Description

The Sextet starts with cries of agony – the atmosphere is filled with chaos and turmoil. It is as if the listener had been thrown onto the surface of a hostile planet, devoid of any comprehensible life. In the second movement, vivid life forms begin to appear, at first frightening, but soon starting to take gentler forms, which eventually start to take the music closer to the key of G major. The last movement starts with a recitative, a gesture often found in late Beethoven.

There is a feeling that we are approaching something important – mysterious gates slowly open, revealing a Cavatina, followed by a set of variations. The progression of these variations eventually leads also to dissonant memories from the beginning of the work, but those dissonances are finally resolved in the last variation, which ultimately finds its peace and begins its ascension toward the skies and to the radiant brightness of G major.

- Olli Mustonen

Instrumentation

2vln, 2vla, vlc, db

Category

Chamber Works

Premiere

Meta4 (Antti Tikkanen, Violine, Minna Pensola, Violine, Tabea Zimmermann, Viola, Atte Kilpeläinen, Viola, Tomas Djupsjöbacka, Violoncello), Janne Saksala, Kontrabass, 9. February 2020, Bonn, Germany

Movements

I Drammatico e misterioso, II Vivace e inquieto, III Recitativo e Cavatina con variazioni

Commisioned by / dedications

Commissioned by the Beethoven-Haus Bonn

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