CCXVIII. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van: String Quartet #10 in E-Flat Major, Op. 74

CCXVIII. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van (1770-1827)

String Quartet #10 in E-Flat Major, Op. 74 (1809)
1. Poco adagio -- Allegro
2. Adagio ma non troppo
3. Presto
4. Allegretto con variazioni
The Danish String Quartet
(32:29)

First Movement

Given the sobriquet Harp by the publisher, it is easy to discover the reason, as the pizzicato passages so evidently describe themselves:

The final passage of 8th-notes is extremely difficult to keep perfectly even at the correct (fast) tempo. Here, the Danes execute the feat with wonderful virtuosity.

Later, the first violin takes flight over the pedestrian accompaniment:

Second Movement

We observe -- here in the Middle Period -- a premonition of what is to come in all of the slow movements of the great Late Period quartets - a great emotional power, transcendent part-writing, and amazing attention to detail:

• a stealthy chromatic movement in the Second (red star);
• and in the viola (blue star);
• and -- with the move from A-Flat Major to Minor -- the necessity of many double-flats! (pink star)

and notice how the intensity (first line) dies down to a hush (second) ...

Third Movement

A monstrous Presto that breaks all the conventional forms of a fast third movement (the trio is repeated twice, the A section, three times!)

Scholars like to compare the opening motif to the Fifth Symphony, written in the same C Minor key a year previously:

Fifth

Opus 74

This four-note motif is gruffly shouted out -- it seems designed to crunch our souls, but suddenly the first violin soars into a beautifully delicate arpeggiated riff in D-Flat Major!

Fourth Movement

A delightful theme and variations: delightful and surprising! The one-beat pickup bar confuses the downbeat throughout and Beethoven -- using simple harmonic progressions up until the final cadence on G Major (V of vi?) ... keeps our ears prepared for any new astonishment.

The fourth and fifth variations give the viola a lovely solo turn:

Look how he moves up the pulse to 16th-notes, immediately followed by in the next variation with calm quarter-notes outlined by the first violin:

finally increasing the pulse with 1/8th-note triplets flowing into an accelerando of 16ths, ending triumphantly.

This work clearly anticipates the Late quartets, after the dry period that was to begin the next year, where his principal source of income came from British publishers of his folksong arrangements.