THE VIENNA STRING QUARTET:
RUDOLF KOLISCH (Violin), FELIX KUHNER (Violin), EUGEN LEHNER (Viola),
BENAR HEIFETZ (Violoncello)
Quartet for Strings in B Flat (Op. 130)
Beethoven
Adagio ma non troppo-Allegro; Presto ; Andante con moto ma non troppo; Alla danza todesco (Allegro assai) ; Cavatina (Adagio molto espressivo) ; Finale-Allegro
'THE last string Quartets' of Beethoven, as they are always called, are admittedly difficult and obscure, but, to his devout admirers they are a very precious, even sacred, part of his noble work. More than anything else he wrote, they are regarded as intimate revelations of his own
. spirit, full of the deep sadness and of the physical suffering which made his last years a martyrdom, but touched, too, with something of the splendid courage and hope which animated him even then. Begun in the summer of 1824, and finished in November, 1826, only a few months before his death, they were clearly written down as expressions of what he felt, without much, if any, thought of those who were to hear them. And, of course, he was already so completely deaf that ho hoard not a note of them himself.
Op. 130 in B Flat has no fewer than six movements. The first begins with a slow introduction, whoso theme plays an important part in the Allegro which forms tho main part of the movement. There are two movements in Scherzo form, the second and fourth, two slow movements, the third and fifth, and a great Allegro to round off. the Quartet.
THE inclusion of Sehonberg's most recent piece of chamber music in the same programme as one of Beethoven's great quartets, is intended to offer listeners an opportunity of comparing two works separated in time by just over a century. Schonberg's, concise in design and straightforward in intention, is actually much simpler than the older work, and is conceived on more strictly classical lines. Only in the tonality of its themes is it notably more modem then Beethoven's. There are the usual four movements. The first, at a moderate speed, begins with a figure interchanged between second violin and viola, before the first violin sails in with a broad melody. The slow movement, beginning with a very simple theme, elaborates it in the most interesting ways, and the third, taking the place of the usual Scherzo and Trio, is called Intermezzo. The last is a Rondo, again at moderate speed, with a forceful and vigorous principal theme.