The Emerson String Quartet’s cycle of the complete Beethoven quartets
at Carnegie has been distinguished by presenting these masterworks in
context, alongside everyone from Bach, to Brahms, to Bartok. But, the
task left to Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho was unfair by almost any
standard: compose a brand new work and have it premiered on the final
concert of the cycle, sandwiched by what are likely the twin pillars of
the entire string quartet repertoire: Beethoven’s Op. 131 and Op. 135.
Miraculously, Saariaho not only rose to the occasion, she presented a
work of haunting, penetrating beauty. Terra Memoria was written
in memory of the departed, but also for the memories themselves, which
she indicates had a transformative impact on her compositional process.
Without any disrespect to Saariaho, the late Beethoven quartets are, simply put, one of the singular achievements in all of art. For those who consider the string quartet lightweight dinner music, here’s how seriously Beethoven took the genre: after completing the Diabelli Variations, the Missa Solemnis, and the 9th Symphony, he spent the last two-and-a-half years of his life composing nothing but music for string quartet. Some have speculated that the radical, almost otherworldly soundscape of these late works was only possible because Beethoven could not hear what he was writing. But the Op. 135 gives the lie to that assumption: the music is tonal, almost conventional in structure, with only the final movement – famed for it’s "Muss Es Sein? Es Muss Sein!" inscription – venturing into the exotic. The Emerson played it with their usual poise and precision, though for me it didn’t quite measure up to the transporting experience I had hearing the Juilliard Quartet play it at the People’s Symphony in 2005. (Speaking of which, it’s about time the Emerson boys made an appearance at WIHS.)
Even more profound was the Op. 131, which concluded the program, and the cycle. Sprawling over seven movements with only minimal pauses, this was Beethoven’s own favorite quartet: a masterpiece of innovation and grandeur. The Emerson played it at full tilt, absorbing even the most minimal of Beethoven’s markings.
As an encore, the Emerson offered the alternate ending to the Op. 130, written as a replacement for the monumental but unpopular original, better known as the Grosse Fuge. (According to the program, Beethoven was sitting in a local biesl during the premiere performance, and when he heard of the audience’s less-than-enthusiastic response to the final movement, he shouted: "Cattle! Asses!") Gene Drucker reminded us that no Beethoven cycle would be complete without a performance of the alternate ending, and that it was the last thing Beethoven ever wrote. The audience responded with an appropriately long and wild ovation.
Postscript: I was glad to see that I was far from the only sub-40 patron attendance: there were plenty of well-heeled youngsters, most of whom were overly-enthusiastic about what they heard. Makes one wish you heard this music more often…