Tim Summers, violin

Given the spacious ‘Razumovsky’ String Quartets (Op. 59, nos. 1-3), the isolated roar of the ‘Serioso’ String Quartet (Op. 95), and the rarefied and sublime late String Quartets (Op. 127+), it is possible to miss out on the ‘Harp’ String Quartet (op. 74). It’s heard often enough, as any of Ludwig van Beethoven’s string quartets are, but it is curiously hard to define.

There is a period known as ‘heroic’ in Beethoven lore, which runs roughly from the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, Op. 55 (naturally), through the Eighth Symphony, Op. 93. The String Quartet Op. 74 is smack in the middle of that period, opus-number-wise, but it doesn’t quite fit the ‘heroic’ bill. There is an ease and directness about it, especially in the outer movements, which does not indicate the kind of struggle (often pro- or anti-Napoleonic) with which heroic Beethoven is most easily associated. The ‘Harp’ quartet is not totally unlike other works of the period: its middle movements are quite close to the ‘Razumovsky’ quartets in their scope and tone, and the fiery third movement shares a very recognizable (and recognizably heroic) rhythmic motive with the fifth symphony. The last movement, however, disappears into variations, and the piece suddenly becomes more iterative and descriptive than driving or searching. The ‘Harp’ is not a hybrid or a miniature, however: so long as the ‘early’, ‘middle’, or ‘late’ labels are not allowed to overwhelm the piece itself, it stands well on its own.

Op. 74 is known as the ‘Harp’ because of the arpeggiating pizzicatos which pepper the first movement. One can begin to hear in the quartet both the inwardness and isolation of fast-encroaching deafness, and the subsequent (consequent?) freeing of fantasy which drove the late quartets to the limits of what can be imagined. There is some kind of inward relief in the piece; it is one of Beethoven’s most simply beautiful works.