17 Works, 9 Hours, 10 Days: My Beethoven Quartet Marathon

10 days? When I was in college, a friend and I did all 9 symphonies in one afternoon, and all five piano concertos in another. No streaming-that was on vinyl!

Thank you for this wonderful piece and for reminding us about Joseph Kerman's classic book on the Beethoven quartets. Music lovers of all kinds, including non-specialists, should also know about Edward Dusinberre's fascinating insider's perspective on the Beethoven quartets, published by Faber in London in 2016 and subsequently by Univ. of Chicago Press. Dusinberre is first violinist of the celebrated Takács Quartet, whose recording of the quartets on Decca is well worth repeated hearings. His book reflects on these inexhaustible works from the performers' point of view, with amusing accounts of rehearsals, live performances, and changing perceptions of the music over time.

Thanks for this.... it's always refreshing to read MORE about Classical Music in an instructive while being entertaining sort of way... It tickles my brain as well as my ear.

An admirable sojourn but I always prefer a guided tour - I listen often to the "Late" ones and especially No. 15 vs. your 14. The 15 was reputed to be the jumping off point for Eliot's Four Quartets and Huxley's Point Counter Point. I figure if it can serve as a genesis for those brilliant works it must possess a special brilliance of its own. Listen to the 3. Heiliger Dankgesang e.Genesenden an die... It will tear your heart out.

Good for you. No one should ever judge another for their listening and tastes, especially in an age if you ask the average 10th grader to identify Beethoven, and they will respond with certain TV cartoon dog. (Which is better than asking the average college student about the significant of, say, Pharaoh's daughter, but that's whole other topic).

I will take up the challenge! I now have a music service from which to choose. And I may even listen to more than one Quartet perform the Beethoven String Quartets. I could actually do then all in one long day. (I’m retired.) But taxes first... That’s already on my agenda for today. Better get to it. As soon as I take my walk. (Promise)

Nice essay. I would take issue with one sentence: "No other genre that he wrote in has the same arc through his biography and his artistic development. Not the piano sonatas, not the symphonies." No. The piano sonatas follow precisely this arc. The opus 7 piano sonata is Beethoven's first indisputable masterpiece; the three op. 31 piano sonatas herald the coming of the middle period, and the "Hammerklavier" (which, like the late quartets, Beethoven really wrote for himself since it is essentially unplayable by all but a tiny handful of pianists) is generally held to mark the beginning of the late period. Beethoven put the piano aside after completing op. 111 but then returned with the Diabelli Variations, a work equal in its exploration of the musical universe and the human condition to the late quartets. One could in fact argue that that each of the three periods starts with piano sonatas (respectively, op. 7, op. 31, and the Hammerklavier) moves on to large-scale works, and culminates in a series of string quartets (the early period is something of an exception since the op. 18 quartets preceded several of the larger scale works of the early period -- e.g., the First Piano Concerto, which is actually the second he wrote, and the First Symphony.)

A wonderful article and very evocative of Beethoven's great creative powers. It makes me want to listen to them again. And again, there is nothing like hearing them performed live and in person. Articles like this are a major reason why I read the NYT.

you can actually listen to the Danish Quartet play Beethoven via the P2Koncerten podcasts, interspersed with commentary and conversation in Danish, though you'd have to search a few months back to find them.

Great article! It was quite a spiritual experience for myself when I went to see these guys when they came to La Jolla (San Diego). The opus 132- and in particular the 3rd movement "Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian mode" was sublime.

Beautifully expressed - thanks for sharing. Listening now!

Wonderful journey through the Beethoven quartets. I began with the Budapest Quartet recordings of Opus 18 1-2 my freshman year of college, added their performance of the "Harp" Quartet and then the Opus 130 so I was exposed to all three Beethoven periods. I received the Guarneri Quartet boxed set of all the late quartets as a gift but it took awhile for me to unlock the treasures of these five other-worldly works. Once heard the story of a Nazi concentration camp prisoner who was a skilled violinist. He maintained his sanity by playing in his head all the 16 Beethoven string quartets. If we ever make contact with civilizations from other worlds and they ask what we have achieved, play for them the Beethoven quartets.

Saw the Danish Quartet last night (three works) and will again tonight (three more works) at University of Denver's fabulous Newman Center Hall. Wonderful quartet. If tickets are available, they should not be missed (Friends of Chamber Music). HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEETHOVEN.....a gift from God or Apollo or Beethoven's parents. Anyway, THANKS! Mr. Wakin makes an excellent point about total immersion being an important thing. This is also true of art and a proposition that Clyfford Still embraced. If you travel to Denver, seeing examples of his work at the Clyfford Still Museum is a must. Having 90% of this important American abstract expressionist's work is a luxury we appreciate, housed in a wonderful building by Architect Brad Cloepfil of Portland's Allied Works. (I have not connection to either the firm or the museum or any Denver promotional companies) https://alliedworks.com/projects/clyfford-still-museum

Another suggestion...a friend casually mentioned he planned to see professional stagings of all of Shakespeare plays, and I immediately was in the game. It took six years, but it was possible for me only because I lived in the same city as the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. (Other completist-minded friends decided to run a marathon in all 50 states; I demurred.)

Wonderful, personal, substance-filled essay. Classical music is so glad for listeners like you: delighted, alert and non-elitist.

