Haven’t heard it since infancy.

Welcome to the 106th work in the Slipped Disc/Idagio Beethoven Edition


String Quartet No. 12 in E flat major op. 127

When Beethoven passed the age of fifty, he appears to have stopped caring how his music would be received, or even if it was performable. At fifty he had outlived the average Viennese lifespan by a full decade. He was totally deaf, in constant pain and unable to appear on stage unaided. He was also still financially insecure, forever in search of commissions, gifts and publishing deals. The world’s most admired composer did not know if he would have enough money to see out the year. Suddenly, regardless of need, he decided that now was the time to unleash the music that had long simmered within him, music that few could play or wished to hear.

Twelve years had gone by since he last completed a string quartet. The gulf between the 11th quartet and the 12th is one of the greatest in the art form. The 11th quartet was serious in title and intent but approachble in content. The 12th would mark the start of what posterity would rapidly and accurately catalogue as ‘Beethoven’s late quartets’.

On the surface, nothing changed. The 12th quartet is in E flat major, Beethoven’s happy key. It has the regulation four instruments, doing what a composer might reasonably expect of them. But from the opening attack, the listener becomes aware of destabilisation, of a composer undermining the foundations of his art. Twice in the opening movement he disrupts the flow of melody with a half-recapitualted opening theme, inserted for no obvious reason. The second movement is slow but far from dreamy: a set of six challenging variations. This is not easy listening. Wherever Beethoven offers an attractive theme, he hedges it with half-thoughts. In the finale, at around 2:40, he throws in a laconic take on the big number in the ninth symphony. What’s that doing there? you wonder.

Beethoven first planned the quartet in an unprecedented six movements before deciding that might place too great a strain on public tolerance. He started writing in 1822, while working on the ninth symphony, and finished three years later after an almighty struggle with the wayward finale. The quartet is 35-40 minutes long, twice the normal duration for the time. It was commissioned for the wedding of his cello-playing patron, Prince Nikolay Galitzin, who cannot have been entirely pleased. The first performance, given by the Schuppanzigh Quartet on March 6, 1825, was by all accounts atrocious.

Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who had the first permanent quartet in Vienna (or anywhere else), was a drinking pal of Beethoven’s and the man he entrusted to be concertmaster at the premiere of the ninth symphony. But Schuppanzigh was growing slow and fat. Beethoven called him ‘Falstaff’ and complaiend that he thought only of his own instrument and not the work as a whole. On this new piece, he lacked sufficient rehearsal time.

When Beethoven’s nephew blamed Schuppanzigh for the quartet’s failure the composer called in a rival quartet leader Joseph Michael Böhm, who has left this account of their exchange: ‘When Beethoven learned of the poor performance – for he was not present – he became furious and let the performers have no peace until the disgrace was wiped away. He sent for me first thing in the morning, and in his usual curt way said to me, ‘You must play my quartet,’ and the thing was settled. Neither objections nor doubts could prevail; what Beethoven wanted had to take place, so I undertook the difficult task. It was studied and rehearsed frequently under Beethoven’s own eyes. I said ‘eyes’ intentionally, for the unhappy man was so deaf he could no longer hear the heavenly sound of his compositions… With close attention his eyes followed the bows and therefore he was able to judge the slightest fluctuations in tempo and rhythm and correct them immediately. At the close of the last movement of the quartet there occurred a ‘meno vivace’ which seemed to me to weaken the general effect. At the rehearsal, therefore, I advised that the original tempo be maintained… Beethoven, crouched in a corner, heard nothing, but watched with strained attention. After the last stroke of the bows, he said, laconically, ‘let it remain so,’ went to the desks and crossed out the ‘meno vivace’ in the four parts.’

What Beethoven wrote in this quartet was just about within Böhm’s grasp. What came next would be beyond it (Schuppanzigh took over the later quartets). Outwardly conventional, the 12th quartet makes it clear that Beethoven is taking leave of public expectation.

There are more than 50 recordings of the quartet, a map in themselves of the history of string quartet playing. The earliest, in 1926, is by the Hungarian Jenö Léner and his quartet. It is aggressively romantic, contradicting Beethoven’s drive into the unknow. That said, the adagio is an overwhelming rush of emotion, irresistibly affecting and with accents that are more than faintly Magyar.

It was ten years before another record was cut, this time in Abbey Road and far superior sound, by the Busch Quartet – Adolf Busch and Gösta Andreasson (violins), Karl Doktor (viola) and Hermann Busch (cello). More austere than the Hungarians, they project a drawing-room atmosphere of family music-making, making light of the difficulties inherent in this score. Like Arthur Schnabel in the piano sonatas, the Busch Quartet recordings of the late string quartets became the industry standard and have stood the test of time The influence of their interpretation can be heard as far ahead as the Emerson Quartet, who recorded a whole lifetime later in 1997.

 

This is where we need to consider the concept of lineage in the string quartet. The leading ensembles are as full of begats as the Book of Genesis, claiming ancestry and authority at one or two removes from the quartet founded in 1869 by Joseph Joachim, who knew Mendelssohn, Brahms and Schumann. In the late works of Beethoven a link to Joachim confers the highest pedigree. Joachim was Hungarian (as was Lenar), German (Busch) and Jewish. His second violin was Carl Halir, whose star pupil was David Mannes, founder of the Mannes School of Music in New York. The American and Czech traditions of playing Beethoven string quartets are no less central to their evolution through such ensembles as the Juilliard, the FineArts and the Wihan.

