logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2019
44m 37s

Beethoven String Quartet, Op. 132 (Part ...

JOSHUA WEILERSTEIN
About this episode

This week we're diving into one of the great movements ever written in Western Music with the slow movement of Beethoven's Op. 132 quartet. This is a movement that explores Beethoven's contradictory religious beliefs, his core optimism despite all that happened to him during his life, and his fascination with religious music. We'll then look at how Beethoven concludes this epic piece, using sketches of music that started out as being part of his 9th symphony, but not in the way you might expect. Enjoy!

Up next
Oct 15
Chopin Piano Sonata No. 2 (The One With the Funeral March)
When the great pianist and composer Frederic Chopin decided to write a piano sonata in 1837, fashions had turned against the genre itself. Perhaps it was a feeling that Beethoven had essentially "finished" the genre, or perhaps it was a sense that a non-Germanic composer couldn't ... Show More
53m 4s
Oct 1
Gerald Finzi: Dies Natalis
As I've often said, I love doing Patreon-sponsored episodes in part because they allow me to discover music I might never have encountered otherwise. Today's episode is one of those, because the truth is that before I made it, I had heard of Finzi, but that was about it. I knew n ... Show More
51m 35s
Sep 17
Shostakovich Symphony No. 6
Dmitri Shostakovich: "I have set myself a task fraught with tremendous responsibility, to express in sound the immortal image of Lenin as a great son of the Russian people and as a leader of the masses. I have received numerous letters from all over the Soviet Union with regard t ... Show More
1h 2m
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2020
THE 5TH — MOVEMENT II, From Struggle to Victory
In the first movement of his famous symphony, Beethoven sets up a battle between hope and despair. The dark side of that spectrum is represented by the anguished opening notes of the first movement: DUN DUN DUNNN. Over the course of the next three movements, Beethoven keeps tryin ... Show More
27m 4s
Jun 2008
Beethoven: (Pathetique - Patetica 2nd Movement) Sonata Op. 13 No. 8: II Adagio cantabile
This recording is the 2nd movement of Beethoven's popular Sonata Pathetique Op. 13 No. 8. The second movement is Adagio cantabile. "Cantabile" indicates that this movement should be played like a song, or something that has a distinct melody that one could sing along with. This p ... Show More
4m 53s
Oct 2020
Beethoven 250 Part 10: Six Bagatelles Op 126
Beethoven's last major piano work, the Six Bagatelles Op 126 in a 1937 performance by Artur Schnabel. 
22m 3s
Sep 2020
THE 5TH — MOVEMENT IV, What Beethoven Would Have Wanted
When we listen closely to the Fifth, we hear a testament to self-expression and determination. Which means that we get to decide how to honor this symphony today, whether that means taking a break from Beethoven to commission new works from underrepresented composers, bringing ne ... Show More
30m 23s
Jan 2020
Beethoven 250 Part 1 Marches
The first of a monthly series marking Beethoven's 250th birthday. Music includes the Turkish March form the Ruins of Athens and the Funeral March form the Eroica Symphony. 
21m 33s
Jan 2021
Beethoven Mythologies
James Wood talks to Thomas Jones about Beethoven, drawing on his review of three recent books on the composer. They discuss some of the apparently immovable Beethoven mythologies – the keyboard pedagogy, the heroic glower, the many appropriations of the 9th Symphony – and the ble ... Show More
43m 8s