Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part One Context
- Part Two 1793–9
- Part Three 1800–1803
- Part Four 1804–9
- chapter 15 1804–6 In the wake of Fidelio
- chapter 16 1806 Three String Quartets, op. 59 (Razumovsky)
- chapter 17 1807–8 Cello Sonata in A major, op. 69
- chapter 18 1808 Two Piano Trios, op. 70
- chapter 19 1809 String Quartet in E flat major, op. 74 (Harp)
- Part Five 1810–15
- Part Six 1816–27
- Appendix 1 Early Chamber Music for Strings and Piano
- Appendix 2 Variations
- Appendix 3 Chamber Music for Wind
- Appendix 4 Arrangements
- Bibliography
- Index of Beethoven's Music by Opus Number
- Beethoven Index
- General Index
chapter 16 - 1806 Three String Quartets, op. 59 (Razumovsky)
from Part Four - 1804–9
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part One Context
- Part Two 1793–9
- Part Three 1800–1803
- Part Four 1804–9
- chapter 15 1804–6 In the wake of Fidelio
- chapter 16 1806 Three String Quartets, op. 59 (Razumovsky)
- chapter 17 1807–8 Cello Sonata in A major, op. 69
- chapter 18 1808 Two Piano Trios, op. 70
- chapter 19 1809 String Quartet in E flat major, op. 74 (Harp)
- Part Five 1810–15
- Part Six 1816–27
- Appendix 1 Early Chamber Music for Strings and Piano
- Appendix 2 Variations
- Appendix 3 Chamber Music for Wind
- Appendix 4 Arrangements
- Bibliography
- Index of Beethoven's Music by Opus Number
- Beethoven Index
- General Index
Summary
‘Oh, they are not for you, but for a later age!’ Beethoven told the Italian violinist Felix Radicati, who, at his request, had just added some fingering to the violin parts of his three new string quartets. Radicati had found them incomprehensible – not surprisingly perhaps, as the op. 59 quartets are about as far removed from the op. 18 set, completed six years earlier, as is the Eroica from the Second Symphony. Nonetheless, Beethoven himself was pleased with his ‘new violin quartets’, as he called them in a letter to Breitkopf & Härtel, dated 5 July 1806: ‘Indeed I am thinking of devoting myself entirely to this type of composition.’
His confidence proved to be justified and, in Vienna at least, the ‘later age’ dawned sooner, perhaps, than he had expected. His circle of friends, among them the loyal Schuppanzigh and members of his quartet, had learnt from experience that all his new compositions were challenging to start with; whatever their initial reactions, it was their job to catch up with him. They set to work, at first with many misgivings and even some boisterous laughter, suspecting that Beethoven was springing one of his practical jokes on them, and gave the premiere of all three quartets in February 1807. The concert was respectfully reviewed soon afterwards by the Vienna correspondent of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, who found them ‘very long and difficult … deep in thought and well worked out, but not generally comprehensible, except perhaps the third, whose originality, melody and harmonic power will surely win over every educated music lover.’ Three months later, the same journal noted that ‘in Vienna, Beethoven's most recent, difficult but fine quartets have become more and more popular.’
Count (later Prince) Andreas Razumovsky
Count Andreas Razumovsky (1752–1836) commissioned the quartets late in 1805 and they were probably composed between May and November 1806. Under the usual arrangement by which a patron commissioning a work had possession of it for six months or a year before it could be released for publication, those two concerts (and many others, no doubt) would have been given with the Count's active support and perhaps occasional participation.
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- Beethoven's Chamber Music in Context , pp. 146 - 160Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2010