集异壁

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‘Große Fuge’, Opus 133, initial finale to Opus 130Yifan Yang 00346094The recordings I used in this essay are from the Hollywood Quartet, the Melos Quartet, the Vegh Quartet, the Takács Quartet and the Italiano Quartet. The following table shows the years of their recordings, in row 2. This table also shows the time of each segments of the recordings, from which we can see the general tempo of each performance. Quartetto Italiano is the slowest, in every segement. Indeed, they have shown some really different features compared to the other performances, thus I’ll discuss them in a separate section. First, I’ll compare all the other four recordings segment by segment.

Hollywood Italiano Melos Takács Vegh

Year 1958 1969 1986 2005 1986

Overtura – Fuga, Allegro 4:53 5:29 4:53 4:26 4:49

Meno mosso e moderato 3:06 4:18 2:47 2:48 2:35

Allegro molto e con brio 3:40 3:53 3:32 3:13 3:54

Meno mosso e moderato 1:03 1:27 0:55 1:03 1:06

Allegro molto e con brio 1:55 2:03 1:49 1:34 1:50

Allegro 1:23 1:35 1:16 1:21 1:21

Total Time 16:00 18:51 15:52 14:25 15:35

Overtura

At the beginning, Beethoven used two octave jumps as a way accent the first note, but the dynamic marking is still forte instead of fortissimo, leaving a space for the subject to be more emphasized. In all these performances, Takács did the best in that they reserve some space for the fortissimo subject, especially in the latter two notes, while really used the octave jumps to accent.After the statement of the subject, there are two repeats of a gigue-like version of the subject. This is the identical form with the subject in the third segment whose tempo marking is ‘Allegro molto e con brio’. Vegh choose to slow down here, Takács accelerate a little bit, while the others keep their tempo. They both made decisions: Vegh wanted to state this form of the subject more clearly, while Takács is making connections with the third segment. Thus for Vegh, this overture segment is really an overture which serve to present the materials. Takács treats this segment an integral part of the piece. Before the Fuga section begins, there is a re-statement of the subject on the first violin, in which every half note is actually two connected quarter-notes. Beethoven did this for a reason. Part of it, I think, has something to do with the pianissimo marking: Beethoven wanted it played with a sense of carefulness and retraction. Melos, Vegh and Takács more or less did it differently with the half-note subject. Among them, Vegh states this the most clearly with a clear sense of move and retraction, which is consistent with their approach in the gigue-like subject: clear-statement. What Takács did is interesting: they played it significantly faster while softer, creating a more careful and mysterious feeling. They used the same kind of treatment in the other transitions between segments too.

Fuga – Allegro

I especially like the Takács in this segment. They used a much faster tempo than the other three, creating much more tension and heat, which belong to this segment. While keeping this fast tempo, they can still keep the clearness and details of this complex part. Many notes and phrases shrink due to the fast tempo, but they still keep the shape and can readily be heard. This makes the whole mixture more coherent while keeping the identity of the different voices. They did really well in control and balance while performing this part. The cello voice can always be heard, not too strong but steady, sounds very elegant.

Measure 31 – Measure 58

The Fuga section begins by four entries of the subject and the counter subject, increasing in complexity. The subject is first on the viola, then on the first-violin accompanied by the cello on the attacking beat, and then on second-violin accompanied by the cello on the resting beat, and then on the first-violin accompanied by the second-violin on the resting beat. In the fourth entry, the two violins can be heard equally while in the third entry, the cello is harder to be heard than the first violin. Thus there is a gradual increase of the sense of argument, and the rhythm of the subject gradually changes to a feel of 2/2 from 4/4. In the Hollywood performance, cello in the third entry can hardly be heard, thus damaging this gradually heating up feeling (this may be due to the recording technique).On the micro-level, Vegh and Takács didn’t accent the long note in the dotted note rhythm of the counter-subject as much as Hollywood and Melos, especially in the latter entries. This, in effect, decreases the fierceness of the counter-subject, while creating a little bit dance-like effect. In the contrary, Melos played the counter-subject too fiercely, damaging the balance between the two subjects.

Measure 59 – Measure 94

A moto perpetuo voice is carried in turn by one of the four instruments throughout this part. Hollywood is amazing that, although their recording technique couldn’t recording the cello individually, we can hear the cello in the following excerpt very clearly while in Vegh we couldn’t (Hollywood 2:31 to 2:40, Melos 2:30 to 2:41, Vegh 2:26 to 2:38, Takács 2:12 to 2:19). The cello voice in the counter-subject in the excerpt is actually important in that the viola take over the moto perpetuo in the middle of the counter-subject while the cello goes on with it. Hearing the cello clearly from the beginning adds a voice to the whole thing, thus contributing more the contrapuntal character of this segment.

Measure 112 – Measure 128

Here, there is a new lyrical texture first appeared on the second violin, then in the cello, then later after measure 120 on viola and cello. With Takács, we can here the contour of these voices very clearly, adding some really fresh elements into the war zone. (Vegh 3:01-3:04, 3:07-3:10, 3:20-3:27) But in other performances, although they are slower, we can’t here these fresh elements as clearly as in the Takács.

