Expert: David Froom - 5/24/2003

Question
David,

 Hello again. I saw a recording of the Allegretto from Beethoven's 7th performed in String Quartet version on a cd many years ago (just the 2nd mvmt, not the complete symp).  Do you have any idea where I can obtain this?  I've tried Google, Tower, Amazon... no avail.

Thanks.
Tim

Answer
Hi,

Those are the same sources I tried, and also to no avail.  I've never heard of this arrangement.  I also tried some large libraries (online catalog of Univ. of Michigan, and New York Public Library).  You might have some luck looking in these places (Google can get you to the library search sites).

I found this on the web (see below).  I can't find the similarities between the seventh symphony Allegretto movement and the slow movement of Razumovsky 3, but this is what someone wrote, so there may be something there.  You might take a listen to Razumovsky 3 (Opus 59, No. 3) and see what you can hear.

Good luck -- David Froom
(quote found on web below)

Although it [the 7th Symphony] was the first symphony he had written in several years since the marathon concert of December 1808, some of the abundant musical ideas found in this work came from elsewhere: the dactylic theme of the allegretto first appeared in the slow movement of the third Razumovsky string quartet; the trio section of the third movement was based on an Austrian pilgrims' hymn.