BEETHOVEN STRING QUARTET OP.132

Jacqueline Thomas, cellist of the Brodsky Quartet, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, looks at a third movement written by a composer convalescing from a near life-ending illness

From Beethoven String Quartet op.132. Urtext edition, paperbound. Ed. Emil Platen. Order no. HN743, ISMN 979-0-2018-0743-0. €25.50. Printed with permission of G. Henle Verlag, Munich © 2002

The third movement of op.132 is the pinnacle of Beethoven’s quartets. He wrote it after recovering from a bowel infection that took him close to death, and it seems to come from a place of new inner peace and understanding. The Brodsky Quartet has been together for 50 years now, and we came to this work 12 years into our journey. It was only when we performed it for the first time, in 1985, that we really grasped how amazing and important this movement is. We were in a beautiful old barn, with birds twittering in the rafters, and when we finished, the audience was silent for such a long time. Somehow the experience brought to life this precious moment in time for Beethoven. It has been meaningful to us ever since, and Paul Cassidy (the Brodsky’s violist) and I had the opening chorale played at our wedding, in place of a prayer.

A prayer of thanks, in the Lydian mode

Beethoven’s use of a message to begin the movement is unusual: Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lidischen Tonart : ‘A holy song of thanksgiving to the Deity by one who has recovered, in the Lydian mode’. The chorale format and use of modal harmonies are also unusual for him, and all heighten the importance of the music. He had been preoccupied for some time with ancient sacred music and had wanted to incorporate it into his own writing. It’s so touching to think of him studying at this late stage in his life.

There is no key signature, but we are not in C major or A minor – we’re in F major, with no B flat. Perhaps that is why Beethoven wrote ‘in the Lydian mode’, to help us understand what he has done. It is interesting to play the opening with flattened Bs, as if in F major, to hear the difference. The flats add tension but sound more ordinary, while the naturals of the Lydian mode, which was known for healing, give a calming feeling of otherworldliness.

The first chorale

Beethoven opens this movement with a four-note motif –a device that he used in much of his work, especially the late quartets. Each player introduces these notes as an optimistic rising 6th, playing in turn as if Beethoven is awakening from the terror of his illness. We play quietly, like a weak spoken voice, led on by the music as though we have stepped on to a smooth, flowing conveyor belt.

THE SOLOIST

NAME BRODSKY QUARTET

NATIONALITY BRITISH

RECORDED FOR ASV, AUTOR, BRODSKY RECORDS, CHALLENGE CLASSICS, CHANDOS, CPO, DECCA, DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON, IMP, KIN MUSIC, SILVA RECORDS, SOMM, TELDEC, WARNER

‘We just close our eyes and trust that we feel the same metre, as we enter into this world of calm, stoic beauty’

The Brodsky Quartet’s recording of Beethoven’s late quartets, released in January 2020, is available from Chandos Records

SARAH CRESSWELL

When we emerge together in the first chorale in bar 3, nobody needs to lead: we just close our eyes and trust that we feel the same metre, as we enter into this world of calm, stoic beauty. We begin senza vibrato, warm through the crescendos and return to a pure sound to end each phrase. Open strings help to create an organ-like, church effect that takes us over. It is as though Beethoven is saying, ‘I’m not speaking.

I’m letting God speak through me.’

This movement is around 15 minutes long so it’s tempting to push it on, but it should never sound hurried. Try practising the main chorale notes without the contrapuntal material in between, to hear it as a church hymn, although it moves so slowly and tenderly that it’s hard to imagine a choir singing it. To give a sense of structure and direction, focus on the harmonic progression and final cadence of the first four phrases. The fifth phrase repeats the fourth, now with an interrupted cadence like a postscript that takes us around a corner into the Neue Kraft fühlend (‘feeling new strength’) andante of bar 31.

There is always a question of whether the crescendos are to piano, or whether they go above piano and fall suddenly back again. Beethoven is famous for his beautiful crescendo to subito piano markings, but in this music it can feel stilted if it is overdone. That can interrupt the amazing, hymn-like flow, so we only play a subito piano in bars 26 and 29, to build into the andante.

The first andante

To us, having a metronomic connection between the adagios and the andantes can feel a little contrived, so instead we allow the four previous notes to expand into an undetermined rubato metre. On some days that is quite fast; on others it is less so. If the violins have a scale, they could choose to push through it and take us with them.

