Beethoven Op. 18 String Quartets, Part 2

Hello and welcome to Sticky Notes, the Classical Music Podcast. My name is Joshua Weatherstein, I'm a conductor, and the music director of the Phoenix Orchestra of Boston and the new chief conductor designate of the All-Borg Symphony in Denmark. This podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field, or is just getting ready to dive into this amazing world of incredible music. Before we get started I want to thank my new Patreon sponsors Linda, Frank, John, and all of my other Patreon sponsors for making season 9 possible. If you'd like to support the show, please head over to patreon.com/stickynotespodcast. And if you are a fan of the show, please just take a moment to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts. Every rating or review helps more people find the show, and it is greatly appreciated. Also you might have noticed this is a little bit of news this week, I was just named the new chief conductor of the All-Borg Symphony in Denmark. I'm so excited to become their new chief conductor. Ever since I won the Malco competition, about 14 years ago now, I've had a soft spot for Danish orchestras, and it will be a special thrill to work with the All-Borg Symphony and their artistic director, Tekwyn Evans. I've already worked with the orchestra a couple times, and I've found a terrific spirit, it's beautiful lush sound and a desire to make the best out of every single musical moment. It's really an honor to become the chief conductor of this orchestra, and I can't wait to get started in our work together, which actually starts this week, even though I'm not officially the chief conductor until next year. We are going to be working together this week on a program of the Bach Weber and Richard Carr, Pendoretski's Horn Concerto, and Brahms Schernberg, the piano quartet in G minor. So we chose a really easy program to start working together. Thanks so much, and on to part two of Beethoven's Opus 18 string quartets. First things first, if you have not listened to part one of this episode on Beethoven's Opus 18 string quartets, I highly, highly recommend checking it out as it includes a pretty big introduction to the string quartet itself, as well as some fundamental characteristics of these quartets that I'll touch on today as well, but I won't go into as much detail with. We left off with the most gentle of Beethoven's Opus 18s, number three, which began calmly and peacefully and ended with a quiet and witty joke. As we turn towards the final three quartets of the set, we'll see a lot of the same characteristics of the first three, a perfect classical era proportionality, strong influences from Heiden and Mozart, and that perfect blend, a vividly drawn, but just very slightly 1% restrained characters that marks Beethoven's early period. But we will also see something else. We will see C minor, Beethoven's favorite key to depict drama and anxiety. We will see music that is almost impossibly charming, coming from a composer as irassible as Beethoven, and the quartet that is the most entwined with Mozart. And then we will arrive at Opus 18 number six, the final one of the set, and perhaps the most emotionally complex and forward-looking of the six. We'll take our same bird's eye view of each of these quartets as we did last week, but I will also do two more deep dives into the first movement of Opus 18 number four, and into the last movement of Opus 18 number six, for many, the highlight of these quartets. Along the way, we'll enjoy all the quirky details of these three mini masterpieces, and see how Beethoven was starting to break the mold and set out onto his own path, one note at a time. All of this, and more, is coming right up on Sticky Notes. [Music] Musical keys held great importance to composers like Beethoven. For example, E major represented to him Kant's idea of the starry skies above us. Musical keys in general were far more important in the classical era than they would become later on, as each key was meant to have a certain character, though what that character was varied heavily based on which composer was writing the music. Some people dismissed and still do dismiss these associations, but I think they're important, even though our modern ears really do have trouble discerning different keys, though I think there are some good tricks. Have you ever wondered what keys mean or even how a key determines the sound of a piece and why it matters? Let's do a quick overview of this idea as the key for opus 18 #4 couldn't be any more important to Beethoven. Keys with sharps in the key signature, like D major, A major, E major, etc. tend to be brighter and more exciting than those with flats in the key signature, even in minor keys, like B minor, F sharp minor, C sharp minor. Looks like a great example. The end of Brahms' second symphony, which is in D major, which means that every time an F or a C appears, it is sharp. Keys with flats in the key signature, like F major, D minor, B flat major, G minor, E flat major, C minor, etc., tend to have a darker and more intimate sound. Let's take another Brahms ending, the ending of his third symphony in F major, which has one flat in the key signature. Every time a B appears, it's a B flat. It's not only the volume of the ending that is different, it's the sound. The F major gives a warmer and darker hue than the brightness of D major. There are some traditional key and mood associations as well. E flat major is known as a very warm key and Mendelssohn takes advantage of that in his octet. This could be the subject of a whole show, but I hope that gives you at least some idea of the differences between keys and how composers thought of them. That brings us to C minor, a key with three flats in the key signature, so it has a special quality of darkness. C minor is a key that was vitally important to Beethoven. It would underpin some of his most legendary works, like his fifth symphony, his choral on overture, his third piano concerto, and his final pianosinata. C minor, even from before Beethoven's time, was a key of struggle, of stress, of anxiety, and of drama. And drama is certainly what we get with his Opus 18 #4 quartet, which stays relentlessly in C minor, or major, for its entire duration, which is very unusual for a composer. Usually one movement of a quartet or a symphony will be in a key related to the main key of the piece. For example, in Beethoven's fifth symphony, the second movement is in A flat major, which gives a warm contrast to the steel of the other movements. But here Beethoven stays put. And in doing so, he put yet another mark in his battle with C minor. All of the pieces I mentioned earlier were written well after this quartet. But Beethoven had already dealt with C minor before, like in one of his string trios, one of his piano trios, and of course, in his pathetic pianosinata, one of his most famous early works. So Beethoven was well aware of the possibilities of C minor. And for our first of two