Violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter and Ye-Eun Choi, violist Vladimir Babeshko, and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott (from the San Francisco Symphony event page for last night’s recital)
Last night in Davies Symphony Hall, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter gave the second of her two Great Performers Series recitals organized by the San Francisco Symphony, concluding Beethoven250 programming for the month of January. The program was devoted entirely to chamber music for strings (without piano). Two of the early string trios of Ludwig van Beethoven (both composed before 1800) framed a performance of the Opus 74 (“Harp”) quartet in E-flat major, the fourth of the five so-called “middle period” quartets, composed in 1809. For these performances Mutter was joined by Ye-Eun Choi on second violin in Opus 74, along with violist Vladimir Babeshko and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott.
Opus 74 was probably the most familiar offering on the program, since the quartets tend to receive far more attention than the string trios. It is known as the “Harp” quartet due to a pizzicato theme that gradually grows in importance during the first movement. It was the first quartet Beethoven composed following the three Opus 59 quartets commissioned by Prince Andrey Razumovsky. Like all five of the “middle period” quartets, the music is based on a foundation of diverse rhetorical dispositions, making the experience of listening to a good performance a highly absorbing one.
Sadly, Mutter and her colleagues never succeeded in conveying all of that diversity to the listener. Indeed, about the only rhetorical disposition one encountered was that of aggressive vigor. The pizzicato passages were plucked with so much energy that it seemed as if the performers wanted to be heard across the street in the War Memorial Opera House; and the bowed passages were, for the most part, even more energetic, almost bordering on the violent. The fact is that, while the technical challenges of Opus 74 are definitely up there with the Opus 59 quartets, Opus 74 is one of Beethoven’s sunniest creations, whatever grief he may have been enduring due to his physical condition. It is unclear why last night’s performers were loath to let that sun shine on the Davies audience; but their approach to execution seemed to say little more than, “Don’t bother me, I’m busy!”
Similarly, the two trios on the program, the third of the Opus 9 trios in C minor and the Opus 3 trio in E-flat major, were conceived with the sunny warmth of spring in mind (even when the key was in the minor mode). This was the work of that young Beethoven, who could not get along with his teacher Joseph Haydn but could appreciate every twist and turn of that composer’s capacity for wit. Being defiant in his youth, the problematic student was determined to best his master with an even richer sense of humor (opting for the vigor of his German youth in favor of politer Viennese refinements).
The earlier Opus 3 trio is actually more of a divertimento in six movements, with two minuets and two slow movements framed by the outer Allegro movements. The humor here is more subtle than many of the belly-laughs that emerge in the Opus 9 trios; and, from a structural point of view, Beethoven was more likely reflecting on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, rather than Haydn. However, because the Opus 9 trios are more overt in their witty tropes, the C minor quartet provided and excellent way to begin this program of chamber music for strings.
Sadly, both of the trios suffered the same heavy-handed treatment that had undermined the rhetorical qualities of the Opus 74 quartet. It was as if this program had been conceived to honor Beethoven-the-monument, rather than to throw sunny light on the composer when his spirits were at their highest. Taken as a whole, the selections on the program provided one of the best escapes from the hackneyed “scowling Beethoven” rhetoric; but Mutter and her colleagues never seemed to give much thought as to where that escape hatch was.
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