When they interrupt each other, they can jump in early, play their leaps quickly or slowly, and we will follow. We give the violins a free rein so that the music never feels strident or measured. Its beautiful, natural exuberance carries us through.

To me, the most wonderful thing about the andantes is the opening first-violin trill.

It’s a pure celebration of life! The second violin leaps joyously in octaves and vies to be the most flamboyant, over a bouncing viola and cello accompaniment.

The violins become legato in bar 47, moving into a new, sighing sound world. The faster-moving cello part in bar 67 is beautiful, but it shouldn’t take away from the reflective, cantabile first violin line.

From here the music becomes stammering and breathless, until a lovely swell in bar 84. It is as though Beethoven is saying, ‘I feel better, but I mustn’t overdo it. I’m going back to bed.’

The second chorale

Where the first opening motif was in a regular four-note metre, here Beethoven writes a rest, as though he has lost his breath and has to catch it again. The notes move more quickly now, with contrapuntal syncopation in the second violin, viola and cello. We float in and out of each other’s parts like woven silk, while the first violin plays the chorale minims (h) alone.

Occasionally we join together in a chord, but otherwise we are always crossing barlines and boundaries, leaping up and down in 5ths and octaves. We have to be careful not to let the line of the hymn get lost.

The lower parts no longer have a church-like sound here. I play the sighing 5th in bar 86 on one string, and I shift for the octaves, to add beauty and movement. By bar 110 I’m playing glorious top As, which I introduce as harmonics then transform into stopped notes with vibrato. These have to be perfectly in tune and consistent in timbre, as the cello part links together all the parts like a glorious thread.

The second andante

From bar 115, Beethoven repeats and exaggerates the first andante. Where the violins jumped an octave before, they jump two octaves here, and quick notes are made even quicker with triplets. The scales, octave leaps and competition between the violins are wonderfully joyous. From bar 145, conversation between parts is more playful than in bar 51: the second violin wants to carry on playing, but the first violin jumps in and takes over. There’s some real one-upmanship going on – it’s not just a polite sharing of a theme! When the ‘back to bed’ idea returns in bar 151, there are many more notes in the lower parts. It’s important to hear the violins’ climbing lines in bars 161 and 163, so I am careful not to let my faster notes dominate.

The third chorale

Now the moving parts play the four notes of the original motif, with a repeated rising 6th in a lilting semiquaver (s) fall that creates its own little theme. It is tempting to linger on every note, but we try to pass over the smaller ones. This helps us to hear the musical progression and the chorale motif, which we play in turn in four- or five-note snatches. It’s as though the choir members have dispersed through the church to sing variations on their own.

The cello’s turn for the little motivic theme comes from bar 177, but this time it is extended, with a three-bar crescendo that needs restraint and ecstasy rather than belligerence! We arrive together at the end of that crescendo, then dissolve into a desolate D minor cadence. An airy, senza-vibrato sound can create the most astonishing, beautiful effect here, as the music comes to a standstill.

In bar 183 the music restarts with the rising 6th, and the chorale motif and little theme pass around the quartet, leading to an incredible climax where the two ideas play side by side. All of this must be heard. If the moving notes swell too much, or if the sforzandos in the chorale motif are too aggressive, we lose the line of the hymn. It’s a constant, beautiful battle. From 194 we fall away in a three-bar diminuendo that dissolves again, in a reflection of bar 177.

Bar 198 is like a lung inhaling and exhaling as Beethoven’s strength returns: the three lower parts crescendo, then they diminuendo as the first violin crescendos. Then the first violin and viola diminuendo as the second violin and cello crescendo, before we all unite in bar 201 and subside with calm acceptance into F major. Here we tentatively pass the little theme around again, only for it to dissolve away half way through its last utterance in the cello. This leads to a moment of suspension in the dominant C pedal from bar 204, before we finally settle back into F major. We pulse through the slurred, repeated notes in bar 210, to add to the sense of fragility. This must be done with utmost subtlety and a continuous sound, to bring the notes in and out of focus, as I join the other players in the higher registers in one last heavenly, ecstatic utterance.

INTERVIEW BY PAULINE HARDING