FLINDERS QUARTET
Elizabeth Sellars • 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 August 2024 in the Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, Wurundjeri Country/Southbank
This project was made possible through support from Creative Victoria and FQ’s Fifth String donors
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770-1827
String Quartet No.16 in F major, Op.135 (composed 1826)
I. Allegretto
II. Vivace
III. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo
IV. Grave, ma non troppo tratto - Allegro
Beethoven was 55. Outside his art, his life was in almost total disarray. The mess in his rooms was legendary. To be seen with him in the street was an embarrassment.
Around this time, Beethoven was planning an opera dealing with the fairy Melusine, who was half snake on Saturdays. It was claimed that Beethoven had complete pieces sketched in his head, along with two movements of another symphony in C minor, and the first movement of a string quintet. But what emerged was this quartet in F
Beethoven wrote to Schlesinger (his publisher), “Here, my friend is my last quartet. It will be the last; and indeed it has given me much trouble. For I could not bring myself to compose the last movement. But as your letters were reminding me of it, in the end I decided to compose it. And that is the reason why I have written the motto: The decision taken with difficulty - Must it be? - It must be! It must be!”
The first movement has so many elements and ideas, it is surprising that Beethoven manages to keep it so concise. As a quartet, it feels like being in a conversation where the subject is constantly changing and then circling back. He opens with a rather mercurial opening motif and a cantus firmus (generally known as a pre-existing melody of 8-16 notes) which you will hear very early on, played by all four instruments in unison. Beethoven rather cleverly begins the development with a vaguely fugal passage, which combines the cantus firmus with the opening motif.
The second movement matches the raucous trios of the Op.59, No.2 and the Op.74. After an extremely symmetrical exploration of eight-bar phrases, the quartet is interrupted by some loud, unexpected E flats. Life returns to normal, with the main figure turning itself into a frolic in A major; which is said to be Beethoven's rustic key. One critic aptly describes this passage: "Even when Beethoven seems to have lost all self control, and to have worked himself up into the wildest frenzy, he sees the world with eyes that are as clear as ever. But he is not afraid to draw aside the curtain that veils the abyss. He knows no fear of chaos, out of which matter is made from, because he is aware of his power to give form to all that his eyes have seen."
In the scherzo, there is a pervasive pedal C throughout the movement. In the next movement, Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo, this pedal rises a semitone and settles on a D flat. Here, Beethoven explores the form of variation and discovers another level of tranquility. Even when he was being "neoclassical", Beethoven couldn't help but further the idea of form and structure to a creative end. You will hear the same tune repeated in different guises and in a way that by no means sounds repetitive.
The final movement is the one that has given rise to so much debate. On the score is written the words Muss es sein?(“Must it be?") under the first three notes uttered by the cello and viola, and this question tortures the quartet until the first violin declares in the major key Es muss sein! ("It must be!"). There are various stories about the origins of those words. Whatever the motivation behind the words, the “must” to the answer "it must be" is decidedly positive and chirpy, making light of any decision-making perplexities. The question motif seems decidedly operatic and in particular, the middle section adds as a centrepiece for the entire movement. Ending with pixie-like pizzicato, Beethoven's humour rings out. After such profundity with the previous quartets and the question posed at the beginning of the movement, it gives a certain insight into Beethoven's mind as he laughs in the face of such adversity.
Right up until the end, Beethoven still had hopes to regain his hearing. There is an entry in his conversation book a few months before he died which gives painful hope: “Linke knows of a quite newly discovered remedy for deafness. It did wonders for one of his friends. Green nut rinds crushed in lukewarm milk. A few drops in the ear…”