String Quintets – Mozart / Beethoven
“A Path in Monet’s Garden at Giverny“ (1902)
________
concerned about presenting Beethoven’s
Opus 59, the next significant string quartets
of the early 19th Century, too early –
Beethoven had, incidentally, at that point no
rivals – I preferred to establish his credentials,
rather than to enter his next phase, equivalent
to the move from representational art to
Impressionism in painting, a sea change,
people would’ve balked at the very concept
of an alternative vision, and indeed they
were confused
this sea change, I should point out, challenged
the very notions of what not only art should be,
but also music, and literature, indeed very life
perspectives, philosophies
therefore the Romantic Period, when
expressions of personal epiphanies began
to crowd the new democratic environment
after the French Revolution, 1789, all of
which would lead to, eventually, our own
allegiance to, at least in the West, the
concept of human rights
music was already, in other words, talking,
and with Beethoven, indeed vociferously
still adheres to Classical conditions,
but bursts through them emotionally
written only 14 years earlier, one of six
of his
you won’t find them, perhaps, on the
surface, to be very different, wouldn’t
be able to even tell them apart in a
blind pinch
but juxtaposing, as I always urge,
sharpens one’s aesthetic pencil, ask
yourself, in this case, according to
your senses, which of the compositions
is earlier, you’ll find your senses have
already told you
everything flows from that initial
answer, when you ask yourself why
you think that
the hall we’d just entered
she demurred, of course, considering
herself not up to the challenge, despite
several visits together we’d had among
a wonder of other European art galleries
I insisted
she tossed off, okay, Renoir, an easy
answer, though it turned out to be a
Degas, or the reverse, or whatever
but upon reaching the painting, of
course, Degas, she said, knowing full
well it was him, having lacked only the
pluck and the confidence
who’s that, I asked, turning to another
master
Monet, she replied, confidently
and was, as I’d anticipated she would
be, correct, she can now tell her
we know of a lot more than we
think we do
R ! chard
.jpg "Cottage and Woman with Goat - Vincent van Gogh")
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