Beethoven: String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

[ando]

I must confess that the older iteration of the Juilliard Quartet's version (1962, RCA/Victor) of this work will probably remain my favorite interpretation for years to come but this rendition is a fine one.

The Danish String Quartet
Frederik Øland, violin
Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin
Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola
Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello

[LKB]

I must confess that the older iteration of the Juilliard Quartet's version (1962, RCA/Victor) of this work will probably remain my favorite interpretation for years to come but this rendition is a fine one.

The Danish String Quartet
Frederik Øland, violin
Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin
Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola
Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello

That Julliard recording was my intro to Op. 131, back in college... good stuff. 

There's also this video of the Alban Berg quartet, with meh video and decent sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMDlqG7_TSc

[ando]

That Julliard recording was my intro to Op. 131, back in college... good stuff. 

There's also this video of the Alban Berg quartet, with meh video and decent sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMDlqG7_TSc

I have the Berg set of Beethoven Quartets but seldom play it. They convey an old world charm but not the vital urgency of the older Juilliard recordings (imo). That impression is repeated in this live performance though I think it's finely captured. Thank You.

[Mandryka]

I must confess that the older iteration of the Juilliard Quartet's version (1962, RCA/Victor) of this work will probably remain my favorite interpretation for years to come but this rendition is a fine one.

The Danish String Quartet
Frederik Øland, violin
Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin
Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola
Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello

Danish String Quartet are an excellent ensemble, I've seen them a couple of times.

Re op 131, it came up quite recently and I listened to it again for the first time in a few years. What a wonderful piece of music, peak Beethoven, IMO the highest peak.

I listened to Brooklyn Rider. I don't know if it's a good performance or not, but I can say this: it sent shivers down my spine, in exactly the same way as when I first heard the quartet as a teenager and thought to myself "I didn't know that music could sound like this."

As a result I ordered Nancy November's book about it - I got an email from Blackwells a couple of days ago saying they'd dispatched it, so it should be here soon - maybe today. I'll post my thoughts about it if I have any.

 https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Beethovens-String-Quartet-in-C-Sharp-Minor-Op-131-by-Nancy-November/9780190059217?utm_source=service_email&utm_campaign=order_confirm&utm_medium=email&utm_content=books

[Herman]

That sounds intriguing, an entire monograph about Op. 131. I don't quite understand why the publisher of November's work talks about Op 131 as a 'tragic' work. Is it? Why does music always have to be 'tragic' in order to merit our attention?
It's pretty odd to think of a musicology scholar who's mainly researching what was poppin' in 1820 Vienna conducting her work in Auckland NZ. Let's not ask about the CO2 label on her work...
I have seen some talks by Nancy November. She's doing research on both the social setting of chamber music performance in the Beethoven / Schubert era and WHAT were folks actually playing / listening to. Turns out Mozart was not performed at all, Beethoven was considered weird or un-fun. (It should perhaps be noted that both WAM and LvB did not pay a whole lot of attention to performer's fingers comfort. So, for instance, op 131 is in the fiddle-unfriendly key of C sharp minor. Go to, for instance to Kalliwoda and you enter a world of friendly keys and the magic of things that sound like a bitch but are really easy to play.))
'Miniaturisations' of Rossini music however were the rage, plus prolific composers who did not make the canon such as Adalbert Gyrowetz who seems to have written symphonies on a daily basis, which were then again 'miniaturized' for chamber music.

[Jo498]

I think the ~1980 studio ABQ is usually best in the middle quartets. They basically play the late ones like middle Beethoven, lots of bold contrast but not enough "weirdness".
Of somewhat more recent recordings I liked the Hagen a lot (although maybe not quite as distinctive as their op.130+133, I certainly like it better than their opp.127+132).

[ando]

Danish String Quartet are an excellent ensemble, I've seen them a couple of times.

Re op 131, it came up quite recently and I listened to it again for the first time in a few years. What a wonderful piece of music, peak Beethoven, IMO the highest peak.

I listened to Brooklyn Rider. I don't know if it's a good performance or not, but I can say this: it sent shivers down my spine, in exactly the same way as when I first heard the quartet as a teenager and thought to myself "I didn't know that music could sound like this."

As a result I ordered Nancy November's book about it - I got an email from Blackwells a couple of days ago saying they'd dispatched it, so it should be here soon - maybe today. I'll post my thoughts about it if I have any.

 https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Beethovens-String-Quartet-in-C-Sharp-Minor-Op-131-by-Nancy-November/9780190059217?utm_source=service_email&utm_campaign=order_confirm&utm_medium=email&utm_content=books

Fortunately, its digital version is available. Glad to see that it was recently published. And if it's as fascinating as it promises to be I'll happily spring for a first edition. Thanks for the tip. 

[Mandryka]

Fortunately, its digital version is available. Glad to see that it was recently published. And if it's as fascinating as it promises to be I'll happily spring for a first edition. Thanks for the tip. 

Just dipping in (it arrived today) I've found a discussion on Beethoven's use of fugue covering all his work (he was always cheeky about fugues, using them in unexpected ways in unexpected places) and a discussion of Schlegel's thoughts about how diverse stüke can come together to make a unified work. There seems to be mention of some recorded performances (Ebène, Prazák) and even the use of op 131 in films.

[Herman]

I wonder whether Nancy November talks about the impact on Beethoven's music of the Metternich repression of everything that even remotely smacked of nascent French Rev. (Guess I wanted to use 'smacked of' once in my typing life.) Recently I checked some biographies on my shelf, and pretty much no one even mentions Metternich.
What I'm thinking of is those crazy marches in the 133 and the final mvt of 131. If it's accepted wisdom that DSCH parodied Stalin in his symphonies, why wouldn't we look at those grim and crazy marches in Beethoven this way and see what happens?

[Mandryka]

I have seen some talks by Nancy November. She's doing research on both the social setting of chamber music performance in the Beethoven / Schubert era and WHAT were folks actually playing / listening to.   

Is this published, Herman?

That sounds intriguing, an entire monograph about Op. 131. I don't quite understand why the publisher of November's work talks about Op 131 as a 'tragic' work. Is it?
 

She says that some people said  it was "about" lack and loss, others about fantasy etc etc . . . .  There are many ways of hearing.