program - SVIZ

are virtuoso and arabesque, but not with the aim of confusing the listener
or making an impression on him or her, but rather in order to conjure up as
much dreaminess as possible. These are dreams of a pipe that believes that
it has no borders.
Ludwig van Beethoven dedicated his ‘serious’ string quartet from 1810 to
his best friend, court secretary Nikolaus Zmeskall von Domanovecs. As well
as being a good cellist Beethoven relied on Domanovecs’s advice for a range
of practical matters, ranging from a recipe for good shoe polish to advice
about how to fire a bad servant.
The quartet was first performed publicly in 1814 and was published two years
later in 1816. The uncompromising quality of the music is reflected even in
the title, which the composer chose himself. Here seriousness has many faces:
from depth of spirit, obscurity and pessimism to deep sorrow and hopelessness.
However, this is not programme music describing concrete events or a
particular state, but rather aphoristically dense absolute music that avoids a
conventional and comfortable approach, constantly placing us ‘in medias res’.
The first movement begins with the quartet’s motto – an austere figure in
unison – followed by broken octave leaps. Almost without a transition the
brighter second theme with triplets appears. In the development both of
the central motives of the main theme interweave (the semiquavers and the
dotted octaves), and the movement concludes with an agitated coda that
fades into pianissimo. In the subsequent Allegretto the first theme is made
up of two contrasting elements that together shape the flow of the movement:
the ascending trajectory of the cello and the cantilena of the violin. The
chromatic second theme leads to a fugato section. After the development
the individual motives become increasingly fragmented, until only a handful
of ‘sighs’ remain. In the explosive Scherzo Beethoven employs unusual tonal
contrasts. The last movement is initiated with a melancholy introduction
with sighing motives, followed by a tense and ambivalent conclusion: ‘allegretto’
is a more gentle tempo, which ‘agitato’ impugns. The conclusion of
the quartet, although in a Major key, seems more like an act of defiance than
a reconciliation with the world and oneself.
PROGRAM / PROGRAM
Katarina Šter
Prevod / Translation: Neville Hall
71