The Presto of this same Quartet op.130 is taken to the extreme limit of tempo, a furious whirlwind that the numerous repeats only serve to stretch like a spring: the surge of the three accompanying instruments merely nourishes the waves of accumulated energy in the first violin, which becomes so agitated and amplified that it seems to lose its expression – but never the speed, never the tempo, nor the mastery that forces the dynamics back down to the level indicated by the composer. As a result, the unexpected pizzicati in the second violin in bar 96, ten bars before the end, gain their coherence: they underline the need to put the brakes on an irrepressible momentum, to tame it. In the Andante, where they navigate between extreme sensitivity, élan and unfailing taste, the musicians remain extremely attentive to the sempre pp marking, as if to restrain this fuller energy and avoid excessive inflation of the episode – aiming only to renew the way we listen, to reinvigorate it in this recapitulation which becomes lyrical once more and reverts to the textures of the opening. 44 BEETHOVEN • THE COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS
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