The second quartet of the Rasumovsky set is even more elaborate than the first. The opening movement, though containing some dark, passionate moods akin to the _Appassionata Sonata_, is nevertheless happy and delicate in tone. Its technical requirements are great. The quartet opens with two strong chords, then a silent bar, which the composer fills in curiously enough in the recapitulation. The lovely long-drawn Adagio in E major is marked by Beethoven _con molto di sentimento_ (with great feeling). Here again he is in his new territory. It is as though he said to the players, "Wake up! this is an entirely new kind of music." The playful _Allegretto_ introduces another Slav folk-song, which can be found in Rimsky-Korsakoff's collection (No. 45). It is sacred and majestic in tone, a song of glory to the Creator. It forms the major _trio_ portion, which is carefully welded on to the return of the opening minor movement. The _Finale_ represents Beethoven's very happiest mood. It starts clean out of the key in C major. Seldom is Beethoven so happy as we find him here in the _Finale_, which although written in the sharp signature throughout, is really in the key of C major; the episodes only and the coda only just managing to restore the balance of E minor. 9th QUARTET, Opus 59, No. 3, in C major. _Introduzione--Allegro vivace--Andante con moto--Menuetto--Allegro molto (Fuge)._ This, the third of the Rasumovsky set, was composed in 1806. Starting clean out of the key, a few bars of _Andante_ introduction gradually lean towards C major. The first movement is remarkably clear and lucid in style and finely coloured in harmony. Beethoven is in one of his happiest moods. The exquisite _Andante_ in A minor opens with a _pizzicato_ bass and ends in the same manner. It is a highly finished movement. The Minuet is of the stately dance order and appears in the tonic key C major. The coda to it ends on the dominant seventh, thus bringing in the remarkable spiccato Fugue which Brahms played from memory as an encore at a concert in Vienna in 1867. The _Una Corda_ set of entries preserving the homogeneity of tone and adding greatly to the effect of the intensity of the _crescendi_ is particularly fine. 10th QUARTET, Opus 74, in E flat. _Poco adagio--Allegro--Adagio ma non troppo--Presto--Allegretto con variazione._