String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor

The Op. 132 quartet was actually composed before Op. 131, in 1825, but by this stage clock time means very little in Beethoven’s world. His late quartets do not fit into a larger evolving story. Each is utterly a world of its own. The minor-key darkness here is very different from that of Op. 131, as is its overall form. Only the last two movements are linked, and the contrast between the moods of the five movements is marked. It is left to the listener to interpret them as a spiritual journey—for that, in the end, is what Op. 132 does seem to be. A sombre, spare slow introduction presents the basic material, from which an enigmatic “Allegro” springs into nervous life. What follows seems initially to be an easygoing half-scherzo, half-minuet—only initially though. The heart of the quartet is the huge slow movement, "Hymn of Thanks to the Deity from a Convalescent", which begins like a Renaissance church motet and climbs to ecstatic heights from which Beethoven seems to glimpse 20th-century innovations. A baffling little march is violently cut off by a violin recitative, which leads into an anguished finale, based on the tragic theme Beethoven at one time intended for the finale of his Ninth Symphony. Could this be “Ode to Joy”, take two? If so, it is far less determinedly optimistic.