Beethoven String Quartet, Op. 135

There is nothing like hearing a Late Beethoven String Quartet for
the first time. Beethoven’s late string quartets, Op. 127, Op.
130, Op. 131, Op. 132, and Op. 135, are among the 5 greatest
pieces of music ever written for any combination of instruments.
They reach a kind of cosmic understanding of the world that is
unparalleled, and they remain the Mount Everest of every string
quartet’s repertoire. The quartet we’re going to be talking about
today, Op. 135, is slightly the outlier from the set, in that it
is less expansive, slightly less complex, and as Misha Amory from
the Brentano String Quartet says, “it is the work of a composer
who seems to have suddenly attained some new, simple truth after
miles of struggle.” Op. 135 is Beethoven’s last completed work,
and as this year begins, I thought I would check off number 2 of
5 Late Beethoven Quartets with this work that seems to exist on
another plane of existence entirely. It is a piece of great depth
and sadness, and also of ecstasy and lightness. It is a piece of
great seriousness that is also full of a sense of humor that is
rare in Beethoven. It contains one of the greatest slow movements
ever written, a movement that would inspire one of Mahler’s
greatest symphonic movements, and it also features a zany and
wild scherzo movement that could have been written two weeks ago.
In short, Beethoven’s Op. 135 has it all. Join us as we go
through this masterpiece together!