Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part One Context
- Part Two 1793–9
- Part Three 1800–1803
- Part Four 1804–9
- Part Five 1810–15
- Part Six 1816–27
- chapter 24 1815–24 The Late String Quartets – Context and Background
- chapter 25 1824–5 String Quartet in E flat major, op. 127
- chapter 26 1825 String Quartet in A minor, op. 132
- chapter 27 1825 String Quartet in B flat major, op. 130
- chapter 28 1825–6 Grosse Fuge, op. 133
- chapter 29 1825–6 String Quartet in C sharp minor, op. 131
- chapter 30 1826 String Quartet in F major, op. 135
- Appendix 1 Early Chamber Music for Strings and Piano
- Appendix 2 Variations
- Appendix 3 Chamber Music for Wind
- Appendix 4 Arrangements
- Bibliography
- Index of Beethoven's Music by Opus Number
- Beethoven Index
- General Index
chapter 25 - 1824–5 String Quartet in E flat major, op. 127
from Part Six - 1816–27
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part One Context
- Part Two 1793–9
- Part Three 1800–1803
- Part Four 1804–9
- Part Five 1810–15
- Part Six 1816–27
- chapter 24 1815–24 The Late String Quartets – Context and Background
- chapter 25 1824–5 String Quartet in E flat major, op. 127
- chapter 26 1825 String Quartet in A minor, op. 132
- chapter 27 1825 String Quartet in B flat major, op. 130
- chapter 28 1825–6 Grosse Fuge, op. 133
- chapter 29 1825–6 String Quartet in C sharp minor, op. 131
- chapter 30 1826 String Quartet in F major, op. 135
- Appendix 1 Early Chamber Music for Strings and Piano
- Appendix 2 Variations
- Appendix 3 Chamber Music for Wind
- Appendix 4 Arrangements
- Bibliography
- Index of Beethoven's Music by Opus Number
- Beethoven Index
- General Index
Summary
Prince Nikolay Borisovich Golitsïn After Prince Razumovky's quartet was disbanded in 1814, Schuppanzigh spent some years in Russia and introduced Beethoven's more recent compositions to music lovers there. Among them was Prince Nikolay Borisovich Golitsïn (1794–1866), a keen amateur cellist and composer, who would become one of Beethoven's most enthusiastic admirers: ‘Je lui ai trouvé cette Sublimité qui préside à toutes vos Compositions’, he told Beethoven in a letter written in November 1823; ‘et qui rendent vos œuvres inimitables.’ The Prince was clearly a man of action as well as words and, not content with ordering a pre-publication score of the Missa Solemnis and persuading the Tsar to subscribe to this ‘trésor de beauté’, he organized the first complete performance of the Mass in St Petersburg on 7 April 1824.
However, his most enduring contribution to the history of music was the fateful letter he had written two years earlier in November 1822, asking Beethoven to compose ‘one, two or three new quartets’ and to name his price. Beethoven, who was already considering a successor to the F minor Quartet, op. 95, agreed at once, but he still had to complete the Missa Solemnis and was about to embark on the Ninth Symphony, which would occupy most of his time over the next two years, so suggested deadlines came and went and financial confusion of one kind or another followed.
Nonetheless, three of the highest pinnacles in music, the three string quartets dedicated to the Prince – op. 127, op. 132 and op. 130 – were eventually scaled, soon followed by arguably the greatest of them all, the Quartet in C sharp minor, op. 131, and finally by the beautiful, though underrated, Quartet in F major, op. 135. The original finale to op. 130, the Grosse Fuge, was published separately as op. 133 and dedicated to Archduke Rudolph. Many years after Beethoven's death, there would be a touching end to the Golitsïn–Beethoven saga, when the Prince's son, the conductor and composer Yuri Nikolayevich Golitsïn, presented a substantial donation to Beethoven's heirs ‘as a token of the admiration which Russian musicians felt for his music’.
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- Information
- Beethoven's Chamber Music in Context , pp. 224 - 233Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2010