Beamish: String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 / Beethoven: String Quartet No. 4

Album review

The explanation for this rather unorthodox combination of pieces -- one very familiar Beethoven quartet and two works by contemporary British composer Sally Beamish -- is that the second of the two Beamish works included, the String Quartet No. 2, "Opus California," is based on motives from the first movement of the Beethoven. It is only the first movement of the Beethoven that is involved; each of the four movements uses a different section. So-called bridge passages are chosen in honor of the Golden Gate Bridge and other famous California spans.
That connection seems pretty tenuous, and so it goes with the whole concept here. There is not really much of a connection, beyond an intervallic commonality and some moments of C minor tonality, between Beamish's quartet and Beethoven's; the mood of Beamish's piece is rather lighthearted, as individual instrumental lines in the first movement dance off on their own merry way as they depart from Beethoven's C minor motives. Beamish states that her work is intended to offer "a lighthearted angle both on the Beethoven and on the American experience." Whether anything of value is said about the American experience in the 11 minutes of music that make up this quartet remains for the listener to decide. The opening String Quartet No. 1 takes a similarly breezy attitude toward its Ukrainian, African, and Turkish sources; they lie on the surface, but the composer seems little concerned with their original expressive qualities. The Emperor Quartet offers a fine, tumultuous reading of the Beethoven String Quartet No. 4 itself, but Beethoven's memory has not been well served by this recording.

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