Four Centuries of Great Music March 27, 2022 Four Centuries of the String Quartet Episode 3

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music we return to our celebration of the String Quartet.  On this our third episode of celebrating the string quartet we are playing quartets by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn. 
We ended the last episode with two movements from Beethoven’s String Quartet # 15 Op 132.  After that quartet he wrote two more works for string quartet, the Opus 133 Grosse Fuge and the Opus 135 String Quartet #16 in F major.

Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 was written in October 1826 and was the last major work he completed.  The op. 135 quartet was premiered in March 1828, one year after Beethoven's death.
The work is on a smaller scale than the other late quartets.  It is in the standard 4 movements: Allegretto, Vivace,  Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo and the last movement  Grave, ma non troppo tratto and Allegro Under the introductory slow chords in the last movement Beethoven wrote in the manuscript "Muß es sein?" (Must it be?) to which he responds, with the faster main theme of the movement, "Es muß sein!" (It must be!). The whole movement is headed "Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß" (The Difficult Decision).

Beethoven moved us into the romantic period.  Other composers of the early romantic period were also known for their chamber music and composed some remarkable string quartets.

Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 in D minor has been called "one of the pillars of the chamber music repertoire".  It was composed in 1824, after the composer suffered a serious illness and realized that he was dying. It is named “Death and the Maiden,” after his death for the theme of the second movement, which Schubert took from a song he wrote in 1817 of the same title. The quartet was first played in 1826 in a private home, but was not published until 1831, three years after Schubert's death in November of 1828. It is in 4 movements Allegro, Andante con moto, Scherzo Allegro molto and Presto.
 
Robert Schumann’s String Quartet #1 in A minor Op. 41 #1
Robert Schumann wrote his three string quartets in June-July of 1842 during an exceptional peak of creativity and were designated his Opus 41.  These quartets formed the beginning of a six-month surge during which most of Schumann’s best chamber music saw the light. Inspired by the example of Beethoven, Schumann’s quartets display a mastery of traditional forms, combined with typically Schumannian fantasy and lyricism, particularly in the inner movements. All three were premiered as presents for Clara on her 23rd birthday, September 13.   At the first private performances the audience was enthusiastic and it was Mendelssohn’s praise in particular that occasioned Schumann to dedicate the new works to him. The composer wrote to his publisher in an appropriately confident manner: “Be assured, I have spared no pains in creating something very decent, indeed I sometimes think it is my best”.

Lets focus today on the first of these quartets, in A minor.  As the standard quartet the work is in 4 movements. In the first movement marked andante expressivo, allegro, the composer’s counterpoint work bore obvious fruit in the intense introduction to the first movement, though it was written after the main body of the movement, leads to a very curiously cheery dance with its own contrapuntal elaborations.  The second movement a Scherzo, marked Presto-intermezzo, is a spiky romp with a contrasting brief Trio section. The third movement marked adagio is an ardent love song, and the fourth movment marked presto offers a wild ride of driving rhythms and arresting sonorities.

The String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80 was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1847. It was the last major piece he completed before he died two months later on 4 November 1847. He composed the piece as an homage to his sister Fanny who had died on 14 May of that year and it bore the title “Requiem for Fanny."  The first public performance was exactly a year after his death on 4 November 1848.