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MOZART, THEN BEETHOVEN Mozart and Beethoven are famous for their string quartets. Their respective output is considerable, and worth listening to in its entirety. But as with most large-scale compositional endeavors, certain periods get singled out for special mention. Take Mozart's "Haydn" Quartets, which were written in Vienna in the 1780s. Dedicated to Joseph Haydn, these quartets are considered the height of the Classical chamber repertoire. And then take Beethoven. His crowning accomplishment is his late string quartets, written in the 1820s, at the end of Beethoven's life. These late quartets are said to be the apotheosis not only of string writing, but of the entire Western music tradition. Today I went through the Haydn quartets, one by one. God I love Mozart. I've been on a Mozart kick lately. Why just this week I acquired the entire set of Mozart piano concerti, sonatas, symphonies, string quartets, quintets. I love it, love it! Most musicians I find, at least jazz musicians, don't give much thought to musical concepts of balance and grace—where Mozart shines. Jazz musicians do better with melody, with the exposition of a theme. Here too, Mozart was the unparalleled master. With Mozart, there's this clarity to the melodic line, the playfulness of its delivery, the delicacy of its ornamention. There's a harmonic rhythm, ever supple, the delight of his cadence. And then there's the actual sound of a Mozartian orchestra. Those winds—the oboes and flutes—and then the strings... God, I love Mozart! QUESTION: What could be more unsettling (after four hours of listening to Mozart without a break) than diving into the late Beethoven quartets? ANSWER: Not much is more unsettling than that. I started out with the Große Fuge, which was a very bad idea. The Große Fuge was written in 1826. It is Beethoven's greatest masterpiece. As intended, it was the original finale to Beethoven's String Quartet No. 13. It was later replaced with a different ending and republished separately. The importance of the Große Fuge is hard to overestimate. In about fifteen minutes of music, Beethoven simultaneously prefigured a hundred years of Romantic composition and took fugal practice to its breaking point. It's the most challenging piece, for listeners and performers, that Beethoven ever wrote. I lasted maybe two minutes in before I turned it off. Yes, I'd heard the fugue many times before. I'd studied it in school, of course. I own recordings. In practice buildings in at least three different universities, I'd heard students rehearsing it (poorly). It's Beethoven's masterpiece, the Große Fuge! But in the context of Mozart's aural world—those sublime Haydn quartets—a world of grace and compliment and song; against that, the striving, relentlessly turbulent character of Beethoven's music renders it all but unlistenable. The moral of this story: Listening to Mozart, then Beethoven, is a bad idea. People say this at the community pool, but it's true about music, too. You don't swim for at least an hour after eating. -murrayjames 02/28/09 P.S. For the listening curious. On YouTube, at no cost to you, the works referenced above: Mozart's "Dissonance" String Quartet No. 19 (1785) Part I youtube.com/watch?v=B7dv2-bxhE8 (other movements in playlist) Beethoven's Große Fuge (1826) Part I youtube.com/watch?v=n68WBx91nQE Part II youtube.com/watch?v=bhM6Vrd8CP4 |