String Quartets, Opp. 131, 135

Ludwig van Beethoven

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Leonard Bernstein, cond.)

album cover

Intimate String Quartets, Played by an Orchestra

The great conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein once said that his best performances seemed to happen "while I'm away." The implication: That his well-documented ability to drive a symphony orchestra to volcanic (some detractors said "oversized") climaxes came not from any willful direction on his part, but from the cosmos. Maybe he was being modest. More likely he was talking about losing himself, disappearing into the music and making his creative decisions from a deeply intuitive place.

Bernstein must have been really gone when he led the Vienna Philharmonic through this recording of two late string quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven. The idea to transpose works written for four players to an orchestra's string section wasn't his—while a sophomore at Harvard, he attended a performance of the Boston Symphony, conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos's American debut, which included Beethoven's Opus 131 quartet played this way.

The performance made an impression on him and, years later, when he found himself in front of the august Vienna Philharmonic, he asked the group to try the piece, one of Beethoven's late masterworks, in rehearsal. Apparently there were objections—many in the classical music world oppose this type of meddling, arguing that the quartet is an intimate forum, and its themes don't resonate the same way when pumped up. According to legend, however, before the end of the first movement, a rhapsodic adagio, the ensemble was won over.

It's easy to hear why. Bernstein makes sure that the four "voices" remain distinct, and gets the group to move with the intuitive grace of a quartet that's played together for years. He honors the unusual logic of Beethoven's lines, which veer far from traditional classical form. (Opus 131 has seven movements, and Opus 135 opens with a lightweight first movement, saving the meat for the final two.) Part of the strange symmetry can be attributed to Beethoven's health. Most pieces Beethoven wrote after his hearing loss are "about" something—his Seventh Symphony, for instance, is about dance. These two string works, both written in 1826, are not about anything. They're pure music, journeys through unusual chord progressions that are kept on track by slight (and usually unsingable) melodic threads, and development sections that sometimes feel like detours.

The most vivid illustration of Bernstein's performance genius comes in the slow movements. Though he was known to pursue musical extremes, the Adagio of Opus 131 and the Lento of Opus 135 find the conductor demanding balance and subtlety, and getting that plus a mountain-stream liquidity from the Vienna. The result is one of the most sublime recordings in all of music. If, indeed, it was made while Bernstein was "away," we should all find out where he went and make plans to go there immediately.

Genre: Classical
Released: 1979, Deutsche Grammophon (Reissued 1992)
Key Tracks: Opus 135: Lento (third movement), Allegro (fourth movement). Opus 131: Adagio (first movement), Andante (fourth movement).
Another Interpretation: Late String Quartets, Emerson String Quartet.
Catalog Choice: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6, Columbia Symphony Orchestra (Bruno Walter, cond.).
Next Stop: Ottorino Respighi: Pines of Rome, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Fritz Reiner, cond.).
Book Pages: 66–67