Greetings. I am once again here
with the wonderful Aizuri
String Quartet, and we would like to discuss with you now
Beethoven's string quartet Op. 130
in B-flat major. And so
I'm just wondering, have any you played this piece before?
No, it's our first time.
So, you have come at this with fresh
eyes and fresh ears. What's your impression?
Well, this piece is--provides a lot of challenges,
as I think most Beethoven quartets--
any Beethoven quartet does. But I guess
the challenge in this piece, this movement is that
he goes back and forth between a very slow tempo and a very quick tempo.
So, it's very difficult to get a sense of that tempo. And I guess Miho
is kind of the one who shows us the way,
as regards to the tempo.
And even within the faster portion, for example, you know, he would be
asking you to play really fast notes,
and then all the sudden turn a corner
and play those same fast notes really softly, or
kind of, he has you really running
to lunge at something and then he plants the slow music
again in front of you, and you have to kind of emotionally put on the brakes and
recall that slow music from the beginning and try to--
to keep playing. And that's also a challenge.
Right. And so, this causes problems. How do you play together?
We need a conductor, we need a a leader, and in this case it's you, Miho,
as first violin. And characteristically, the first violin
has the bulk of the leading. Not all of it, but the bulk of the leading because you so often
play the melody. And so,
How do you do it?
I guess there's--part of it is
a physical moving, to show
where a note might start. Also, I think
we all do this together. But there's breathing that happens
before we start playing and that kind of breath will depend on
if we're playing something slow, or if it's something in a quicker tempo.
Would you demonstrate?
Sure.
[DEMONSTRATES]
Now, it's very interesting for me
to watch you, because there
wasn't one lead. I thought I saw three different leads. Because
obviously, you have to lead the first note. But the first note doesn't give you
any sense of tempo at all. You've just started together. So we need a second beat.
So again, there was a motion for the second beat
and then there's a longer note, but for insurance
there was a third lead. So,
that was done with a certain amount of motion.
But this reminds me of something else.
I attended a Budapest string quartet concert where they
began the program with another late Beethoven string quartet, Op. 127, which
begins with these grand chords. And they just started to play.
I didn't see any sign at all.
Well, the Budapest Quartet were our mentors
in the Guarneri String Quartet. And so I-- after
the concert I asked Alexander Schneider, who was
the second violinist of the quartet, "How did you play together?" He said,
"Oh, we eat each other's fingers."
And I said, "You eat other's fingers? The Budapest String Quartet
are cannibals?" But he said, "No
we watch each other's fingers. We don't watch our beautiful
faces, we don't watch the wonderful movements. We watch the finger
going down on the string." So,
that must undoubtedly be the other element in this whole thing.
As you give the lead, everybody's watching
your fingers. They're eating your fingers. Don't take it personally.
So, that's a mechanical thing. But
what is your impression, musically,
of the first movement of this quartet?
It's -- I -- for me, I feel like this first movement,
though it has all these different changes,
or hitches that we kind of have to finesse and
collect ourselves every time we get into something different or drastic,
it's not--that doesn't make us feel
frantic. Or, it shouldn't make us feel frantic. It should make us feel
energized and joyful. And I think especially
the Allegros, the faster portions of this first movement,
are just kind of fanfares.
Or something that's really a call to an intro to a bigger
work. And so it's very exciting.
And Beethoven also, I think, shows a bit of his sense of humor, perhaps.
But this fanfare aspect
that you spoke of, Ayane. I've often--
you have-- you have the slow introduction, and then you have these
scurrying fast notes, and then you have
this figure: long long, short short, long. Which,
I could imagine this played on a
cornet or a trumpet, calling the troops to action.
Karen, would you would you show us or
play for us exactly what that
sounds like?
[MUSIC]
So this, is, in a way, a call to action
for the four of you to play not only the first movement but
for the -- it's a call to action
for the entire piece. It's
it's wonderfully descriptive somehow.
Wonderful movement, wonderful piece.
I wonder whether you'd just play us some of the first movement, please.
Sure.
[MUSIC]
Arnold SteinhardtPerformance Faculty
Dr. Mia ChungInstructor of Interpretive Analysis
