Are you someone who likes to be in the middle of things? This is the performance for you. Beethoven’s Op. 59 is made up of three quartets. Tonight, we present the middle of the three. Composed in 1808, squarely in the middle of Beethoven’s so called Middle Period, we find ourselves at not only the center of the Beethoven universe, but the actual Universe, capital ‘U.’ Beethoven’s student and friend Carl Czerny revealed that Beethoven conceived the Adagio movement of tonight’s quartet while contemplating the heavens, leading to the familiar nickname for this work, “Starry Night.”
This part of Beethoven’s life, sometimes also referred to as the “Heroic Period,” is loosely framed by two unsent letters, both discovered posthumously. The first (1802), known as the Heiligenstadt Testament, was intended for his brothers. Beethoven laments his poor health, increasing deafness and contemplates suicide before affirming his will to live in order to pursue a higher artistic calling, to transcend earthy discomfort in favor of musical perfection. The second unsent letter (1812) is known by its intended recipient, the Immortal Beloved. Scholars and romantics can only speculate to whom the letter was written.
The period “between the letters” is full of greatest hits. For example, we would never have the disco anthem, A Fifth of Beethoven without the Middle Period; nor the “Emperor” Piano Concerto, and thus Bernstein’s Westside Story. (In fairness, Lenny also borrowed from Beethoven’s Late Period for Westside Story.) The middle period saw 6 Symphonies, 5 string quartets, an opera (Fidelio, Beethoven’s only work in the form and the secret password in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut) and iconic piano works like the Appassionata and Waldstein Sonatas. Busy, busy, busy, with an emphasis on the middle of those three “busies.” Join us at Foundry Vineyards for this heavenly quartet. Breaking with Festival tradition, this work will not feature on the closing Festival Series performance. Therefore, it’s one night only. Don’t miss out!
Doors open at 5 PM.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 (1808)
I. Allegro
II. Molto adagio
III. Allegretto
IV. Finale. Presto
Artists: Girsky String Quartet: Natasha Bazhanov, violin; Timothy Christie, viola/commentary; Artur Girsky, violin; Rowena Hammill, cello