“Beethoven in close-up” – part 4
A feast for all Beethoven lovers: our streaming event Beethoven in close-up celebrates the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth with the performance of all his string quartets and other chamber music for wind instruments. The recordings of the concerts from the Chamber Music Hall of the Philharmonie Berlin were broadcast in the Digital Concert Hall between 14 and 17 December 2020, around the date of Beethoven’s anniversary. Part 4 is dedicated to the late string quartets, op. 127 to op. 135.
After the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh returned to Vienna in 1823 following a seven-year stay in Russia, he jokingly wrote to Beethoven that he would visit him and they would “compose a new quartet together”. Whether Schuppanzigh actually contributed anything to the composition is questionable. However, it is certain that his return resulted in Beethoven turning to the string quartet genre again after a hiatus of over twelve years. The Russian Beethoven admirer Prince Galitzin had asked him for three quartets as early as November 1822 – the composer now dedicated himself to this request.
Beethoven’s renewed engagement with the chamber music genre developed a special momentum after the first Galitzin Quartet, op. 127 of 1824, which led to the increasing external character of the works: while opus 127 still had the traditional four movements, the quartet op. 132 is in five, op. 130 in six, and op. 131 in seven movements – listed here in the order in which they were written. Beethoven is said to have told Karl Holz, the second violinist of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, of the pieces that each is “its own kind! Art demands of us that we do not stand still. You will notice a new manner of part-writing and, thank God, less lack of imagination than before”.
Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Solène Kermarrec
© 2020 Berlin Phil Media GmbH