Measure 129- Measure 138

Now the lyrical part turns in to direct conflicts between two attacking alternatively voices both with sforzandoes, first between viola and cello, then second violin and viola, then viola and cello, and finally first violin and second violin. The one recording really stands out in the part is the Vegh, but in a bad way. The viola sometimes gets so soft that the conflict bias to the other instrument, thus damaging the overall effect of conflicts.

Measure 139 – Measure 153

The alternatively attacking voices finally got crashed into each other and turned into simultaneously sounding voices of triplets and connected quarter notes. These two different rhythms don’t attack together but are both intense and motive. When more voices are added in, the overall effect is ‘messy’. Vegh, as previous parts, is comparatively more gentle, in the triplets voice. Although they are consistent with themselves and thus reflect their style, I really don’t appreciate that in this part, since here it ought to be messy. Takács with a fast tempo and more irregular rhythm and acceleration, very well creates this ‘messy’ effect while Melos, Hollywood states the two rhythms clearly and steadily. This ‘messy’ effect only found in the Takács recording is really the shining climax of their performance of this part.

Meno mosso e moderato

This segment is a lyrical slower segment consisted of two voices: an episode-like lyrical counter-subject and the original subject. If consider this part to be a song, the Takács performance is one singing alone to oneself, while Hollywood is aria. Takács played very mysteriously and carefully, kept the voice to them. And the original subject sounds like a reflective thinking, as opposed to the moving counter-subject. Hollywood at first slowed down and kept a lot of space for the expressiveness, and they used so many vibratos in the original subject that it became an aria-like sad expression. Vegh and Melos are somewhere in the middle: they keep a similar tempo to the Takács, but played louder than the Takács, thus losing the private feeling of the Takács performance. Vegh sounds even faster, which brings a sense of hurry, dampening the lyrical feature of the whole segment.

Allegro molto e con brio

This part begins by a gigue-like version of the original subject, which is already shown in the overture. Then a gigue-like even livelier free voice adds in. This is the happiest moment of the whole work, better be dancing and jumping. The tempo marking is ‘Allegro molto e con brio’, which has to be faster than ‘Allegro’. But Takács is already fast enough in the first ‘Allegro’ segment, an even faster tempo affect dancing rhythm. The tempo that I’m most satisfied with in this gigue-like segment is the Melos’, that’s gigue. Vegh consistently keep the voice a little, sounding gentle and careful. Hollywood is somewhere between Melos and Vegh.The following are some painful waiting for the original subject, where dissonant and anxiety builds up in the process. The process is so long that the audience might get impatient if the performer boringly did the same thing along the process.The Melos’ and Hollywood’s strategy is bring the gigue-like rhythm is back starting from measure 420, although not at its full strength, mixed with the anxiety and dissonant shout-out. Similar to what happened in the last part of the first Allegro segment (the triplets), The Takács accelerated, creating a crashing and messy effect, very well builds up the anxiety. But they came back to the dissonant and anxious in the end of this segment. These two different approaches has something to do with the relation to the following segmentMeno mosso e moderatoI called this segment the choral segment, because, there are clearly independent melodies going simultaneously instead of fighting and interrupting each other. I think this is the emotionally high point of the whole work. I wouldn’t call it the climax, but the most light and grateful moment of the work. Different quartets have different approaches to emphasize this emotion.Melos and Hollywood accelerate at the beginning of the segment, because they have already built up some happy emotion in the previous segment, in the gigue-like rhythms. Thus they used their whole strength to be thankfulness from the very beginning. However for the Takács, they used some very elastic bow at the beginning and generally is not as happy as Melos, but in a more grateful type of emotion.

Allegro molto e con brio

Now the gigue is back. This time, the Takács is still the fastest. But after the silent half of the previous segment, Takács seems the happiest, instead of the sense of hurry in the first time. Melos’ first violin sings more, while the other performance concentrate on the dance. It’s consistent that Melos pluck the string so loud, which creates a consistent singing effect.

Allegro

The ‘coda’ of the work begins by the original counter-subject in allegro and the counter-subject showed in the overture in meno mosso e moderato. Takács contrast the most between these two subjects. The whole work conclude very definitely and satisfactory, but Takács finished the best since they really have a great control over the continuous fortissimo quarter notes that they sounds crisp and most staccato, which is really special, and a real sense of great opera coming to an end.

Quartetto Italiano’s performance

Italiano’s performance is so different that I had to write a section for them. I don’t like their approach but I’ll talk about their general feature and their effects. Generally speaking, they are slow, nearly in every segment. Like in the first segment. Being slow nearly lost all the tension. In the Meno mosso e moderato segments, the lyrical and choral features are turned into speaking sections in Italian opera, which is really different and which I really don’t like. This does the same thing to the gigue: gigue should be happy and jumping while they don’t in italiano’s performance.

As a Summary, I like Takács the best because their tension, contrast and wonderful ‘messy’ effect. Melos and Hollywood is really great at the choral segment, while Hollywood is amazing in keeping the individuality of the voices. Vegh is mostly too careful and have their hands tied. (I mean being gentle too much, making statements too much.) Italiano is different in nealy every segment because of their tempo, which I dislike.