The opening movement of the Beethoven quartet Op. 59 No. 2 announces its compositional ambition with a symphonic call to attention and a charged silence, before launching into a dense and nervous exposition of remarkably short musical materials,
Still more massive in conception is the following Adagio. A spacious, slow-moving sonata form is prefaced by an expressive hymn tune, whose simple rhythmic and melodic shape is distantly echoed, sometimes buried deep in the musical texture, throughout the movement.
The following movements are very concise by comparison with the opening two. A lightly tripping Allegretto alternates with a Trio that witnesses the return of the Russian folk element in op. 59 – another tune, as in Op. 59 No. 1, that announces itself as a thème russe. As in the earlier “Razumovsky” Quartet, however, folk song collides with strict counterpoint, taking the form of a succession of formal entries, in the manner of a four-voice fugue exposition.
As in many symphonic culminations, a sense of closure is achieved by reconceiving the thematic material of the opening movement in more direct and imposing terms.
Listen now to Beethoven’s string quartet Opus 59 number 2:
