Daniel Chong, violin | Ken Hamao, violin | Jessica Bodner, viola | Kee-Hyun Kim, cello
Beethoven String Quartet No. 14 in C# minor, Op. 131
- One of the most profound works in all of Western music.
- Expresses an enormous gamut of human emotions: introspective and extrovert; melancholic and ecstatic; joy and suffering; resignation and defiance, etc.
- Seven interconnected movements played without pause.
- Cyclical relationship of first and last movement themes is compositionally innovative.
- 1st Movement: Slow Fugue – dramatically powerful, suffering, contemplative, philosophical.
- 2nd Movement: Light, quick, joyous, in contrast to the first movement melancholy.
- 3rd Movement: Recitative, serving as a short transition to the fourth movement.
- 4th Movement: Theme and Variations of enormous length, a wide range of moods featuring a theme of great melodic charm, contrasting with some abstract and difficult to comprehend variations.
- 5th Movement: “Scherzo” full of teasing humor and surprise. One of the earliest uses of sul ponticello, a technique that creates a glassy, slightly scratchy effect.
- 6th Movement: Haunting, painful, sobbing in G-sharp minor, the dominant key leading to the C#-minor Finale
- 7th Movement: Melody is an inversion of the first movement fugue theme. A defiant and explosive conclusion ending triumphantly in major mode.
About
Parker Quartet
Internationally recognized for their “fearless, yet probingly beautiful” (The Strad) performances, the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet has distinguished itself as…
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"[The opening fugue of Op. 131] is the most melancholy sentiment ever expressed in music." -Richard Wagner
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