Jan Swafford on Beethoven's Late Quartets
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 24 авг 2024
- Beethoven biographer Jan Swafford talks about Beethoven's late music, and the Late Quartets. For the third film in a trilogy (Beethoven Hero) called Beethoven's Last Will And Testament: The Late Quartets. Directed by Kerry Candaele.
![[Special Clip] ATEEZ(에이티즈) 홍중 'Why Do You Love'](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/I6XYXQKN_pY/mqdefault.jpg)
his books on Brahms & Beethoven are brilliant
He must be a very happy person.
Bright, brilliant and full of heart...
so Beethoven!
Thank you!
Dec. 16, 2020. A great day to be watching this perceptive video.
Wonderful clip. I so appreciate how much Mr. Swafford has absorbed and comprehended about Beethoven. Yes! The improvisational feeling in the later quartets, the submerged structure.
5 chapters into Jan's book on Beethoven I just had to see who this guy was. I like him.
I have always loved the late quartets, and, whenever I listen to one of them, I recall the comments of early listeners, especially Spohr. "Un-corrected horrors....etc." Then I ask myself: "Was Spohr an idiot?" The answer to that question, of course, is: "No!" Spohr was a talented composer, a superb violinist, and an admirer of Beethoven. So his views on the late quartets were his honest opinion and not an attempt to attack Beethoven or diminish Beethoven's overall achievements in any way. So, what was his problem? I have already given the answer. He was "talented". He was NOT a genius. And it often takes genius to recognize genius. We see this in the response to these works of the only genius left living after the passing of Beethoven: Schubert. After listening to the OP132(?) he said: "What else is there left to write?" Many thanks for your work, Mister Swafford.
op 131 I believe
Op 131 is correct, the greatest of them all...in my humble opinion
"It often takes genius to recognize genius". Exactly. I don't consider myself a genius but Beethoven immediately speaks to me as he does to millions. Even much of his late period output conveys an unmistakable message uniquely his own. By way of contrast, when I am in an art museum and everyone around me is speaking highly about the painting in front of us I often feel like, "what am I missing here?" Either they are all geniuses or want to be considered as such....or I am the little kid who says, "the emperor has no clothes". I know garbage when I see it, but maybe they see something my untrained eyes missed. In Beethoven however, there is this connection I feel that seems to transcend academic musicological studies. So much has been written about him to the point of over-analysis. I simply take in the music without concern for who approves or dislikes it. It's as if the man is in front of me unpacking his soul as I listen. Such is the power of his music. How wonderful that we all have access to it through RUclips! As for Beethoven; I am stunned that such a person ever existed. Tremendous genius for the ages. Sorry for the long comment, I tend to get carried away on this subject.
@@Drumminman4U Because it is greater than you could have imagined (in an instant), and also more refined than anyone could have refined it to be... first impressions are correct! When you first hear the late music of Beethoven, you realise the littleness and pointlessness of your own self. Then, you become attuned to it. You recognise its greatness, its transcendental quality... and you will adapt to make that greatness a part of your own life, as little or as much as you can.
@@tomowenpianochannel Interesting take there. Good insights. I think I read somewhere that Beethoven believed music had healing properties (or at least the potential was there). This all fascinates me.
A veces estoy semanas sin escuchar Beethoven y entonces de repente me cae una pieza de él y la escucho, se enciende nuevamente eso tan único y especial de su música, más que la música, de su ser propio, al que creo he llegado a conocer de tanto escucharlo, y que podía expresar tan solo mediante su este lenguaje; él mismo decía que se le hacía muy difícil mediante la palabra. Entonces, con ciertas piezas, especialmente los "late quartets algo algo espiritual muy poderoso me posesiona, y me veo en la frontera con el más allá, en ese umbral hermoso en que debe estar la contestación a todas las preguntas que nos hacemos. Gracias eternas a Beethoven y gracias a todos los que afirman que esta música es de todos y que todos tenemos una vida entera para conocerla.
Loved his book on Beethoven - just started his new one about Mozart.
Mr. Swafford is such an insightful and compelling commentator on music. Have read his biographies of Brahms and Mozart and they are absolutely first-rate. Impeccable scholarship matched with a prose style that brings people and events to life and, his impeccable scholarship notwithstanding, immensely readable so that musicians and non-musicians alike can enjoy the life stories of these great composers.
I think Beethoven was probably bipolar. His many life crises nearly overwhelmed him in early middle age. Deafness, heartbreak, frustration with other people...the heavy burden of great expectations. As he entered the winter of life, he did so alone, having driven away his nephew, severing his last link to normal family life.
Facing up to these crises presented a new challenge to Beethoven. In his younger years, he would respond with heroic resolve. He would remake himself and triumph over adversity, rising like the Phoenix.
But in old age, the old heroism on which he Beethoven relied must have seemed increasingly absurd. An old man isn’t reborn. He doesn’t smite his enemies and scale the peaks to look down on a conquered world.
Instead, he suffers...but if he’s lucky, he accepts. If he’s Beethoven, he transcends.
This is the difference between the heroism of the Rasumovskys and the starstruck serenity of the Lates.
And in transcending is reborn.The suffering neither vanquished,nor hidden from, but honestly fully borne bore such fruit..."Old men ought to be explorers..."
Beethovens late music was radical at the time but after Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, Mahler, Prokofiev etc etc it no longer is.
Surely not at all surprising that people at the time found it 'difficult' and that we mostly no longer do.
Difficult not just play but to observe and digest
Beethoven's own transcription of the Gross Fugue was for two pianos (four hands) due to complexity. Only recently discovered. Now, solo piano (2 hands) transcriptions have been recorded for all five Late Quartets - and Gross Fugue. For those who want to listen please visit:
ruclips.net/p/PLD8EqKTPZanwRwQ9pdfpLQqffTvmefsOb
5*********