Beethoven

by Romain Rolland

2nd Quartet, Opus 18, No. 2, in G. major.

Allegro—Adagio cantabile—Scherzo—Allegro molto quasi Presto.

This quartet is even more like Mozart and Haydn than No. 1, except for the fact that Beethoven keeps his music in rather higher registers. The Adagio is not so Beethovenish as the slow movement of No. 1, but it contains an episode marked Allegro. The Finale is full of spirit, but it is not the Beethoven in the "unbuttoned" mood of the later works. There is some effective work for the G string on the 1st Violin, for Paganini had already cast his glamour over Europe.