Four Centuries of Great Music March 20, 2022 Four Centuries of the String Quartet Episode 2

Today on Four Centuries of Great music is the second show celebrating the String Quartet through the centruries and features string quartets by Mozart and Beethoven. 

We begin with the first of what are called Mozart’s Haydn Quartets, the String Quartet in G major, K387 composed in 1782-83 in Vienna and dedicated to Franz Joseph Haydn.  This quartet is in the standard four movements beginning with a spirited allegro vivace assai but does use the menuetto as the second movement rather than normally the third and this minuet has a somewhat mournful trio in G minor.  The third movement is a long slow movement in the subdominant key of C major and the quartet’s final movement is a spirited fugue.

Mozart’s String Quartet #19 in C, K465, ‘Dissonance’ is the last of the Haydn quartets’s and is probably the most popular of his quartets.  It gets its name from the extraordinary chromaticism of its slow introduction to the first movement. It’s a mature work that looks back to Haydn in the finale’s folksy melody and forward to Beethoven with the rhythmic strength of its motifs; but there’s also a deep poetic quality to its surprising harmonic twists that are uniquely Mozart.  Again in 4 movements Adagio-Allegro, Andante cantabile in F major, Menuetto, Allegro (C major, trio in C minor) and Allegro molto

Beethoven: String Quartet #9 In C, Op. 59/3, "Razumovsky #3"   Beethoven’s three Opus 59 Razumovsky Quartets revolutionized the string quartet genre, so much so, that neither the works’ first performers nor audiences knew quite what to make of them. While the string quartets of Haydn and Mozart grew out of a tradition of the divertimento – music for diversion or background listening – these quartets from Beethoven's so-called middle period are very serious affairs that command the listener's full attention and are more symphonic in their emotional range than typical chamber works of the time.

The third of this cycle Beethoven’s quartet #9 reflects upon the two Mozart quartets we heard in the first hour of today’s show.  The first movement Andante con moto – Allegro vivace  combines the slow, sombre and dissonant introduction followed by a bright allegro which is similar to what is found in Mozart's "Dissonance" Quartet, also in the key of C.  The second movement Andante con moto quasi allegretto which does not contain an explicit Russian theme like the other two Razumovsky Quartets is somewhat reminiscent of eastern European music.  The third movement returns to a playful menuetto and the final movement an Allegro molto has a fugue reminiscent of the fugue in the final movement of Mozart’s quartet #14.

We will be closing this second episode celebrating the String Quartet with a movement from Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132.    Beethoven composed his this quartet after recovery from a very serious gastrointestinal ailment during which he thought he might die.  The third movement Adagio Molto – Andante of this quartet is entitled “Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian mode" and is thought to be his prayer of salvation.  Lets close today’s second show celebration the string quartet through the centuries with with the third and fourth movements of Beethoven’s Quartet No.15 in a Minor, Opus 132.