CCCLII. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van: String Quartet #13 in B-Flat Major, Op. 130

CCCLII. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van (1770-1827)

String Quartet #13 in B-Flat Major, Op. 130 (1826)
1. Adagio, ma non troppo -- Allegro
2. Presto
3. Andante con moto, ma non troppo. Poco scherzoso
4. Alla danza tedesca. Allegro assai
5. Cavatina. Adagio molto espressivo
6. Finale: Allegro
Alban Berg Quartett
(38:49)

Beethoven always had a stormy relationship with his publishers. Artaria was no exception; an argument over the String Quintet, Op. 29 had to be settled in court.

Nevertheless, they obviously kissed and made up, as Artaria published the Hammerklavier piano sonata (see Post CCV] as well as this quartet.

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Beethoven struggled to finish Op. 130 for many, many months. He had already written the first five movements, when he embarked upon a finale that he probably felt was meant to be the Finale of all time!

He had always wanted to compose a work utilizing Bach's initials (B-Flat, A, C and B-Natural in German musical nomenclature) ... but eventually decided against this in favor of a similar fugue subject:

Compare the BACH motif:

with the ultimate fugue subject Beethoven settled upon:

The public reception to this quartet was astonishing (combined with astonishment).

But -- unlike the Ninth Symphony (see Post C) -- there was no hint of what was to come after the earlier movements. The audience was befuddled by the massive double fugue (see Post CXLIV -- the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133) and two events occurred which would convince Beethoven to replace this Finale with a new one:

1. First, Artaria asked Beethoven to publish a four-hand version for piano, which LvB agreed to, but handed off the task to one Anton Halm. The results were unsatisfactory as far as Beethoven was concerned (he didn't like the way Halm had divided the parts), so he did it himself -- for a new fee; and
2. Secondly, Beethoven quickly agreed with Artaria's request to provide a new Finale for this work -- and took another fee for the publication of Op. 133 as a separate work -- and wrote a new finale that turned out to be his very last fully completed composition before his death.

Why a lot of quartets today insist on playing Op. 130 with the Grosse Fuge as the Finale bewilders me. I can only imagine that they don't know this history, or choose to ignore it.

So for all these reasons, I have chosen a quartet who uses the movement that Beethoven wrote to replace Op. 133.

**

First Movement

Slow -- Fast -- Slow -- Fast:

a dactyl skipping rhythm:

an intense, accented unison (brown); tiptoeing up the stairs (pink) and a new theme in G-Flat Major (green):

Firmly in G-Flat Major:

and now six tempo changes: slow/fast/slow/fast/slow/fast; D Major to G Major; the theme is presented and shortened.

Since I was a kid I have been obsessed with the chord highlighted in the blue box: It's a jazzy chord: a C Minor Ninth (the D is in the second violin)!

and again the six tempo changes in the Coda:

Second Movement

A presto dance in the parallel minor. Note how the four-note motif adds three additional 1/4-notes after the repeat:

Again the creeping up the stairs motif, followed by sliding-down-the-slide:

Third Movement

First, let's try to decipher Beethoven's tempo indication:

Andante con moto (slowly with motion), ma non troppo (not too much) and then in italics underneath: Poco scherzando (a little jokey) ...

So let's look at the first two bars in this reduction:

Definitely slow, with little motion, and preparing the tonic D-Flat with a dominant seventh chord in third inversion!

The motion begins with staccato 16ths in the cello accompanying a gorgeous melody which moves from viola (red) to violin (blue); Beethoven shortens the motif (green) and prepares a theme variant with pizzicato (orange).

In yet another motivic reduction, the violin starts a phrase, answered by the cello, while the viola introduces more speed -- 16th-note triplets (purple):

Next comes a very simple, sighing motive in the violin, marked cantabile:

a sweeping violin scale leads to an inventive triplet accompaniment in the second and viola:

The movement concludes with a flurry of 32nd-notes. a quick pause, and a satisfying fifth-less tonic chord.

Fourth Movement

Alla danza tedesco (like a German dance) ...

This lovely gently swaying dance in G Major is one of the many great delighs of this Late Quartet. An eight-bar section (repeated), followed by a 16-bar section (repeated), and then a new very simple melody that apeaers in the violin then cello ...

Fifth Movement

Cavatina = a short simple song ...

66 bars of the loveliest music ever written. Beethoven is known to have said that "he had composed this cavatina truly in the tears of melancholy" and that "never had his own music made such an impression on him."

All from the brain of a man who could no longer hear even the softest sound.

Let's look at it:

Subdominant E-Flat Major. Sotto voce.

[In the incredible BBC film, Eroica, one of the crankier royal personnages present at the historic first rehearsal, responds to Beethoven (a fabulous Ian Hart)'s instruction to the orchestra before they start to play the Funeral March -- play sotto voce --

" ... that's ridiculous! Sotto voce is a vocal marking!"]

Well, indeed it was -- and still is -- but Beethoven wanted that vocal sound -- "under the breath" and it is as pertinent here as ever.

The movement reaches its pinnacle in a section Beethoven marks beklemmt (anxious, anguished). With the three lower strings in triplets, the first plays a two-against-three phrase, which is one the greatest examples of his genius in these Late Period works ...

The final E-Flat chord is more breathed than bowed. This quartet nails it perfectly.

 

Sixth Movement

The massive double-fugue is gone. Certainly, Beethoven would never have been motivated by something as banal as an extra fee for the separation of Op. 130 and Op. 133 -- here is something so radically different from the original massive, out-of-place ending, that is must seem clear to anyone that this was his final intention.

This is Haydnesque, as if Beethoven was reliving his early days in Vienna circa 1800:

A modulation to A-Flat Major is a welcome surprise:

Rollicking:

Unison, with typical Beethoven sforzandos:

and a satisfying finish with a 12-note tonic cadence!