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Italian Quartet
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As though in compensation for the inspira­tional extravagances of the first two of the Razumovsky Quar­tets Op.59 which had preceded it, the 'Harp' Quartet Op.74, of 1809, is very much classically conceived. There is, however, no mistaking the bold individuality of its slow opening page ("it would have made an excellent introduction to the following Allegro", commented one contemporary reviewer, "if it had not lost its way towards the end in an unnecessary jumble of harsh dissonances"). If the remainder of the first movement is less obviously original, it is by no means bereft of surprises - not least, the forceful violin cadenza which erupts in the coda, transforming the movement's prominent pizzicato idea into something alto­gether darker and more dramatic. It is the pizzi­catos of the principal subject, and especially the manner in which they are used in the mysterious approach to the recapitulation at the centre of the movement, that have earned the quartet the nickname of the Harp .

The slow movement presents a series of variations interspersed with contrasting episodes. It's followed by a scherzo that's a cousin of the parallel movement in the Fifth Symphony, whose 'fate' rhythm - albeit vastly accel­erated - it shares. The gruffly contrapuntal 'running' trio in the major also recalls the symphony.

The finale is another set of variations - the only occasion on which Beethoven ended one of his string quartets with a piece of its kind. The first five variations are straight­forward enough, but the concluding variation is expanded by means of an accelerating coda, as though in preparation for an emphatic peroration. With gently humorous understatement, however, the 'rushing' figuration of the closing bars gives way to the simplest of cadences, allowing the work to come to a quiet conclusion after all.

©Misha Donat

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