Beethoven, Op. 18, No. 4, and Haydn, Op. 77, No. 2

I only played two quartets last night: we were all tired, and one of the violinists was on crutches, recovering from day surgery.  But they were two wonderful quartets, and I think we sounded particularly good.  Part of it was the skill of the players (helped out by the viola bow I'm trying out), but I think part of it is that my living room has really good acoustics for chamber music.  We could really get a clarity of sound when needed!

In selecting the program for this evening, I had prepared a bit of a musicological term-paper topic.  One of the violinists had expressed eagerness to play one of Beethoven's Opus 18 quartets (we played No. 4, in C minor), so I chose from among the few (!) remaining quartets in my Haydn project his last complete one, the Opus 77, No. 2, in F major.  (I didn't realize, until I was preparing this blog post, that this quartet had the nickname "Wait Till The Clouds Roll By".  I can find no explanation for this name: maybe one of you out there can help me?)

I don't know if this is true for everyone, but one tends to keep composers in memory in a kind of chronological order, like Haydn-Mozart-Beethoven.  But that is an oversimplification, and the two pieces from tonight show why.  Both were written in the period 1798-1800, while both composers were living in Vienna, and both were commissioned and dedicated to the same patron, Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowicz.  So the term-paper topic is, "compare and contrast these two string quartets".

Both composers are at the top of their form, I think.  Haydn could probably have gotten away with "phoning it in" to Lobkowicz, but there's no trace of that.  He continues his lifelong exploration of the string quartet, particularly noticeable in the distant keys he reaches in the development section of the first movement, and the shift from F major to D-flat major between the minuet and trio.  Beethoven seems to have delayed his attempt at string quartets, publishing a total of five string trios before the Op. 18, perhaps to make sure he was ready to tackle this already-venerated form.   I think he was definitely ready. :-)  This quartet is a thrill from beginning to end.  It's particularly interesting that the traditional "slow" movement isn't slow at all, but a kind of mixture of sonata and scherzo.

In comparing these two works, you can't even fall back on the rule of thumb, "Haydn writes minuets, Beethoven writes scherzos".  On the minuet-scherzo spectrum, the Beethoven 18/4 is definitely on the minuet side compared with the Haydn 77/2.  ("Scherzo" means "joke" in Italian, and Haydn certainly plays a joke on the viola in this movement.  I thought I'd have three chances to get my tricky rhythmic entrance correct, but as it turns out, I needed a fourth. :-)

I think the fundamental question is, can you tell the difference between a piece written by someone in his late sixties, as opposed to someone in his late twenties?  There's something indescribable in the Haydn that makes it seem like "old music" to me, particularly the beautiful slow movement.  And the Beethoven seems like "young music": in the last two movements he has the tempo increase near the end, which feels to me like a reflection of the impatience of youth.  But I'm not sure if that's just not some sort of projection on my part.  Listen to the pieces and let me know what you think!

P.S.  For those of you keeping track at home, the Haydn Quartet Project stands at 59 played, only nine to go!