Mike Leghorn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>That brings me to another subject: my take on op. 132.  Remember, this
>was the first of the middle three.  He wrote it when he was very ill, and
>it has a ghostly undercurrent.  When I listen to it, I imagine Beethoven
>almost delirious with illness, watching fleeting images of music pass in
>front of him -- music by other composers.  The opening is kind of like the
>foggy void before the images appear.

Beethovens contemporaries called this quartett, among with some other and
the 9th symphony for; "A madmans meaningsless scribbling".  I admit that
when I was new to Classical Music I was for a while also deluded to believe
this was true.  Ergo est demonstrandum: Nobody is perfect (as I could do
one unforgivenly mistake).

>It's mysteriously trivial for such a serious quartet.

Too many times you say exactly to the point what is right but seemingly you
don't know at all you do.  The rest of your "study" is not worth replying
to at all.

Let me instead say, and I hope Mr. Leghorn reads it, that all Beethovens
chamber music is so lovely, and perhaps especially his violinsonatas (esp.
Nr.3,5,9) and also quartetts are so lovely music, but a little challenge
also as they are very different over the time span, and few quartetts can
do all of them well (and I prefer a integral set for the unity before
different selected recordings).  The Emerson Quartett is my preferrance
(what doesn't say it has to be yours), as they seems to be able to play all
the quartetts; the early, the middle and the late, excellently, and make
sence of that quirky Beethoven.  Should I try to pick something that can
imaginably express exactly what I like with them, I would choose.....and I
am choosing my choice very carefully here.....The String Quartet *Nr.11* in
F Op.95...When I hear how this Beethovens Scherzo movement just dances when
The Emerson Quartet plays it, I think they come very close to Beethovens
soul.  (At least significantly closer then an analysis of the structure of
motives in op.132).

Mats Norrman
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