# Late quartets #5: Op. 135



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

This will be last thread in the series, since there's already a current thread on the Grosse Fuge. Also, interest in discussing these works seems less than overwhelming...

So, Beethoven's last complete composition, the "little" one of the late quartets. Your thoughts? Do you think this quartet might hold a hint of where Beethoven would have gone, musically, had he lived longer?


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## Muddy (Feb 5, 2012)

All I can say is the lento is not of this world.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

KenOC said:


> This will be last thread in the series, since there's already a current thread on the Grosse Fuge. Also, interest in discussing these works seems less than overwhelming...
> 
> So, Beethoven's last complete composition, the "little" one of the late quartets. Your thoughts? Do you think this quartet might hold a hint of where Beethoven would have gone, musically, had he lived longer?


I don't think it was a hint of where he would have gone. If anything I feel it's a goodnatured sigh of relief on having finished with the celestial reaches of his previous 3 quartets the opus' 130, 131, & 132(I once heard a musician refer to these quartets at The a,b,c and I like that.. its as if Beethoven was presenting his finest expressions of the form so he did it in a, B, c#).

But back to op.135 its definitely a look back being in F, a key he used more than any other for the string quartet form and a key I believe he felt most comfortable working with on his death bed. I respect its position, its brevity, its flourishes of joy and optimism in the face of death. I do agree with muddy that the lento bares traces of the world of the a,b,&c quartets but for the most part op. 135 is about looking back on a life and an oeuvre with satisfaction and acceptance.

Beethoven is the beacon of the human spirit.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I've managed to find two performances of this which make it something very special -- one from the Hagen quartet (CD -- I don't know the DVD), the other an early one from the Budapest Quartet -- good sound but from the 1940s. Both these things make it sound more interesting than a Haydenesque "goodnatured sigh"


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Fugue Meister said:


> Beethoven is the beacon of the human spirit.


I read this as: Beethoven is the bacon of the human spirit lol


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Among their many powers, the late quartets tend to generate flowery prose 'blurbs'. I hadn't really come to see that until reading this series of threads. Heads up folks, you won't be topping LvB here.


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