UW Pro Arte to Perform Beethoven String Quartets

Russia, 1812. Acclaimed cellist Bernhard Romberg encounters Beethoven’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1 for the first time. The celebrated musician responds by flinging his part to the floor and trampling it underfoot. Other musicians and audiences rudely receive the work, heaping scorn, laughter and other derisions upon it during performances.

The reason for the movement’s unseemly reception lies in the piece’s beginning, which relies primarily on rhythm, an approach apparently far too radical for the early 19th century.

Modern audiences will be able to draw their own conclusions when the work is performed during the second leg of the Wisconsin Union Theater’s complete Beethoven String Quartet. The series began in November with the Emerson String Quartet; it will conclude April 4 and 5 with the Orion String Quartet. UW–Madison’s renowned Pro Arte will present the third and fourth cycles — including Op. 59 — Feb. 7 and 8. Violist Sally Chisholm promises the ensemble will display much better behavior than the misguided Romberg.

“He didn’t understand at all what Beethoven was doing,” she says. “Then as now, it takes awhile to come to terms with new music.”

Sometimes quite awhile, according to School of Music musicologist Lawrence Earp, author of the program notes for the string quartet series. “Beethoven wrote the string quartets early in the 19th century, but it wasn’t until almost the 20th century that musicians and audience began to apprehend what he was trying to do.”

And what was that?

“When Beethoven was writing, chamber music was intended strictly for home use and private performance,” Earp says. “The Beethoven String Quartets move the genre into a much larger, more public arena.”

Earp says that by the time Beethoven had completed his last string quartets, contemporary reviewers had concluded the composer’s deafness had eroded his musical talents. In reality, the works charted the musical course for the rest of the 19th century and beyond, Earp says. “Brahms and even Wagner both felt the weight of Beethoven’s string quartets,” he says.

Wagner wrote that Beethoven’s disability actually may have freed him, allowing him to create the deeply personal late string quartets unimpeded by prevailing musical tastes. Earp says Brahms destroyed 20 of his own string quartets, believing none measured up to Beethoven’s genius.

Taken in order, the 16 works in the Beethoven String Quartet show a clear progression and, violist Chisholm says, provide insight into Beethoven’s creative development. However, each ensemble showcased in the Union Theater series offers representative samples of Beethoven’s compositional periods, so that audiences attending only one segment will get an idea of the artistic paths he took as time went on.

In addition to the concerts Feb. 7 and 8, the Pro Arte also will perform excerpts of the third and fourth cycles at a University Club luncheon Feb. 5. Reservations, $7, are available at (608) 262-5023/uclub@macc.wisc.edu. Tickets for the Union Theater performances, $20/general public, $10/UW-Madison students, are available at the Union Theater box office, (608) 262-2201.

CONTACT: Sally Chisholm, (608) 263-1935; Lawrence Earp, (608) 263- 1920