On the Edge

Donald Macleod, Laura Tunbridge and Edward Dusinberre take a look at how Beethoven’s groundbreaking late string quartets were received by the audiences that first heard them.

Just two years before he died, Beethoven returned to an old treasured form, the string quartet. The five quartets he ended up writing would come to be his final major works, and would change the paradigm beyond recognition. Though dismissed by audiences in their day, their composition is now considered a pivotal moment not only in Beethoven’s life, but in the history of classical music. Donald is joined by musicologist Laura Tunbridge, and violinist Edward Dusinberre of the Takács Quartet, to discuss these extraordinary, watershed works that have bewildered and beguiled listeners ever since their creation. Throughout the week, they focus on each of the five late quartets, uncovering the stories, circumstances and conversations that surround them.

Today, we hear from the Op 130 quartet, dive into concert culture of the time, and discover how Beethoven was increasingly at odds with his listeners in perhaps his most enigmatic and baffling movement of all.

Composer of the Week is returning to the story of Beethoven’s life and music throughout 2020 as part of Radio 3’s Beethoven Unleashed season marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

String Quartet in B flat major, Op 130 (2nd movement)
Takács Quartet

String Quartet in B flat major, Op 130 (3rd and 4th movements)
Danish String Quartet

Piano Sonata in G major, Op 79
Louis Lortie, piano

String Quartet in B flat major, Op 130 (5th movement)
Tokyo Quartet

Grosse Fuge, Op 133
Takács Quartet

Produced in Cardiff by Amelia Parker