this movement would be the grosse fuge . It follows after five earlier movements which are all in much more contented mood. The grosse fuge is in sharp contrast and takes nearly a further twenty minutes. It is not a serene fugue as Bach would have written but it lets out all the pain and agony that Beethoven seems to have suffered. Beethoven’s publisher, Artaria, immediately suggested to Beethoven that it did not suit. Normally Beethoven would have gone apoplectic at such a suggestion but quite nonchalantly he substituted it with the cheerful movement we now know. This movement was to be his last composition and looks back to Haydn. There is a growing practice for some string quartets these days to re-substitute the grosse fuge instead on the basis that Beethoven’s first thoughts would comprise his pure unadulterated thinking. The grose fuge is an important work which sounds, forgive me if you do not agree, as if Beethoven had been composing it whilst undergoing Chinese acupuncture treatment which had gone wrong. My personal opinion is that it should remain to be played as a stand alone as it just does not fit with No 13. There is an orchestration of it by Otto Klemperer for string orchestra, quite interesting, but it could never have been a Beecham Lollipop. Stravinsky described the Grosse Fuge as “an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever.”

The last string quartets clearly obsessed Beethoven well beyond his initial commission in an exploration to find sounds and moods that together encompass all. They are not just some modernist or futurist experiments but they research also the past and include inspiration from the likes of Haydn, Bach and even Palestrina. If you are looking for solemnity, majesty, heroics, rustic dancing, spirituality, neo-baroque, pain, suffering, modern traditional or modal you name it – it’s all there.

During this time, Beethoven was working on a tenth symphony; had plans for a horn concerto and a sixth piano concerto and was considering an opera based on Faust. If only! His mental processes were still productive and working overtime. His physical health in contrast was failing him. He was regularly falling ill and in his last years was suffering from terminal dropsy which eventually and painfully took him on 26 March 1827. He had met Franz Schubert who had been present at the first performance of the ninth symphony and who was one of the pall bearers three days after his death when over 20,000 people turned out in tribute for the funeral procession of Beethoven. (See picture page 1)

Most composers since do not appear to have managed more than three quartets, many only managing one. The only composer approaching such a monumental output of string quartets as Beethoven produced, not to mention the symphonies and the sonatas, must be Shostakovitch (15 quartets) but few would concede that they are the equal to those of Beethoven.

Schubert Quartets 2 by LionelJLewis