Bernard Chasan wrote:

>And if Beethoven did not have wealthy and musically sophisticated patrons,
>he still probably would have been in financial straits.  Somehow I do not
>believe that the late quartets were big crowd pleasers.

But Beethoven did not build his reputation, the reputation that earned
him the commission for those pieces, on the late quartets.  By that time
he was revered all over the western world and could write whatever he
pleased.  Even at that, though, the late quartets were challenging, but
did not represent a radical break with the vocabulary music lovers were
accustomed to.  And in any case, string quartets in those days were written
for the musical elite.

Richard, who invites you to visit his music, outdoors and other pages at
http://www.magi.com/~richard/