FLINDERS QUARTET
Natsuko Yoshimoto • guest violin
Wilma Smith • violin
Helen Ireland • viola
Zoe Knighton • cello

AGATHA YIM, POLYPHONIC PICTURES filming and editing
THOMAS GRUBB, MANO MUSICA sound engineering, editing and mastering

Filmed July 2023 in the Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, Wurundjeri Country/Southbank

This project was made possible through support from Creative Victoria and Creative Australia

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN  1770-1827
String Quartet No. 7 in F major, Op. 59, No. 1  (composed 1806) 

I. Allegro
II. Allegretto vivace e sempre scherzando
III. Adagio molto e mesto
IV. "Thème Russe": Allegro 

There are many connections between Maconchy’s fifth quartet and Beethoven’s seventh. Both written on the heels of war and upheaval at times when the creation of music can make sense of the chaos; not to mention the similarities between the two composers forging their own paths and uncompromising in their artistic ideals. Both were fascinated with how much can be developed from a small idea, both have an innate sense of structure, and both began their works on the dominant (fifth scale degree) of the home key. The last point may be coincidence rather than design, but it does well in the connection of these two works.

Written in 1806, at the age of 36 in a year that his brother married and his infamous nephew was born, as well as a year that Napoleon was wreaking havoc in Europe, the three Razumovsky Quartets (Beethoven’s Op. 59 set) were met with a great deal of irritation. Czerny, one of Beethoven’s most famous pupils, told of how at the first play through, the players simply laughed and thought Beethoven was making a huge joke on them. When the Italian musician, Felix Radicati (to whom Beethoven sent the manuscript for fingerings) asked Beethoven if he actually considered these works to be music, Beethoven gave the now infamous reply, “Oh, they are not for you but for a later age.”

A Haydn enthusiast, Razumovsky played second violin in various quartets. The Count seems to have been a real forward-thinking man, and these works did not frighten or disappoint him. He knew Beethoven was a genius and asked for lessons to understand quartet composition. Beethoven refused. Perhaps genius defies explanation. 

This quartet, the first in the set of three, is the most monumental and is often likened to Beethoven’s third symphony, ‘Eroica’, in scale. The first movement is in clear sonata form, we hear two gorgeous melodies (first introduced by the cello) rollick along, develop and return. Rather than repeat the exposition, Beethoven gives a false repeat: you will be expecting the opening tune, but at the last minute, Beethoven turns a corner and whisks us away straight to the development. The inner motor in this movement gives a delightful energy and a positivity. The second movement begins with the cello in a snare drum type motif calling the rest of the quartet to dance. Apparently, the celebrated cellist Bernard Romberg stomped his foot on the manuscript in disgust because his “tune” only had one note! How dare he be given a tune you could simply tap out on a pencil - a cellist of his stature! Incidentally, Romberg declined the offer of a concerto from Beethoven stating that he preferred to play his own compositions. 

The slow movement - mesto (“mournful”) in its label Adagio molto e mesto - is the longest and most complex slow movement that Beethoven had written since the slow movement of the ‘Eroica’. After a violin cadenza which links the third and fourth movements, the cellist embarks on the ‘Russian Theme’. In its ‘Russian’ version, this theme is in a minor key, is marked Molto Andante, and is a soldier’s lament on his return from the wars. In the exuberant finale, Beethoven turns the theme on its head, placing it in a major key and with a great sense of joy so as to hardly resemble the original.