Overture

A long-time colleague, who has had the privilege of knowing Charles Rosen aswell as I, recalled an occasion some years ago when they were together andthe subject of Beethoven’s four-hand arrangement of theGrosse Fuge, Op. 134, came up. Rosen, without pausingto catch a breath, burst out: “But ____, you know that it’sunplayable!”

Since the artist rendering this judgment plays Beethoven’s“Hammerklavier” Sonata, Liszt’s Reminiscenceson Don Juan, Boulez’s Third Sonata, and Carter’sNight Fantasies with equal aplomb, you are obligated totake the charge seriously. General support for Rosen’s position comesfrom the utter rarity of Opus 134 on four-hand programs. Ask yourmusic-loving friends how often they have heard it, either live or on disk,and you will witness a great deal of head scratching. Is there anyexplanation? This is a story still largely untold.

For more than 175 years, Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge, Op.133, intended as the original finale to the 1825 String Quartet in B-flatMajor, Op. 130, has stood at the pinnacle of classicalcounterpoint—rugged, unflinching, take-no-prisoners counterpoint, tobe sure, but grand counterpoint nonetheless. Eighteen minutes in duration(exceeding by more than double, for example, the impressive fugues thatclose the Gloria and Credo of the Missa solemnis, Op. 123),it remains the most encyclopedic treatment not only of fugue but of thematicdevelopment since Bach.

The general outlines of the story of Beethoven’s friends interveningwith their misgivings about the appropriateness of Opus 133 as a finale toOpus 130 are well known. What is more elusive is why Beethoven eventuallyacceded to their wishes (especially those of his publisher, MatthiasArtaria), for his late works show little regard for the conventions ofeither composition or performance, and equally little regard for theirpublic reception. Even more mysterious is why Beethoven would have agreed tothe proposition of a four-hand piano arrangement when he had in fact nevermade or sanctioned the keyboard arrangement of one bar of his stringquartets.