Beethoven’s Op. 127 String Quartet: Who first played this music? What are the unique features? How do recent revelations of Beethoven’s notational ‘code’ (uncovered by our speaker) shed light on our understanding of the music?
Nicholas Kitchen, first violinist of the Borromeo String Quartet, will lead a discussion of Beethoven’s Op. 127 string quartet. Moving from the grand to the minuscule, we will start by looking at the extraordinary relationship of Beethoven to Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Schuppanzigh not only led the orchestras for all of the premieres of Beethoven’s Symphonies, he played all the quartets and in fact played with Beethoven in his last public performance. As it turns out, Op 127 nearly broke, and then eventually re-cemented their friendship. Then we will look at some of the features of the large form of the work, with a special sensitivity to the impact of rhythmic organization. The larger form will also lead naturally to a discussion of a set of markings that Beethoven used in his manuscripts that have not been shown in print, but which seem to outlive vividly the expressive landscape of the piece.
