Beethoven: The Late String Quartets (Arr. T. Tønnesen for String Orchestra)

Featuring

Terje Tønnesen
Camerata Nordica
Ludwig van Beethoven

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Interpretation

Gustav Mahler, a renowned composer and conductor, arranged Beethoven's String Quartet No. 11 for string orchestra, arguing that it provided an "ideal presentation" for larger concert halls by reinforcing the parts.

Performer Biography

Terje Tønnesen, the artistic director of Camerata Nordica, also founded the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra in 1977 and is the leader of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Critical Reception

Beethoven's late quartets were initially considered "monstrous products of a madness" by critics, who described them as "tortuous, gloomy, overlong and indeterminate spawn of an overwrought imagination."

Composer's Artistic Vision

Theodor W. Adorno, a prominent philosopher and musicologist, viewed Beethoven's late quartets not as finished "works" but as "fragments of a single, clandestine music."

Compositional Technique

The late quartets, specifically Op. 130-133, share a common generative idea: a motif consisting of two semitone steps in different directions, a "secularized" version of the B-A-C-H motif.

Composition History

The first three of Beethoven's late quartets were commissioned by Russian Prince Nikolai Golitsïn, an amateur cellist, in November 1822.

Interpretation

Terje Tønnesen's arrangements for string orchestra aim to strengthen the contrast between powerful and intimate sections by having the latter played by soloists, similar to a concerto grosso.