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Hungarian Quartet

Beethoven completed this most unconventionally-shaped of all his string quartets in the summer of 1826. His preceding three quartets (Opp.127, 132 and 130) had been commissioned by Prince Nikolas Galitzin of St Petersburg, but the abundance of Beethoven's inspiration seems to have impelled him to continue the series without the need for an external stimulus.

Op.131 is Beethoven's only string quartet to play without a pause from beginning to end, and the tally of its individual movements is so unusual that the composer was persuaded to number them in the score, from 1 to 7. However, two of those movements - Nos.3 and 6 - function as little more than a brief introduction to the piece that follows, so that the real total of movements is five, as it had been in the Quartet Op.132.

Uniquely among his string quartets, Op.131 begins not with a sonata-form Allegro, but instead with a slow fugue that seems to hark back to Bach. The quartet's expressive heart lies in its central movement - a serene set of variations; and like so many of Beethoven's great pieces of the kind, it presents a process not so much of decoration, as of gradual distillation. The theme itself is one of Beethoven's profound inspirations, and no less striking is the manner of its presentation, with the melody's individual phrases passed with infinite tenderness from one violin to the other.

The last movement is heralded by a dramatic gesture given out by all four players in fortissimo octaves. These introductory bars are centred around the initial notes of the first movement's fugue theme; and the fugue subject is recalled even more vividly in the finale's smooth second idea, which evokes not only its melodic shape, but also its rhythm.

©Misha Donat

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