quotes the subject in his third string quartet (1983). There have also been numerous orchestral arrangements of the fugue, including by conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler and Felix Weingartner. Performance challenges Performers approaching the Grosse Fuge face a host of technical and musical challenges. Among the technical difficulties of the piece are difficult passagework, complex cross-rhythms that require exact synchronization, and problems of intonation, where the harmonies pass from dissonance to resolution. Once mastering the technical difficulties, there are many interpretive issues to resolve. One of these is whether the fugue should be played as the finale of Op. 130, as originally written, or as a separate piece. Playing the fugue as the final movement of Op. 130, rather than the light, Haydnesque replacement movement, completely changes the character of the quartet, analysts Robert Winter and Robert Martin note. Played with the new finale, the preceding movement, the "Cavatina", a heartfelt and intense aria, is the emotional center of the piece. Played with the fugue as the finale, the Cavatina is a prelude to the massive and compelling fugue. On the other hand, the fugue stands alone well. "Current taste is decisively in favor of the fugal finale," conclude Winter and Martin. A number of quartets have recorded Op. 130 with the fugue and the replacement finale on separate disks. A second issue facing performers is whether to choose a "learned" interpretation – one that clarifies the complex contrapuntal structure of the piece – or one that focuses primarily on the dramatic impulses of the music. "Beethoven had taken a form that is basically an intellectual form, where the emotions take second place, compared to the structure, and he has completely turned that around, writing one of the most emotionally charged pieces ever," says Sara Bitloch of the Elias Quartet. "As a performer that's a particularly difficult balance to find ... Our first approach was to find a kind of hierarchy in the themes ... but we found that when we do that we're really missing the point of the piece." Tied eighth notes After deciding on the overall approach to the music, there are numerous local decisions to be made about how to play particular passages. One issue concerns the peculiar notation that Beethoven uses in the syncopated presentation of the main subject – first in the overtura but later throughout the piece. Rather than writing this as a series of