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- Donnacha Dennehy
Wig (2019)
(After Beethoven's Op. 135, II)- Music Sales Corporation (World)
Commissioned by the National String Quartet Foundation of Ireland with funds provided by the Arts Council of Ireland
Programme Note
Composer note
I like that Beethoven's final complete composition, his op. 135 for string quartet, flies in the face of the narrative that many have tried to build around his late works, that of Beethoven the Romantic hero. But Beethoven was not just that, of course. Op. 135 hearkens back to the wit of his teacher, Haydn, probably the leading writer of string quartets before Beethoven himself. I love the joy and the playful pushing of form in this quartet, where wrong turns work like viruses in the music. My short quartet, Wig, builds off of these viruses in the second movement of op. 135.
— Donnacha Dennehy