27. Coffee Concert

A cello's life and death

Beethoven’s F major quartet was named Razumovsky after the violin-playing Count who paid the commission fee. It was in its time a revolutionary work for its opening movement gave the spacious, flowing, gently beautiful main theme to the cello, freeing at one leap the instrument from its life of toiling on the bass line. The other novelty was the length of the quartet, having found a tremendous theme he proceeded to luxuriate in it. Also nothing quite prepares the listener for the long-breathed beauty of the Adagio that eventually leads directly into the lively, dancing Finale, once again led by the fully emancipated cello. The cello is also the subject of Jörg Widmann’s Hunt Quartet as it slowly becomes clear that the cello has been turned on by his colleagues and musically slaughtered.