Beethoven & Schoenberg

Music is not a competition. But if points were awarded, the overwhelmingly beautiful String Quartet No. 14 Op. 131 by Ludwig van Beethoven would probably end up very high. Especially if performed by one of the top quartets of our time, the Belcea Quartet. Tonight, the Belcea Quartet pairs the established mastery of Beethoven with Schönberg’s early String Quartet No. 1, a work that would propel him to become the champion of atonality.

Schönberg’s 1905 quartet consists of one movement of 45 minutes and is written in a late-romantic idiom that recalls the world of Richard Strauss. As an aside, Schönberg himself said that he had learned composing for string quartet from Mozart. Beethoven also chose an unconventional form for his Opus 131, in as many as seven movements. It was Beethoven’s personal favourite out of all his famous late quartets. After a performance of it, Schubert reportedly said: ‘After this, what is left for us to write?’