'Beethoven's final thoughts'
I agree with Gurn that Beethoven regarded Opus 135 to be his fond farewell.
Beethoven informed Schlesiger that it was to be his final quartet, "muss es sein"
"es muss sein".
A work that steps forward from darkness into light, raising seroius questions but framing them wholly in different ways; by directness, humaneness, and way Kundra calls so brilliantly "unbearable lightness of being".
With it's enigmatic question and answer as to whether or not "es muss sein", the work stands between a joke and parable, between quotidian and allegory of necessity. In it's four movements four categories of feeling prevail; in the first, wit, dislocations, and incongruities that surprise and please; in the slow beautiful Lento, lyrical reflection; in the finale, the dialectic of darkness into light, of deep questioning followed by its transformation into joyous, brilliant resolution.
"For Beethoven, as for the greatest literary artist, above all his beloved Shakespeare, comedy is not a lesser form that tragedy but is its true counterpart, the celebration of the human in all things".
Quoted from - Lewis Lockwood.
-----------------------------
With astonishing depth of insight Wilhelm von Lenz made a remark that Okulibisheff quotes with a sneer; "Beethoven is all things at all times. He is the very nature of things under unchanging conditions".
This is perfectly true: even when Beethoven seems to have worked himself up into the wildest frenzy, he sees the world with eyes that are clear as ever. But he is not afraid to draw aside the curtain that veils the abyss.
He knows no fear of chaos, out of which matter is made form, because he is aware of his power to give form to all that his eyes have seen.
The late string quartes are the greatest masterpieces the world has ever known.
I feel Beethoven's presence most intensely
when listening to these pieces, as with the Adagio sostenuto in the Hammerklavier Sonata Opus 106 .
[This message has been edited by lysander (edited April 15, 2003).]
I agree with Gurn that Beethoven regarded Opus 135 to be his fond farewell.
Beethoven informed Schlesiger that it was to be his final quartet, "muss es sein"
"es muss sein".
A work that steps forward from darkness into light, raising seroius questions but framing them wholly in different ways; by directness, humaneness, and way Kundra calls so brilliantly "unbearable lightness of being".
With it's enigmatic question and answer as to whether or not "es muss sein", the work stands between a joke and parable, between quotidian and allegory of necessity. In it's four movements four categories of feeling prevail; in the first, wit, dislocations, and incongruities that surprise and please; in the slow beautiful Lento, lyrical reflection; in the finale, the dialectic of darkness into light, of deep questioning followed by its transformation into joyous, brilliant resolution.
"For Beethoven, as for the greatest literary artist, above all his beloved Shakespeare, comedy is not a lesser form that tragedy but is its true counterpart, the celebration of the human in all things".
Quoted from - Lewis Lockwood.
-----------------------------
With astonishing depth of insight Wilhelm von Lenz made a remark that Okulibisheff quotes with a sneer; "Beethoven is all things at all times. He is the very nature of things under unchanging conditions".
This is perfectly true: even when Beethoven seems to have worked himself up into the wildest frenzy, he sees the world with eyes that are clear as ever. But he is not afraid to draw aside the curtain that veils the abyss.
He knows no fear of chaos, out of which matter is made form, because he is aware of his power to give form to all that his eyes have seen.
The late string quartes are the greatest masterpieces the world has ever known.
I feel Beethoven's presence most intensely
when listening to these pieces, as with the Adagio sostenuto in the Hammerklavier Sonata Opus 106 .
[This message has been edited by lysander (edited April 15, 2003).]
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