Ravinia 2025 Issue 2

Many listeners apparently found the fugal finale too severe and bewildering within the context of a string quartet. Matthias Artaria, who already had contracted to publish the quartet, suggested that Beethoven compose a new final movement and issue the fugue separately. Beethoven fin- ished the alternative finale—his last completed work—on November 22, 1826. Artaria printed the independent Grosse Fuge in versions for string quartet (op. 133) and piano, four hands (op. 134) soon after the composer’s death. The Galitzin quartets and their two successors (opp. 131 and 135) left behind Classicism’s popu- list appeal and moved toward a sublime Roman- tic intimacy designed for a discerning listener. Viennese audiences proved ill-prepared for such prophetic musical utterances. According to Maynard Solomon, “Perhaps a total accep- tance of the late quartet would have required a rebelliousness of spirit, an ability to withstand the shock of the new, that was beyond the reach of even the sensitive and the disaffected in the Viennese society.” Op. 130 displays unconventionality at every lev- el, beginning with its cycle of six movements. In the opening movement, emotionally intense Adagio ma non troppo material is juxtaposed by electrifying Allegro outbursts. (Years earli- er, Beethoven demonstrated the startling effect of such tempo changes in his Piano Sonata in C minor, op. 13—the “Pathétique”—although with much less profundity.) The quartet proceeds with standard “middle movements”: a humor-filled Presto (a sort of scherzo, except in name) followed by a slow es- say. Next, Beethoven inserted two characterful movements. The brisk Alla danza tedesca (“in the style of a German dance”), according to Anton Felix Schindler, originally belonged to the Quartet in A minor, op. 132. The composer maintained special affections for his lyrical Ca- vatina : “Never did music of mine make so deep an impression on me; even the remembrance of the emotions it aroused always costs me a tear.” The replacement finale, a rondo, provides a light antidote to the seriousness generated by the original fugue. JÖRG WIDMANN (b. 1973) String Quartet No. 8 ( Beethoven Study III ) Over the past two decades, Jörg Widmann has established himself internationally as a clarinetist, conductor, and composer. Born and raised in Munich, Jörg is the eldest child of a physician father and teacher/textile-artist mother. His younger sister Carolin, now a pro- fessional violinist and professor, was born three years later. Jörg took his first clarinet lesson at age 7, eventually studying with Gerd Starke at the Hochschüle für Musik in Munich. In 1994– 95, he attended The Juilliard School, work- ing closely with Charles Neidich. Widmann continues to perform as a clarinet soloist and chamber musician. He served as professor of clarinet at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg from 2001 until 2015. Widmann simultaneously developed his cre- ative expression as a composer. At age 11, he be- gan private composition studies with Kay Wes- termann in Munich. His later composition mentors included Hans Werner Henze and Wil- fried Hiller in Munich and Heiner Goebbels and Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe. In the late 1990s and 2000s, Widmann won several prominent composition prizes, including the Hindemith Prize (2002), Arnold Schoenberg Prize (2004), Claudio Abbado Composition Award (2006), and Elise L. Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (2009). After teaching composition part-time at the Hoch- schule für Musik Freiburg, he became professor of composition of the Barenboim-Said Akade- mie in Berlin since 2017. Widmann’s symphonic, chamber, solo, vocal, and operatic compositions have been commissioned and performed by such distinguished ensembles as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, Paris Orchestra, and Bayerische Staatsoper, as well as Daniel Baren- boim, Pierre Boulez, Paavo Jarvi, Mariss Jan- sons, Simon Rattle, Matthias Goerne, Mitsuko Uchida, Christian Tetlaff, Håkan Hardenberger, and András Schiff, among other artists. Two string quartet cycles stand as massive pillars within Widmann’s phenomenally varied com- positional output. The first cycle comprises five single-movement works that together form a 90-minute “meta-quartet.” Quartet No. 1 (1997) occupies the place of an opening sonata-form movement. The slow-movement Chorale Quar- tet (Quartet No. 2, 2003) evokes Jesus’s slow pro- cession and death on the cross as portrayed in Joseph Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross , an orchestral work commissioned for the 1787 Good Friday observances at the Cádiz Cathedral in Spain. [Haydn subsequently arranged the music for string quartet, the most regularly performed version.] Hunting Quartet Jörg Widmann (2019) (Quartet No. 3, 2003)—the scherzo at the cen- ter of the “meta-quartet”—quotes the hunting theme from the end of Robert Schumann’s Papillon , op. 2, and subtly references material from “hunt” quartets by Joseph Haydn (op. 1, no. 1) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (K. 458). The intermezzo-like Quartet No. 4 (2005) is, according to the composer, “a work concerned with walking ( Andante ) and steps ( Passacaglia in the original sense as a ‘stepping dance’).” Ex- periment on a Fugue (Quartet No. 5, 2005) con- cludes the cycle with an homage to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge for string quartet and soprano, who sings passages from Ecclesias- tes Chapter 1 (Latin) and Chapter 7 (German): “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. …That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?” Fourteen years passed before Widmann re- turned to the string quartet medium, this time envisioning a cycle of five “Beethoven stud- ies”—his String Quartets Nos. 6–10. The num- ber of movements increases in each successive quartet, from one in Study on Beethoven ( Bee- thoven Study I ) to four in String Quartet No. 9 ( Beethoven Study IV ) before reverting to one movement in String Quartet No. 10 ( Beethoven Study V ). The Study on Beethoven (String Quar- tet No. 6, 2019) is an abstract work exploring dynamic forces within the tonal system—“phe- nomena such as tension-relaxation, suspension/ resolution, and fixation/deviation”—which also captivated Beethoven two centuries earlier. Though only in two movements, String Quartet No. 7 ( Beethoven Study II ) is an intense, highly condensed work in the spirit of Beethoven’s final works for two violins, viola, and cello. The final three compositions incorporate melodic, motiv- ic, and harmonic material from Beethoven’s late string quartets. String Quartet No. 8 ( Beethoven Study III , 2021) builds the middle of its three movements on the “Alla danza tedesca” theme from Beethoven’s op. 130 string quartet, which, with its original Grosse Fuge finale, Widmann considers “the pinnacle of all string quartets.” The four-movement String Quartet No. 9 ( Bee- thoven Study IV , 2021) is chronologically the last “Beethoven study” to be completed: “indeed, when composing it,” Widmann recollected, “it felt like the conclusion of the cycle.” This score references Beethoven’s sublime String Quartet in C-sharp minor, op. 131. The series concludes with Cavatina : String Quartet No. 10 ( Beetho- ven Study V , 2020) which pre-dates the eighth quartet and is similarly derived from material in Beethoven’s op. 130, in this case the highly ex- pressive fifth movement, “Cavatina.” String Quartet No. 8 stands at the midpoint of Widmann’s “Beethoven study” series, and the second of its three movements—a set of varia- tions on the first eight measures of “Alla danza tedesca”—is the centerpiece of the entire set. While this excerpt from Beethoven’s op. 130 is the most obvious reference to the compos- er, fleeting allusions to other works appear throughout the quartet. The compact opening RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JUNE 16 – JUNE 29, 2025 72 MARGOBORGGREVE