BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van

String quartet in E minor op. 59 no. 2 'Razumovsky'

I. Allegro

Walter Levin, guest professor

Cuarteto Pandora, students

Víctor Vieira, violin

Juan Carlos Maggiorani, violin

Jano Lisboa, viola

Marco André Fernandes Pereira, cello

Professor Levin comments that this quartet is a very emotional piece and needs more strength, so they should take advantage of the sforzati. Levin asks the students several questions about different aspects of the score: whether to anticipate or postpone the trills to the beat, about Beethoven's compositional procedures and the reasons which led him to make certain variants ... Levin makes an exhaustive analysis of the score. They discuss all the technical aspects which have an emotional and dramatic meaning, and those that need to be strengthened more to define the character to the work. They work on dynamics, phrasing and articulations, always giving them a musical reason. Sforzati should be tenuto. They talk about the different articulation of a passage in the recapitulation, before the coda, which has a rhetorical meaning. They identify the specific place where the same tempo of the exposition appears again. Levin emphasizes to follow in detail all the dynamics contained in the score because they always contain a musical explanation. Finally, they work on the last chords and the balance among parts.

Language: English