Another year, another Beethoven quartet cycle at Suntory Hall’s Chamber Music Garden, their annual festival of chamber music held in the intimate space of the Blue Rose hall. Tackling this marathon of performing all of Beethoven’s string quartets over six concerts is the Schumann Quartett from Germany, following the footsteps of the Elias String Quartet (2023) and the Verus Quartet last year. Formed in 2007 in Cologne and winner of the Bordeaux competition in 2013, the quartet consists of the three Schumann brothers, Erik, Ken, Mark, and viola player Veit Hertenstein, who joined in 2022. Although the Schumanns have a link to Japan through their Japanese mother, it had been eight years since their last visit.
I attended Day 2 of their Beethoven journey, when they played three string quartets Op.18 no.2, Op. 59 no.2 (the second “Razumovsky” quartet) and Op.132. There are numerous ways of ordering the 16 quartets for a cycle, and I’m sure every group gives a lot of thought to it. The Schumann Quartett chose a balanced approach, basically placing an early, middle and late-period work in each concert, and furthermore giving a title to each instalment to “highlight a different aspect of Beethoven’s musical evolution”. For example, this concert was entitled ‘Holy Song’, obviously inspired by Beethoven’s inscription in the slow movement of Op.132, “Heiliger Dankgesang”, but all three works featuring serene slow movements.
Of the three quartets performed, the middle-period Second Razumovsky shone, both in style and in spirit. This E minor work was played with energetic drive, bold articulation and virtuosic brilliance, bringing out the contrast between the stormy, dramatic first movement and the cantabile of the second movement which anticipates that of Op.132, as well as the vivaciousness of the latter two movements including the Russian-themed Allegretto. The group played with a consistently sonorous tone and technical finesse. To be expected, the three brothers have an identical sense of phrasing and timing and a homogeneity of tone which must come from playing together since their childhood. Viola player Hertenstein is a good match technically and stylistically, although tonally slightly darker. Clearly the first violinist Erik leads the music making and the others respond actively, although at times I wished for more gravity and grit from the lyrical-toned cellist.
The opening work, the second of the Op.18 set, is not often heard outside cycle performances, but it’s a charming work that displays the youthful Beethoven’s indebtedness to his teacher Haydn as well as his innovative ideas. Here too, the cantabile slow movement is particularly attractive which starts conventionally but surprises the listener with a bustling middle section. The work was performed with agility, exuberance and wit.
Performing Beethoven’s deeply probing penultimate quartet (composed two years before his death) this early in the cycle must be challenging. After the dynamism of Razumovsky 2, I was expecting a transition to a more inward and meditative approach, but in fact the Schumann Quartett approached it quite straightforwardly and swiftly (at around 43 minutes, it was a brisk reading) and the ‘Holy Song’ movement, composed after Beethoven’s recovery from a serious illness, had serenity and luminosity but there could have been more emotional introspection. The fourth and fifth movements had momentum, and overall, it was a clear-sighted performance, but one couldn’t help wondering if they had played this work later in their cycle, whether they might have dug a little deeper. As an encore, they offered a taster of their next instalment with the Scherzo from Op.18 no.3.
