String Quartet No. 7 in F Major

When Beethoven’s three quartets commissioned by and dedicated to Count Andrey Razumovsky were premiered in Vienna in 1806, they were hailed as a milestone in the genre. Nowhere is this more evident than in String Quartet No. 7 in F major (the first of the set). Its opening “Allegro” recalls that from the Eroica Symphony, with its thematic richness and motivic intricacy, the development reaching a powerful climax and the coda further developing its material to a decisive close. Even more radical is the “Allegretto vivace”, a through-composed design closer to sonata structure than a scherzo, and emerging entirely from the stuttering rhythmic idea passed between the instruments at the start. Marked “molto e mesto” (very slowly and sadly), the “Adagio” has an expressive eloquence that is intense even for Beethoven, but whether this has any explicit commemorative purpose (as does the slow movement of the Eroica) remains unclear. A daring flight of fancy from the first violin leads straight into the final “Allegro”, which is based on an unidentified Russian folk tune (in accordance with Razumovsky’s request that each of these quartets include such a melody) and whose unbridled energy and optimism is carried through to the joyful close.