Mitch Friedfeld: >I have to admit I am not "getting" the Grosse Fuge. How do you >say "unlistenable" in German? I wonder if Beethoven "got it" for himself in his late quartets. For me, like other late works by composers of substance, I think they were often times reaching beyond themselves. I find this in works like Bartok's 6th Quartet, or Copland's Inscape. I don't feel a need to "get it," but only a desire to try to "get it." Perhaps, that is the point. While I have little notion of an afterlife, I truly find such works trying to reach beyond life, and that they can represent the most profound thoughts of our species. As for life, I don't "get it" either, but I keep trying to, and maybe that is the point there as well. Karl *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html