String Quartet No 8, Op. 59 No. 2 (Beethoven)
Movements
i Allegro ii Molto adagio (Si tratta questo pezzo con molto di sentimento) iii Allegretto iv Finale. Presto
Notes
The String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2, was published in 1808. This work is the second of three of his “Rasumovsky” cycle of string quartets, and is a product of his “middle” period.
According to Carl Czerny, the second movement of the quartet occurred to Beethoven as he contemplated the starry sky and thought of the music of the spheres (Thayer, Life of Beethoven); it has a hymnlike quality reminiscent of a much later devotion, the “Heiliger Dankgesang” hymn to the Divine in the Quartet Op. 132.
