Beethoven : Quartet Op. 59 No. 1, Op. 59 No 2
Quatuor Ébène- String Quartet Nb.7 opus 59/1 "Rasumovsky" in F Major : Allegro
- String Quartet Nb.7 opus 59/1 "Rasumovsky" in F Major : Allegretto vivace e sempre scherzando
- String Quartet Nb.7 opus 59/1 "Rasumovsky" in F Major : Adagio molto e mesto
- String Quartet Nb.7 opus 59/1 "Rasumovsky" in F Major : Allegro (Russian theme)
- String Quartet Nb.8 opus 59/2 "Rasumovsky" in e minor : Allegro
- String Quartet Nb.8 opus 59/2 "Rasumovsky" in e minor : Molto adagio
- String Quartet Nb.8 opus 59/2 "Rasumovsky" in e minor : Allegretto
- String Quartet Nb.8 opus 59/2 "Rasumovsky" in e minor : Finale: presto
Beethoven’s 16 string quartets occupy a place of honour in the chamber repertoire and, like his nine symphonies and 32 piano sonatas, trace his progression through his creative life. 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth, and Quatuor Ébène is recognising this with an extensive tour, entitled Beethoven Around the World, which runs from Spring 2019 to December 2020. Over that period the French ensemble will give over 120 concerts in a total of 21 countries on six continents, focusing on complete cycles of the quartets from February 2020.
Beethoven Around the World encompasses live recordings for Erato, building a complete cycle, made in seven of the world’s great cities: Vienna (at the Konzerthaus); Philadelphia (Kimmel Center); Tokyo (Suntory Hall); São Paulo (Sala São Paulo); Melbourne (Melbourne Recital Centre); Nairobi, and, with the support of UNESCO, Paris (Philharmonie de Paris). In addition, the tour will provide the subject matter for a documentary film, to be released at the end of 2020 – also the year in which the Quatuor Ébène celebrates its 20th birthday.
The whole idea for Beethoven Around the World began to take shape in 2014, when Quatuor Ébène received an invitation from Carnegie Hall in New York to perform the Beethoven cycle. The ensemble will appear in six concerts at the legendary venue in Manhattan in April and May 2020.
Speaking of the tour, the members of Quatuor Ébène say: “This is where Beethoven goes global. The quartets are 16 masterpieces that form an eternally modern artistic canon of unparalleled breadth and depth – they translate the purest humanity into music. In themselves they represent an odyssey, a round-the-world voyage.” The players believe that the composer’s music “transcends all linguistic, geographical and political borders ... Both modern and timeless, it is universal. It cannot be readily classified as Classical or Romantic, as German, or even as Western, but it is music that expresses itself freely and which addresses the audiences of the future rather than its own time … It can seem complex at first, but everything becomes clear as its essence emerges.”
The ensemble also emphasises that: “The quartet as a genre gives individual players the chance to shine, yet is simultaneously predicated on collaboration and concord: it shows democracy in action. Its emotional and intellectual power is considerable, yet it is also universally accessible as it embodies underlying ideals – enlightenment, fraternity and humanism, as typified by Goethe and by Schiller in his Ode to Joy [the inspiration for the final movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony]. At the same time it is informed by Kant’s ideas on morality, goodwill and the categorical imperative, all of which were gaining currency in Beethoven’s time. It also reflects the German philosopher’s view of our relationship with the natural world, which has such resonance for the environmental issues of today.” Appropriately, the tour will be associated with a carbon offset programme devoted to reforestation.
The two quartets on the first album of the complete cycle were recorded in June 2019 in the Mozart-Saal of the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the city that Beethoven made his home and where he died in March 1827. The works in question are op 59 No 1 (also known as his String Quartet No 7) and op 59 No 2 (String Quartet No 8). Composed in 1806, the year after the premiere of the ground-breaking ‘Eroica’ symphony, they are the first two of the set of three ‘Razumovsky’ quartets. These were commissioned by Count Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna, who played second violin in a quartet led by Ignaz Schuppanzigh, a friend of Beethoven’s. Schuppanzigh had also formed his own professional string quartet in 1804 with the intention of giving public quartet concerts; this was an innovation, since quartet-playing had until then been the preserve of cultivated amateurs like Razumovsky. Beethoven also took an innovative approach in the ‘Razumovsky’ quartets, writing on an ambitious ‘symphonic’ scale, making considerable technical and intellectual demands, and taking the genre into a new era