Classical musical "events" are rare. Events on the scale of the Super Bowl -- a "Three Tenors" extravaganza or a performance of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle -- mostly belong to the world of opera. Few look to the realm of classical composition for a bona fide blockbuster any more. Few, that is, other than Jeff Cox, chair of the Music Department at the University of New Orleans.
Cox has had his eye on one musical prize for more than 20 years now, a musical event that usually only happens in major metropolitan areas, and then only rarely: a series of concerts devoted entirely to the 16 string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven. This March, Cox's professional pipe dream (or string dream, in this case) becomes a reality here in New Orleans, as UNO presents the New York-based, all-female Colorado String Quartet for a three-day mini-series of concerts, which viewed as a whole will feature every string quartet written by the German composer. The first series ran in December; this month, the quartet will present the second.
So what makes this such a musical moment? First, there's the art. The Beethoven quartets are considered by many to be the greatest body of work for the string quartet written by any one composer. Second, there's the art of production. Logistically, it's difficult to find a string quartet that is both able to make the time commitment and is up to the challenge. "It's almost like the Olympics of chamber music," Cox says. "Younger quartets very rarely have been able to establish a level of control over this much literature."
It isn't just that there are 16 quartets to contend with; it's that they were written over the course of a lifetime and reflect the evolution of Beethoven's musical genius. "Sometimes a composer will write a group of quartets, and then they go on to other things and they might not come back to that idiom again," Cox says. "But Beethoven came back to [the string quartet] all through his career."
So much so that the 16 quartets can be grouped into three identifiable periods. "We have what we call the early-style quartets, which are heavily influenced by Mozart and Haydn, as [Beethoven] was sort of finding his own voice," Cox says. "And then you have the middle-style quartets where he is starting to really break out and sort of exploring. But the late ones are particularly exciting. He was totally deaf, and he started doing just amazing things. It's sort of like, in a way, his deafness freed him to go inside and not be shackled by convention around him. He gets very, very experimental, and some of the things he does are surprising -- even as we begin the 21st century."
Colorado String Quartet violinist Julie Rosenfeld finds endless fascination in the way Beethoven's loss of hearing affected his writing. "In many ways, he wasn't of the world any more," she says. "He was so involved in his own head that he did many things that even today are considered experimental. The fact of the matter is that he was isolated from everyone else and whatever else was going on; it was only what was inside of himself.
"For us and for the audience, it's a very spiritual and uplifting experience," Rosenfeld continues, "Beethoven had a very difficult life. But he realized that he still had many, many things inside of himself that he needed to give to mankind through his music.
"I think that we see this through his quartets, this incredible giving of himself to humanity. There's a quote from Beethoven, saying that those of you who divine the meaning of my music are delivered from the misery that is this existence. I think that's a very powerful thing."
The internationally renowned quartet has performed the complete Beethoven quartets twice before, but never in quite the concentrated way they will in New Orleans. Rosenfeld says she and Cox have been speaking about the possibility of the quartet performing this way for at least five years, and members of the ensemble have begun preparing, each in their own way. "We run marathons; we are body-building," she says. "This is not a joke. This is really true because these pieces are so physically taxing as well as emotionally. You really need a lot of stamina."
Jeff Cox is grateful for their effort and what it means for New Orleans. "In a city that loves to go hear ensembles -- whether it's a jazz combo or whatever, where there's this wonderful intimacy of going to a club and hearing an ensemble -- people really enjoy the interaction. This is sort of one of the ultimate interactions. To me it is so rare, it is so exciting, to be able to go and realize that this small and subtle experience in a classical world is here for you with one of the world's greatest geniuses of music."
