Beethoven-Zyklus II

Quatuor Ebène

Programme:
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 6 in B flat major, Op. 18/6, “La Malinconia”; String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132

It is important to remember that Beethoven was already 28 years old when he began composing his first quartets, Op. 18. This means they are already mature works, which, while still modelled on Mozart, present significantly greater technical challenges. In the scherzo of String Quartet No. 6 in B flat major, Arnold Schoenberg saw Beethoven, some 100 years later, as a great »innovator in terms of rhythm«. The most modern passage in the sixth quartet is the slow introduction to the final movement, entitled »La Malinconia«, which features constant and unexpected key changes. Beethoven scholar Joseph Kerman once described it as a »small harmonic labyrinth«. Composed in 1825 and premiered in Vienna in the same year, Quartet No. 15 in A minor is the first to have five movements and is around 45 minutes long. This »arch form« with parts arranged symmetrically around a central movement, was later adopted by Gustav Mahler in his 5th and 7th symphonies, as well as by Béla Bartók in his string quartets Nos. 4 and 5, among others …

presented by dodenhof and swb
in cooperation with the Philharmonische Gesellschaft Bremen