GMG Listening Group — Beethoven Quartet in F Op59 № 1 :: 10-16 July 2011

[karlhenning]

Since I arbitrarily bumped Shostakovich a week later, I did not wish to leave this week without Listening Group capacity.

The score is available at IMSP.

[Brian]

Ooh! One of my very favorites. I don't want to play my hand early, but back in college I heard a conversation that went like this:

Violinist: You should come see my string quartet concert on Saturday.
Friend: Cool, what are you playing?
Violinist: Beethoven, one of the Razumovskys.
Friend: Which one?
Violinist: You know... the pretty one!
(sings entire opening theme)
Violinist: It's so gorgeous... it's Beethoven's prettiest piece!

So I went to his quartet's concert. It was the first time I ever heard Op 59, No 1!

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Ooh! One of my very favorites.

Mine too. For what it's worth, the 3 Razumovskys are my favorite LvB quartets of all, even above the Lates in my estimation.

[zamyrabyrd]

Since I arbitrarily bumped Shostakovich a week later, I did not wish to leave this week without Listening Group capacity.

YAY!!! Don't leave us without!

[springrite]

I insist that the late quartets are my favorite but it is the Op59 #1 that I listen to the most often (somewhat ahead of Op95 and Op127). I guess that makes me a pretentious psudo-intellectual snob?

[Gurn Blanston]

I insist that the late quartets are my favorite but it is the Op59 #1 that I listen to the most often (somewhat ahead of Op95 and Op127). I guess that makes me a pretentious psudo-intellectual snob?

Yeah, but it's no problem for us.

I am also in the group that prefers Op 59 above all others. I suppose it is the beauteous simplicity that gets to me...

[DavidW]

Even though Beethoven is not known as a great tunesmith, the Op 59 #1 opens with one of my all time favorite melodies!

[springrite]

Even though Beethoven is not known as a great tunesmith, the Op 59 #1 opens with one of my all time favorite melodies!

Well, that was an accident, though. With so many note combinations, there's got to be a good or great melody that turns up.

[George]

Since I arbitrarily bumped Shostakovich a week later, I did not wish to leave this week without Listening Group capacity.

First a purchase of the 32 sonatas and now this? Could our k a rl soon be becoming a rabid Beethovianiac?

*muches popcorn*

[zamyrabyrd]

Even though Beethoven is not known as a great tunesmith, the Op 59 #1 opens with one of my all time favorite melodies!

So many of B's themes are built from triads and/or scales. But it is not always the what but the how. A simple melody as in the 2nd movement has brilliant scoring and harmonic contrasts.

ZB

[karlhenning]

Or, as I recently read in Jazz by Gary Giddins & Scott DeVeaux, 'Tain't what you do, it's how you do it.

[zamyrabyrd]

Or, as I recently read in Jazz by Gary Giddins & Scott DeVeaux, 'Tain't what you do, it's how you do it.

Oh gosh, that's SO true in singing. I say this so often to students that they probably think it is a cliché, but it isn't and even I need to remind myself...

ZB

[North Star]

Great stuff, although I'm more familiar with the late quartets. Sadly, I'm going out of town and probably won't be able to participate. But then again I probably wouldn't have anything worth posting. I have Endellion Quartets complete set, it has all Beethoven's compositions for string quartet or quintet.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

So...are we talkin' about this one?

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Oh what the hell...I might as well start.

An interesting thing about the Razumovsky Quartets (Op. 59) is that the first and last strike me as having an affinity for the symphony they are closest to. Thus #3 reminds me very much of the 4th Symphony (Op. 60): it's compact, light, but with a serious slow movement and a strange, ambiguous introduction. #1 on the other hand is very reminiscent of the Eroica (Op. 55) - a work which greatly expands and dramatizes its genre. It's the "Heroic Quartet." Anyone agree with me here?

[karlhenning]

Thanks for starting!

. . . more later . . . .

[DavidW]

Not much to read here!

[karlhenning]

Sorry I've been so quiet on this thread. I'm headed out of town just now, and this week leading up to travel proved a little woolier than I anticipated.

Greetings from Logan airport!

[Palmetto]

There's a ... roadmap (?) ... to the first movement in the comments at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02xWr_kB2Lc&feature=fvsr

Most of it is over my head.  What really hampers me is I can't figure out how the poster is measuring time: 'ms. 1-19', etc.  Obviously it's not minutes or milliseconds.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Most of it is over my head.  What really hampers me is I can't figure out how the poster is measuring time: 'ms. 1-19', etc.  Obviously it's not minutes or milliseconds.

It's "measures," i.e. of the score. BTW the uploader ("lvbandmore") runs a really detailed Beethoven-oriented blog which I recommend (it's linked on the YouTube page).