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Beethoven's Last Six Quartets

(continued from previous page) What had Beethoven achieved in his transformation, a musical metamorphosis?  Nothing less than a replacement of the striving, the revolting, the ethical propulsion with a celebration of existence, a celebration of the human and divine spirit, an inner dancing and singing for its own sake.  A freedom as never had been achieved, ecstasies that no drugs could compete with - compassion, love, strength, humor, joy, devotion. This music was different: many of his contemporaries were puzzled.  Beethoven was undaunted. "This music will be understood in fifty years," he said.  He underestimated the time. This music, the perfect antidepressant, has not come into wide social usefulness.  It is an unutilized human resource of the most powerful kind. Truly difficult to perform, it has now been realized for the first time in new organic way, faithful to the composer's  minutest indications, in its power to transform.

With millions of computers, it can now, as Beethoven had believed, speak to millions. Along with Bach and Mozart, Beethoven had touched our "glassy essence of which we are most assured"  (Shakespeare).  With these quartets he has now revealed a summit of human musical creativity, which we may feel has never been scaled since.  The word profound is applied to something of which we are profoundly ignorant, but which we know exists, enlarging us.  Here it is revealed, not fifty years later, but, we can now say, for all time.     Note: The quartets, composed by one mind, are normally performed by four minds, necessarily implying a degree of compromise of interpretation.  Here, for the first time, they are interpreted by one mind, a newly created possibility. For more information and downloads  see  CoolConservatory  or  CoolConductor pages and SuperConductor site.