Opus 130, “Never,” Beethoven said of it, “have I written a melody that affected me so much.” Me too. I can't make it through the Cavatina without sobbing uncontrollably. Here the old Quartetto Italiano is without peer.

Beethoven apparently often used his string quartets as experimentation for what he might do next in a forthcoming symphony. If only he had lived to write another symphony after the Grosse Fuge movement of his penultimate quartet. It is one of the most remarkable pieces of music I know. In its single unified movement Beethoven encompasses what are normally four movements in a symphony and all of them are tightly unified. And the whole thing is a fugue! An amazing work!

What fine alternatives to the rancor an acrimony of the day.

I appreciated Mr. Wakin's article - mostly. I found the piece- meal listening very annoying and uncomfortable to even think about. OK not just "favorite adagios", but still too "Spotify". However, I can appreciate that the possibility of taking a 50 block walk in NYC while listening to one of the quartets - whole - could be a shattering experience. I feel fortunate that the local chamber music society (the superb Arizona Friends of Chamber Music) is bringing in multiple ensembles to perform the whole package. About a third of the way through, now. Sometimes just Beethoven, sometimes with other quartets - a chance to hear John Adams' Quartet #2 in between superlative performances of Op. 18, #4 and Op, 135 was especially rewarding ( thank you St Lawrence 4tte). For me, it is especially important to sit in front of live musicians doing this work. Like every one else, I learned the quartets on recordings. The most amazing thing I've learned about them in over half a century of listening is that, when heard live, they are truly comparable to the Sistine Chapel. Hmmm. Longest comment I've ever posted. Wakin must have struck a chord in me somewhere. Thanks.

Not a musician myself but I have long held the view that Beethoven's greatest works are not his symphonies (yes, they are great), but his late string quartets and his late piano sonatas. All composed by a man who. deaf since his early thirties, did not hear a sound of his creations, except in his mind.

I started to listen to classical music when most other kids were listening to Danny & The Juniors. I heard that Beethoven’s late string quartets were really special so when I saw the box set by the Budapest SQ for sale, I managed to save up enough to buy it. I loved them from the first play. They are immediately accessible and I think that their reputation as being “difficult”, “the pinnacle”, or even “sublime “, puts people off. They are simply music to enjoy at any level - whether as background or intensive. Thanks for this article (and the linked one when you played next to Drucker!!!). Now I’m off to that Beethoven SQ marathon.

Wonderful essay and a very nice motivator for anyone remotely interested in diving into these mammoth and significant pieces of chamber music. I recall buying them (Guarneri) while a student for a very affordable price but knowing it might be years before I might even begin listening to them. I was right. Probably ten or eleven years later I began tackling them chronologically (note that Op. 18 No. 1 is not in fact the first written). It was a surreal journey, as the author suggests. I am inspired to start all over again in honor of Herr B’s current anniversary. Thank you for providing the catalyst.

What an awesome exercise. It helps if one lives alone.

Thanks for such a thoughtful -- and thought provoking -- essay. Although I'm not familiar with them all, through the years the quartets have moved, surprised, and delighted me. They are a treasure. Thank you also for reminding us of the virtue of listening to the full arc not only of a single piece, but of all the pieces in an oeuvre. This in a day when it's increasingly common, and maddening, to hear a classical radio station play a single movement of a piece. (Yes, I'm aware that listening to the radio, even occasionally, betrays how my age. I'll accept the hit.)

You can't really hear Beethoven while cooking.

"O.K., Alexa, play a Beethoven string quartet by the Danish String Quartet."

I owned LPs of the early and middle quartets, and played them often while typing papers when I was in grad school, and again when I typed papers for my wife. I held off on getting a recording of the late quartets for reasons I can't now recall. My first exposure to the late quartets came at a Guarneri Quartet performance of Opus 131 in Ann Arbor as part of a complete cycle performed over two or three years. It was a revelation. Thanks for this wonderful essay.

Not so sure about 131--I've listened to it in its entirety hundreds of times, and it was my favorite for decades--but in the last few years I've come to think that Beethoven hit his high mark with #s 130 & 132.

In an era that values accessibility over substance, when many listeners assume playlists of adagios or ‘favorites’ ripped from context represent the heart of classical music, thanks for the reminder that listening to a whole work, whatever constitutes its entirety, unlocks its meaning.

Try the Mir'o quartet's recording of the cycle, just issued this December. Or hear them playing the entire cycle in June on Orcas Island (check orcas center for dates and tickets)

One could take issue with Mr. Wakin's statement that "[n]o other genre that he wrote in has the same arc through his biography and his artistic development. Not the piano sonatas . . . " The piano sonatas definitely reveal the arc of Beethoven's extraordinary life and works, and, since the earliest ones were written when he was just a boy, the sonatas provide a better representation of Beethoven's early development. I think that the case for the quartets showing Beethoven's early development would be stronger if the trios and quintets are included. Anyway, thanks for a great article. The movements from Op. 130 are also among my favorites. In the "Beklemmt" section of the Cavatina it always sounds to me as if the first violin is choking back tears.

This is fantastic. My ears are primed for 9 hours of sheer delight! Thank you!

Ah, the Danish String Quartet! The Beatles of chamber music. These guys are great!