(Leader, Werner Krotzinger )
Conductor, Karl MUnchinger
Beethoven originally intended the Grosse Fuge to be the finale of his String Quartet in B flat, Op. 130; but he afterwards wrote another movement for the Quartet and issued the fugue as a separate work. It is so colossal in design and so great a strain for only four players that the practice of performing it on a string orchestra is amply justified. It opens with a short introduction; the main theme is then quietly stated by the first violins. A double fugue (on two subjects played simultaneously) now follows; the chief subject being given to the violas while the violins have a leaping, athletic figure which drives onward with tremendous force. The second section consists of another fugue on the main theme, with a different companion, and quieter in mood. There follows a third fugue in a dynamic, six-eight rhythm Harold Rutland