Notes for: July 16, 2013
When it came to the symphony and the string quartet - two forms that he was to master uniquely - Beethoven was a late bloomer. Although he had never been shy about trying his hand at other kinds of composition, he did not complete his first symphony and his first quartet until he was 30. By that time, he had already written two piano concertos, a ballet, two cantatas, three sets of orchestral dances, 14 piano sonatas, and 40 other chamber works.
The reason for Beethoven’s hesitancy was certainly not a lack of opportunity. In the 1790s, when Beethoven was a rising composer in Vienna, Haydn was in the culminating years of his career. Over a 35-year period, Haydn had brought both the symphony and quartet forms to perfection, and Mozart had eagerly used them as models for his own masterworks. Since Beethoven frequented Haydn’s circle and even took lessons from him, the forms were readily available for his use.
Nor was Beethoven suffering from a lack of self-confidence. He was not a man to be awed into inactivity by the achievements of his predecessors. More likely, he sensed the strong appeal of the symphony and quartet to his creative powers but was reluctant to attempt them until he felt technically and emotionally ready. As late as July 1801, his 31st year, he wrote to a friend that he had “just learned how to write quartets properly.”
Whatever the cause, while Beethoven received a commission to write his first set of six quartets in 1795, he did not start working on them for three years. His notebooks indicate, moreover, that he made even this belated breakthrough with considerable difficulty. He worked on several of the quartets concurrently, switching from one to another and back again, as he ran into mental blocks and, in some cases, rewriting entire movements. Finally, prodded by his friends, he completed the quartets in 1800, and they were published the following year as Opus 18.
The conventional comment about the six quartets is that they are still in the classical mold of the 18th century, with an emphasis on form and balance rather than on strong or original statement. However, as formative as they are, each of the quartets anticipates in some way the restless genius that was to emerge with the “Eroica” Symphony only four years later.
In the sixth quartet of the series, the giant’s approaching footsteps are heard primarily in the last two movements. In the elegant and gracious first movement, Beethoven’s originality is noticeable mainly in the highly charged first theme and the expansive transitional measures leading from the development back into the recapitulation. The reserved Adagio is also backward looking, with Beethoven’s imprint heard mainly in the middle section introduced by a thin line played in octaves by the first violin and the cello.
In the third movement, however, Beethoven departs from Haydn’s model by replacing the conventional formal minuet with a more unbuttoned scherzo. While Haydn had used the term “scherzo” in his quartets as early as 1781, those movements did not differ greatly from his minuets. Beethoven began to write true scherzos – faster, more playful and more boisterous – in the early 1790s, and he used scherzos in four of his six Opus 18 quartets. Following that example, scherzos became standard in subsequent quartets by Beethoven and other composers. In this case, the scherzo is seasoned by misplaced accents and cross rhythms, also to become Beethoven trademarks.
The fourth movement is again pure Beethoven in its sharply contrasting moods. It opens with an adagio entitled “La Malinconia” or “Melancholy” and with the direction: “This part must be played with the greatest delicacy.” The music consists of a pianissimo phrase repeated several times and leading to chains of dark modulations. The texture is punctuated by a three-note turn inserted before a longer note.
Eventually, the suspense is broken by the main part of the movement, which is in the style of a German dance. Twice, the suspenseful opening strain interrupts the flow, but the dance wins out, and the quartet ends in a burst of speed.