Beethoven Op. 18 String Quartets, Part 2

Note: This episode will be a lot more enjoyable if you listen to
Part 1 first!


As we turn towards the final three quartets of the set, we’ll see
a lot of the same characteristics of the first 3; a perfect
classical era proportionality, strong influences from Haydn and
Mozart, and that perfect blend of vividly drawn but just very
slightly restrained characters that marks Beethoven’s early
period. But we also will see something else. We will see C Minor,
Beethoven’s favorite key to depict drama and anxiety, we will see
music that is almost impossibly charming and Mozartian coming
from a composer as irascible as Beethoven, and then we will
arrive at Op. 18 No. 6, perhaps the most emotionally complex and
forward looking of the 6 Op. 18 quartets. We’ll take our same
birds eye view of each of these quartets, as we did last week,
but I will also do two more deep dives. We'll take apart the
first movement of Op. 18 No. 4, and the last movement of Op. 18
No. 6, which is the movement that for many is the highlight of
these quartets. Along the way, we’ll enjoy all of the quirky
details of these three mini masterpieces, and see how Beethoven
was starting to break the mold and set out onto his own path, one
note at a time.


PS: All recordings used on the show for the last two weeks were
done by The Cleveland Quartet - recordings of the complete
quartets are available at clevelandquartet.com