I consider Beethoven’s String Quartet op. 130 with its Grosse Fuge as the pinnacle of all quartets. In each of the four movements, Beethoven succeeds in re-inventing the archetypal movement forms with equal intensity, meaning that they are consequently nothing like what they once were. My Beethoven Studies (String Quartets 6-10) explore the cosmos of this so very unique quartet to a greater or lesser degree, and in explicit form in this concluding quartet of the cycle. The Cavatina from op. 130 ...