BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van
String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6
IV. Melancholy. Adagio – Allegretto quasi allegro
Vera Martínez-Mehner, guest professor
Mendelssohn Quartet
Seonhye Song, violin
Ana Siegreich, violin
Maayan Gabel, viola
Guillem Gràcia Soler, cello
Following the performance, Vera Martínez-Mehner points out that in the Presto right at the end, they should not start forte. She also offers general comments on the final movements of this quartet: they must be more precise in the harmonic shifts and when a new structure appears, starting and ending them with greater precision and preparing them more effectively.
Regarding the performance of this movement, the professor congratulates them because it is difficult to maintain the appropriate tension at such a slow tempo. She asks why they played a certain point with a different metric accent than usual and whether it might be more suitable to play it on the pulse, even if it makes playing together more challenging. Returning to the beginning, she asks them to sing it so they can realize the most appropriate character and articulation before imitating it while playing. She also suggests bowing changes to see what works best for the sound.
The professor also provides guidance to improve expressiveness, tonal balance between voices, legato in piano, dynamics, phrasing, intonation, rapport in entries, articulations, etc. The professor plays the beginning of the final Presto with them as a demonstration.
Language: English