But space is running out, and I’ll have to continue tomorrow.

Offiical statement:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Chief of Staff and Legal Counsel met in a conference call on Tuesday, August 4th with prominent musicians of Kentucky and industry executives to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. Music Industry.

The call with the Senator’s senior staff was coordinated by the Performing Arts Managers and Agents Coalition (PAMAC) and took place with Conductor and Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra Teddy Abrams, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Andrew McInnes of TMWRK Management representing country singer Sturgill Simpson and NIVA Kentucky Leader Billy Hardison of Louisville-based club Headliners Music Hall – all constituents of Senator McConnell’s home state of Kentucky – plus PAMAC Founder Charlotte Lee (pictured), PAMAC Co-leader Cindy Liu, PAMAC Member and Senior Executive Agent Jonathan Levine of Paradigm Agency, and NITO members Eric Mayers and Jason Colton of Red Light Management.

 

The former New York Philharmonic v-p Edward Yim is to head New York Public Radio’s classical music station WQXR, it has just been announced. He starts in September as chief content officer, stepping down as president of the American Composers Orchestra.

Good catch.

 

The singer has given an interview to La Repubblica in which he runs through a catalogue of denials – no abuse took pleace, he made no admission of guilt to satisfy AGMA, he did nothing wrong.

The reason for the interview? ‘When I learned I had Covid, I promised myself that if I got out alive I would fight to rehabilitate my name. I have never abused anyone. I will repeat it as long as I live.’

The denial is absolute. ‘Of course I’m angry, of course I’m depressed, especially because my whole family has been involved; the suffering is enormous for all of us. I have always declared my estrangement from the facts, sometimes with short statements that have been misunderstood and considered admissions of guilt. It’s a terrible situation.’

 

 

The Mayor of Moscow has issued new guidance on admittance to public concerts.

All will have their temperature taken at the door. Anyone with a cough or runny nose will be sent home.

Visitors with a body temperature above 37 degrees and (or) having visual symptoms of respiratory diseases (cough, runny nose, weakness) are not allowed on the territory of the organization.

Our allies on the high redoubt have been scouring the dungeons for traces of gender diversity. Here’s the ultimate list:

OPERA

Anne Manson, Abbado’s assistant, replaced him on August 25, 1994 in one performance of Boris Godunov.

Julia Jones jumped in five times in Die Entführung aus dem Serail in 2004, replacing Marcello Viotti. She also led a Mozart Matinee.

CONCERTS

Dominique My conducted a Nono-to-Neuwirth programee on August 8, 1998.

Laurence Equilbey had several concerts in 2012.

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla performed her Young Conductors Award concert on August 12, 2012.

Erina Yashima led the children’s opera Der Schauspieldirektor on August 5, 2018.

 

Giedrė Šlekytė had her award concert on August 8, 2015

Sian Edwards conducted Scelsi on August 7, 2007

Anu Tali had a Mozart matinee on August 19, 2006

Elisabeth Fuchs led a youth orchestra on July 28, 2006.

That’s all, folks.

UPDATE: We are reminded that Simone Young cnducted a Sciarrino concert at Klangforum in 2008. I may even have been there.

The idea is to sit more people safley distanced than is presently possible in rows of seats.

From Michigan Opera Theater:

Michigan Opera Theatre (MOT) has acquired a 9,100-square foot deck for the Detroit Opera House. The deck creates a floor that covers the
theater’s main-level seating and includes several configurations to connect with the stage. It allows for increased seating flexibility for the Opera House, providing customizable options to accommodate a variety of performances and events during this time of social distancing. Long-term MOT supporters Floy and Lee Barthel provided the gift to enable MOT to purchase the deck from Levitation Staging.

The deck requires three semi-trailers to transport, eight to 10 hours to load in and 18 stagehands to assemble.

 

The death has been announced of Keith Johnson, emeritus professor of trumpet at the University of North Texas College of Music. He was 77 and had been in a care home for dementia patients where he fell sick with Covid-19.

Keith had been a prominent player at Dallas Opera and Fort Worth Symphony.

Music director Graeme Jenkins writes: ‘Keith Johnson was a wonderful member of the Dallas Opera Orchestra. A man of outstanding musicianship and incredible charm. I will miss him very much. A real gem.’

A boy called Tarmo Peltokoski will make his debut conducting the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in October.

He’s 19 and he has already got an agent.

He will conduct a new piece by Jukka Tiensuu, followed by a Beethoven concerto with Piotr Anderszewski.

Frankfurt media are getting very worked up over ecstatic acclamation for Christof Loy’s Salzburg Cosi fan tutte.

The production, they point out, has been running in Frankfurt since 2008, with five extended revivals. It’s staple rep, nothing new.

What’s more, Salzburg’s claim that Joana Mallwitz is its first female opera conductor is also bogus. Previous batons were Anne Manson and Julia Jones.

Frankfurt is very upset.

 

The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival has scrapped its 10-day November jamboree, it announced this morning.

Instead, it will put on a three-day online event.

The intended composer-in-residence Chaya Czernowin has been invited back for 2021.