In the fourth movement, a Russian theme, softened in the forge of the composer who turns it into raw material for himself, gradually returns to its original form. For a moment, Beethoven becomes fully Russian, which surely did not displease his patron Razumovsky (bar 177), but also premonitorily Schubertian (bar 226), which the Ysaÿe also know how to be and to become. They show how they can let themselves be swept along by the whirlwind of Beethoven’s directional thinking, while at the same time maintaining the course of a ship purposefully steered through the waves and the giddiness of the raging elements. 40 BEETHOVEN • THE COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS
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