Beethoven String Quartet, Op. 135
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast
Joshua Weilerstein
4.9 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There is nothing like hearing a Late Beethoven String Quartet for the first time. Beethoven's late string quartets, Op. 127, Op. 130, Op. 131, Op. 132, and Op. 135, are among the 5 greatest pieces of music ever written for any combination of instruments. They reach a kind of cosmic understanding of the world that is unparalleled, and they remain the Mount Everest of every string quartet's repertoire. The quartet we're going to be talking about today, Op. 135, is slightly the outlier from the set, in that it is less expansive, slightly less complex, and as Misha Amory from the Brentano String Quartet says, "it is the work of a composer who seems to have suddenly attained some new, simple truth after miles of struggle." Op. 135 is Beethoven's last completed work, and as this year begins, I thought I would check off number 2 of 5 Late Beethoven Quartets with this work that seems to exist on another plane of existence entirely. It is a piece of great depth and sadness, and also of ecstasy and lightness. It is a piece of great seriousness that is also full of a sense of humor that is rare in Beethoven. It contains one of the greatest slow movements ever written, a movement that would inspire one of Mahler's greatest symphonic movements, and it also features a zany and wild scherzo movement that could have been written two weeks ago. In short, Beethoven's Op. 135 has it all. Join us as we go through this masterpiece together!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Sticky Notes, the Classical Music Podcast. My name is Joshua Wylestein. I'm a conductor, and I'm the music director of the |
| 0:20.8 | orchestra Nassian-Anne-Lille, and the chief conductor of the All-Borg Symphony. This |
| 0:25.2 | podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field, or is just getting ready |
| 0:30.1 | to dive into this amazing world of incredible music. Before we get started, I want to thank my |
| 0:35.1 | new Patreon sponsors, Jan, Tom, Nicholas, Jeremy, Sonia, |
| 0:40.8 | Shelley, John, Mike, Sylvia, Chuck, Jay, Glenn, and all of my other Patreon sponsors |
| 0:48.6 | for making Season 10 possible. If you'd like to support the show, please head over to patreon.com |
| 0:54.0 | slash sticky notes podcast. And if you are a fan of the show, please head over to patreon.com slash sticky |
| 0:54.9 | notes podcast. And if you are a fan of the show, please take a moment to give us a rating or review |
| 0:59.3 | on Apple Podcasts. It is greatly appreciated. So first of all, happy New Year to everyone. I hope |
| 1:06.9 | you all enjoyed your New Year's celebrations. In the new year, I've decided to make some |
| 1:12.4 | changes to my Patreon page. So if you head over to patreon.com slash sticky notes podcast, |
| 1:18.4 | you will see that there is now, for the very first time, sticky notes merchandise, |
| 1:22.7 | available on my Patreon page. So please do go check that out. And for this week's episode, I'm really excited to share with you this episode on Beethoven's |
| 1:31.3 | final string quartet, Opus 135, one of my favorite pieces ever, and a great way I was |
| 1:37.5 | going to end the year with this episode, but just scheduling, pushed things around a little |
| 1:43.2 | bit, so this will be the episode for the beginning of the year. |
| 1:46.3 | Beethoven's Opus 135, happy new year, and I really hope you enjoy it. |
| 2:16.1 | Music There is nothing like hearing a late Beethoven string quartet for the first time. |
| 2:22.8 | Beethoven's late string quartets, Opus 127, Opus 130, Opus 131, Opus 131, Opus 132, and Opus 135 are among the five greatest pieces of music ever written for any combination of instruments. |
| 2:29.8 | They reach a kind of cosmic understanding of the world that is unparalleled, and they remain the Mount |
| 2:35.8 | Everest of every string quartet's repertoire. The quartet we're going to be talking about today, |
... |
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