In October 1810, Beethoven completed his 11th String Quartet, to which he added the unusual title “Quartetto serioso.” This is a tight and intense work, and experimental in ways that seem to presage his late string quartets.
Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 11 wasn’t performed until 1814, and it wasn’t published for another two years. In October 1816, Beethoven wrote to a London publisher:
The Quartett is written for a small circle of connoisseurs and is never to be performed in public. Should you wish for some Quartetts for public performance I would compose them to this purpose occasionally. (Anderson, Beethoven Letters, No. 664)
In his book on the Beethoven String Quartets, Joseph Kerman writes of the String Quartet No. 11,
this is first and foremost a problematic work which thrusts in the direction of eccentricity and self-absorption. But Beethoven at his most quirky is Beethoven possessed. In this quartet, as in none of the others so far, he evokes that almost tangible sense of the artist assaulting a daemon of his own fancying…
The F-minor Quartet is not a pretty piece, but it is terribly strong — and perhaps rather terrible…. the piece stands aloof, preoccupied with its radical private war on every fibre of rhetoric and feeling that Beethoven knew or could invent. Everything unessential falls victim, leaving a residue of extreme concentration, in dangerously high tension.” (p. 169)
#Beethoven250 Day 243
String Quartet No. 11 “Serioso” in F Minor (Opus 95), 1810
The Ariel Quartet has performed all Beethoven’s string quartets, and before its members reached the age of 30.
In just the first few notes of its opening, the String Quartet No. 11 is on the attack, and the first movement continues with intense defiant fragmented phrases that do not allow more lyrical passages to persist very long.
The 2nd movement of the String Quartet No. 11 is an Allegretto substitute for a slow movement. It begins ostensibly quietly and contemplative, but unexpected fugal passages take us into restlessly irritating chromaticism.
The third movement of the String Quartet No. 11 follows directly from the second. This is a five-part scherzo, with furious fragmented dotted rhythms. The Trio sections feature the first violin playing over shifting chords, but it’s hardly soothing.
The String Quartet No. 11 finale begins with a very tense 8-bar Larghetto expressivo. The 6/8 Allegro that follows should be more relaxed, but it’s agitated as well until a surprising zippy coda bursts into a brief affirmation of joy, much like the coda of the Egmont Overture.
The String Quartet No. 11 was Beethoven’s last string quartet for the next 15 years, at which time he resumed exploring this genre with his final 5¼ masterpieces.