Beethoven String Quartet No.10 – Master Class with Mikhail Zemtsov

INGUZ-Quatret taking Master-Class on Beethoven String Quartet No.10 lead by Mikhail Zemtsov.

Beethoven String Quartet No.10 is another string quartet that INGUZ-Quartet added to the program of 2020 and another String Quartet that somehow feels like overlooked. Yes, It is devilish to play.

I have been in endless search for the right sound, right imitation of the Composer intention, it is pretty challenging composition. Two characters developing in concordance, hope and fear..

This Quartet has a nick name "Harp", a definite "middle period" work, is followed quickly by the more innovative "Serioso" and then the late quartets, and it is preceded by the more landmark "Razumovsky" quartets of just a few years earlier. Even the earliest Op. 18 quartets appear more frequently on concert stages.

Yet Beethoven's String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major is a glorious work: full, rich and befitting the middle period character known as "Eroica."

Bountiful, beneficent, lavish and even sensuous, the "Harp" even features a dash of impressionistic pointillism with the first movement's elegant pizzicato sections giving rise to the quartet's historical nickname. Each of the four movements is a uniquely shaped touchstone of the multi-movement sonata form types and there is an overarching vector of momentum that joins these movements into a miraculous unity of purpose, design and expression. With its prevailing vitality, heart, invention and accessibility, one is almost tempted to call this Beethoven's most "perfect" quartet. And yet, it is devilish to play.