Olympic Arts Chamber Music Festival; Guarneri String Quartet at the Japan America Theater; Part 3

<v Speaker>With intermission drawing to a close, we welcome you back for the second half of this <v Speaker>concert broadcast by the Guarneri Quartet, at the Japan America Theater in Los Angeles. <v Speaker>The third of seven concerts broadcast from the Olympic Arts Chamber Music Festival. <v Speaker>On this half of our All Beethoven program, we'll hear a single work. <v Speaker>The String Quartet in A-minor opus 132. <v Speaker>Sketches for the opening of this quartet are intermingled in Beethoven's notebooks with <v Speaker>ideas for the opening of the Grosse Fuge. <v Speaker>So it is no mere coincidence that both works begin with the same configuration <v Speaker>of semitones, a significant pitch pattern that in one form or another is <v Speaker>found in the outer movements of three of the late quartets. <v Speaker>As in the quartet, which opened our program, the focal point of the A-minor quartet is <v Speaker>the slow movement. Here's subtitled Holy Song of Thanksgiving <v Speaker>to the Deity from a Convalescent. <v Speaker>In his book on the Beethoven quartets, musicologist Joseph Kermond writes, <v Speaker>Like the Grosse Fuge, this movement is utterly radical in conception a

<v Speaker>fantastic vision, devastating. <v Speaker>And indeed, the violent, dramatic contrasts of the Grosse Fuge are counterbalanced <v Speaker>by the central movement of the A-minor quartet, which creates a sustained <v Speaker>meditative calm that prompts amazement at the range and wealth of Beethoven's <v Speaker>emotions and imagination. <v Speaker>The five movements of the A-minor quartet progress in an arch form, beginning with <v Speaker>a movement in Sonata Allegro form. <v Speaker>Next, a scherzo followed by the central adagio, then a brief march. <v Speaker>And finally, the closing Sonata Rondo. <v Speaker>And here are Arnold Steinhardt, John Dalley, Michael Tree and David Soyer, as <v Speaker>the audience welcomes the members of the Guarneri String Quartet once again to our stage <v Speaker>at the Japan American Theater. <v Speaker>And now we'll hear the final work on our program.

<v Speaker>The String Quartet in A-minor opus 132 by Beethoven. <v Speaker>[music plays]