String Quartet in C sharp minor Op.131 (1825-26)

Not the least remarkable aspect of Beethoven’s last-but-one string quartet is that only one of the seven movements is in sonata form. Far from indicating disillusion with sonata form, however, the long-term construction of the work clearly confirms the composer’s faith in it. In expanding the string quartet to as many movements as he does here, with nothing but the occasional short pause in 45 minutes, he is stretching the string quartet to its limits. His strategy in extending the structure in this way is to consolidate it by reserving the one sonata-form movement, a sublimely melodious example of its kind, to the end.

Not the least remarkable aspect of Beethoven’s last-but-one string quartet - his own favourite, apparently - is that only one of the seven movements is in sonata form. Far from indicating any kind of late-in-life disillusion with sonata form, however, the long-term construction of the work clearly confirms Beethoven’s faith in it. In expanding the string quartet to as many movements as he does here, treating the two shortest as introductions to the next, and linking them in such a way that there is no distinct break between them - nothing but the occasional short pause in forty-five minutes of music - he is stretching the string quartet to its limits. His strategy in both extending the structure and finally consolidating it is to reserve the one sonata-form movement until the end.

That is not the only strategy of course. Apart from the tonal strategy, there is the thematic one which is initiated in the opening bars of the first movement as a solitary violin introduces the subject of what must be the most beautiful fugue since Bach’s “Forty-Eight.” While it is just about possible to trace the thematic influence of the fugue in every subsequent movement, it is not made explicit until the last. In the meantime the Allegro molto vivace teasingly approximates to sonata form, offering no second subject and little development. It has no real ending either as it quietly yields to the very short Allegro moderato and the recitative that leads into the Andante - a theme-and-variations movement which, as far as the string quartet is concerned, surpasses anything of its kind in its apparently inexhaustible resources of melodic and textural inspiration. The brilliantly detailed Presto scherzo, with its perfectly integrated rustic trio material, represents another superlative of its kind.

Approached by way of an Adagio with an expressive value quite disproportionate to its less then thirty bars, the closing Allegro clearly refers back to the opening fugue, though not so much in the gruff opening gesture as in the legato phrases that follow and echo throughout. It is a sonata-form construction both dramatic and sublimely melodious and as masterful as, in this exalted company and in this strategic situation, it has to be.

Not the least remarkable aspect of Beethoven’s last-but-one string quartet – his own favourite, apparently – is that only one of the seven movements is in sonata form. Far from indicating any kind of late-in-life disillusion with sonata form, however, the long-term construction of the work clearly confirms Beethoven’s faith in it. In expanding the string quartet to as many movements as he does here, treating the two shortest as introductions to the next, and linking them in such a way that there is no distinct break between them – nothing but the occasional short pause in forty-five minutes of music – he is stretching the string quartet to its limits. His strategy in both extending the structure and finally consolidating it is to reserve the one sonata-form movement until the end.

That is not the only strategy of course. Apart from the tonal strategy, there is the thematic one which is initiated in the opening bars of the first movement as a solitary violin introduces the subject of what must be the most thorough and most beautiful example of the ensemble fugue since Die Kunst der Fuge. While it is just about possible to trace the thematic influence of the fugue in every subsequent movement, it is not made explicit until the last. In the meantime the Allegro molto vivace teasingly approximates to sonata form, offering no second subject and little development. It has no real ending either as it quietly yields to the very short Allegro moderato, where a dramatic recitative and a modest violin cadenza lead directly into the Andante – a theme-and-variations movement which, as far as the string quartet is concerned, surpasses anything of its kind in its apparently inexhaustible resources of melodic inspiration. There are six variations exploring textures as different as the fugal third variation (Andante moderato e lusinghiero) beginning lugubriously on cello and viola, the fifth (Allegretto) which makes a feature of harmonic suspensions rather than line, and the chordal sixth (Allegro ma non troppo e semplice) with a muttered cello figure leading into a coda elevated by excited violin trills.

The brilliantly detailed Presto scherzo, with its perfectly integrated rustic trio material, represents another superlative of its kind. It is organised in such a way that the scherzo and trio are both played through twice and, just when it seems to have nowhere else to go, takes flight in an aerial sul ponticello coda. Approached by way of an Adagio with an expressive value quite disproportionate to its less then thirty bars, the closing Allegro clearly refers back to the opening fugue, though not so much in the gruff opening gesture as in the legato phrases that follow and echo throughout. It is a sonata-form construction both dramatic and sublimely melodious. Although it begins, like the opening fugue, in C sharp minor and retains the urgency for much of its duration, a movement containing such ecstatic material as the second subject, which is introduced in E major by first violin, could scarcely end in anythng but C sharp major, close-run thing though it is.