Beethoven - String Quartet no.7 in F Major, “Razumovsky 1″, op.59 no.1 (1808)
One of the many ironies that biographers like to point out in Beethoven’s life was that, while he detested the aristocracy and was taken in by a spirit of class equality, he had to depend on the aristocracy for funding. I’ve read countless stories about how he hated being asked to play piano for them at their little parlor parties. In one anecdote, during the Napoleanic wars, a French soldier was having dinner at one of Beethoven’s Viennese aristocratic patrons, and he was asked to play for him. Offended by politics and the double sided culture of war [at this time, if you were in the upper class, you were literally “above” war, you could dine and host enemy soldiers or generals if you wanted, while the soldiers and civilians suffered], Beethoven said something amazing along the lines of “You princes are all the same, and there will be hundreds of princes, but there is only one Beethoven” and he stormed out. That moment would have been cooler if he didn’t leave in the middle of a snowstorm, and had no horse, and had to walk like 3 or 5 miles to get to the nearest town. Never-the-less, he has a point where more people care about Beethoven than they care about the patrons who he dedicated his works to. Prince Razumovsky was in exile from Russia, and he spent most of his life being a Russian ambassador for various European states. While he was the ambassador of Austria, he had commissioned Beethoven to write three string quartets that incorporated Russian folk music. And unfortunately, the quartets weren’t received well. Compared to his earlier quartets [all six of them published under op.18], these were longer, larger in scope, and pushed melodic and harmonic craftsmanship. The early quartets ranged from 20 to 30 minutes in length, and the first Razumovsky Quartet is over 40 minutes long. What was an intimate genre seen as charming but with interesting counterpoint and introspection, had been blown into a symphonic one. Commenters thought they were “long and difficult”, “not very comprehensible” and even “not music”. So keep in mind; next time you see someone say “today’s music is garbage”, remind them that people didn’t even like some of Beethoven’s masterpieces when they first came out. This quartet opens with a pulse, and the cello sings the main melody. It’s atmosphere makes your ear itch, knowing that this is going to be soon expanded into something grand. The development section helps grow the sound-world, playing with new material, but does not go into the exposition repeat. We get a fugato like passage that gives the quartet a dense texture. After the repeat, we get a build up into the most intense version of the main theme, a gorgeous choral that feels so triumphant and orchestral. Then we drift away, the music feels like it’s from heaven. The second movement opens with a “drum beat” motif that’s passed around the instruments and guides us into what feels like a loose-sonata-form. The B melody is an echo of the main melody from the first movement. Passing the ball from the fun melody to more harsh jabs, we get a trio section where the themes are developed a bit over each other. The third movement comes out of quiet notes, pulling us into a funeral mood. A subtle pathos that feels far removed from the heroic spirit of the earlier movements, maybe evoking the Eroica Symphony from a few years back. It is the kind of darkened movement that only Beethoven could write, where it seems he’s writing from the darkened emotions that is universally human. There is a slightly uplifting reworking of the material to act as a B section, but it does not stray far from the pained atmosphere. Toward the end of the movement, the music picks up pace and the rhythm gets more menacing. Somehow the music can smoothly transition into the lighthearted final movement, which some consider to be out of place because it is relatively tamed and subdued. It takes the Russian folk theme and uses it as a base for light counterpoint. It’s a fun movement that keeps up the energy with several runs and key changes. In the middle of the rush, there is a subtle moment where the music comes back down to being quiet, playing a choral passage where the main theme of the first movement is whispered. And then like a Haydn joke, it sounds like horses break out from their harnesses and rush into the last bar.
Movements:
1. Allegro
2. Allegro vivace e sempre scherzando
3. Adagio molto e mesto - attaca
4. Thème Russe: Allegro
Rembrandt - Pallas Athena (1655)