Beethoven’s three “Rasumovsky” quartets are the first of his important mature quartets. The earlier six op. 18 quartets, fine and excellently crafted as they are, represent Beethoven’s bow to the past, to his compositional mentors Haydn and Mozart.

When Beethoven composed his op. 59 quartets he had established himself as an important composer. Publishers were literally knocking at his door for his works, especially chamber works, which, according to Leonard Altman, had become a “major indoor sport” among the rich in Vienna.

Between the op. 18 and op. 59 quartets, Beethoven went through a profound change in his compositional style and process. Spurred on by his stay at Heiligenstadt, where he took the “cure” to help his persistent bowel problems, he wrote his very personal Heiligenstadt Testament, a revealing letter to his brothers in which he first discusses his ever increasing deafness. After writing this document he wrote his monumental Eroica Symphony and the Op. 59 quartets. All of these works show a huge change in size and proportion. The movements are much larger, broader with a feeling of expanse and development.

These quartets were composed on a commission from Count Rasumovsky, Russian ambassador to Vienna. Beethoven promised to “weave a Russian melody into every quartet”. However, Russian melodies are only found in the first two quartets.

The second quartet is his most intimate of the three. The musical material is dramatic but concise. In opposition to the broad and expansive first Rasumovsky, the second focuses its musical material, beginning with two powerful chords that are structural markers throughout the first movement. The feeling is one of unsettled anxiety but is also matched by moments of longing melancholy.

The second movement is marked “Si tratta quest pezzo con molto di sentimento” (“This piece must be played with great feeling”). It is said that it was inspired by the composer’s “gazing up at the stars and contemplating the music of the spheres.”

The scherzo is typical of Beethoven. The ‘scherzo’ replaces the more customary ‘minuet’. The word scherzo means “joke” in Italian and Beethoven makes great use of the irony by using elaborate accents and syncopations to throw off the effect of the meter. The Trio quotes a Russian melody from Ivan Prach’s collection of Russian Folk Songs; a melody that was later used by Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.

The final movement is the most spectacular. It energy is infectious and the effect brilliant. The rhythms bounce back and forth between the instruments. The quartet ends with a spectacular and brilliant finish.