Beethoven 4 Strings: Part IV

The final word from Beethoven. Beethoven originally ended his Quartet N° 13 with the Grosse Fuge – a colossal, almost violent piece of music that left audiences baffled. His publisher begged him to replace it with something more approachable, and remarkably, Beethoven agreed. The new finale he wrote was lighter, warmer, almost playful – and it turned out to be the last complete piece of music he ever composed. The Quatuor Ébène pairs it with the expansive «Rasumowsky» Quartet N° 1, which even sneaks in a Russian folk tune as a nod to the count who commissioned it.