deep dives today, let's start with the first movement of Opus 18 #4, a movement that pulses with almost a non-stop drama. It begins with an anxious theme punctuated by a constant accompaniment in the cello, and stun accents that jarus out of place, even as the theme inexorably continues on its path. [Music] The violinist Mark Steinberg of the Brantano string quartet compares this whole movement to theatre. He says of these rocking and powerful chords, quote, "These are volcanic rumblings that lead inevitably to eruption, and a simple caricature of conflict. The one against the many, an Olympian hurling of thunderbolts as a competition between the gods." Beethoven uses offbeat accents to take us towards a first stopping point. And without warning, just as Beethoven always likes to do, we change direction. In a C minor movement, the second theme is often in the relative major key of E-flat major. Remember, that's the key of warmth and comfort, a bit of a contrast. Beethoven doesn't ease that transition, though. After another thunderbolt, we simply switch into E-flat major. And we arrive at the second theme. This is a remarkably compact movement. Less than a minute in, we are already at the second theme, but it's even more compact than you think. Listen to the second theme again and see if it reminds you of something. It's actually the opening theme, and contour, and line, just with a radically transformed harmony. If you think about it, it becomes even more extraordinary. The accompaniment is the same, pulsing eight notes, the little fast notes at the beginning of the bar are all the same, and the theme rises and strives. Listen to them back to back. This is the same theme. The differences as always, though, are in the details. The key is E-flat major. The accompaniment instead of a relentless single note is now more elaborate and is in the slightly brighter viola rather than the cello. And the first violin answers the theme with playful eighth notes. Still, it's remarkable the variety that Beethoven is able to create out of this essentially monothematic movement. So this theme has taken us through Olympian thunderbolts and a warm and gentle pulsation, and now Beethoven takes us to our third character, utter playfulness and charm. During with running sixteenths in the constantly virtuosic first violin part, Beethoven now places funny accents in the wrong beats, putting us off balance. But not in the violent way of the beginning. Now everything is with a smile. [Music] But the irrascible Beethoven is never far away, and with creeping quarter notes interrupted by gruff chords, we head right into the development, which returns us mercilessly to the drama of the beginning. But I should say that in a movement that I described as relentlessly in the minor key, we've actually spent a lot of the exposition in major. We'll see later how Beethoven turns that to his dramatic advantage. For now though, the theme of the exposition is tossed under the raging seas of Beethoven's dramatic developments. [Music] But notice again that the theme has barely changed. We've had four and a half minutes of music by now if you take the exposition repeat. And we've basically heard one theme. It's Beethoven's skills, those detail changes, those harmony changes that keeps it interesting. And even when we think things have changed, like in the second section of the development, the more they stay the same. [Music] In fact with some interlude bars accepted, it's almost like a second repeat of the exposition just with more harmonic spiciness. The cello now takes on the second theme almost completely the same as the second theme in the exposition. [Music] But here's where Beethoven starts to take advantage of his repetition. Due to his ability to create excitement, his surprises, his harmonic tweaks, we've stayed glued to this movement. But now Beethoven starts to make his changes. He strung us along for over five minutes. But now his second theme suddenly is transformed into the even darker key of F minor, four flats in the key signature. [Music] And now we get our first truly new music of the development. But with all the characteristics of the old, walking quarter notes in the cello, pulsing 16th notes in the second violin in viola, and a nervous anxious first violinist, wondering what is coming next. [Music] And what comes next is the recapitulation. Beethoven knows he can't just do the same thing over and over again. So even though the recapitulation is meant to be when the theme comes back as it was at the beginning, Beethoven starts editing it right away. First he adds an accompaniment to the accompaniment, adding to the anxiety of the theme. [Music] Then those thunderbolt chords go on far longer than they did in the exposition. Beethoven is doing something very clever here, but we don't realize what it is yet. [Music] We've arrived at the second theme again, but in C major this time, which is a violation of Sonata Form rules. Remember, Sonata Form rules state that the recapitulation is where the themes from the exposition come back, but all in the home key. So really, this theme should be in C minor. But this is a monothematic movement, so if Beethoven did the second theme in C minor, I think he would really be testing our patience. Instead, he uses those thunderbolt chords to move the harmony to C major, and we have yet more variety. [Music] The recapitulation seems to end. as the exposition did, but with another harmonic twist, Beethoven ups the dramatic ante even more. And in a remarkably dramatic and compact Coda, Beethoven uses rhythmic diminution, the idea of taking a rhythmic value and making it smaller, to furiously rush off to the end of the movement. Every accompaniment that starts as a quarter note quickly transitions to an eighth to a sixteenth, adding to our anxiety and to the finality of this ending. This movement in many ways is an early model of the first movement of his fifth symphony, with some of the same tricks. Though in the fifth symphony, the Coda is almost half as long as the whole rest of the movement, so in that regard, Beethoven took a major step from his quartet. We'll do our next deep dive with Opus 18 #6, so now let's take a quick look at the rest of 18 #4. Beethoven breaks with this formula in these quartets only a couple of times. Otherwise, we have a synodiform, first movement, a slow movement, a minuet/scared so, and a fast synod. Otherwise, we have a synodiform, first movement, a slow movement, a minuet/scared so, and a fast and usually synodiform last movement. But in 18 #4, Beethoven reticents the slow movement entirely, and instead we have a movement that is somewhere between a slow movement and a scareczo. In fact, he even says exactly that with his tempo marking, which is Andante Skerzoso Quasi Elegretto, meaning walking in a joking manner, quasi a little slower than fast. It's a little less elegant in English. It's not easy to figure out exactly the tempo here, so there are plenty of variations in the way quartets play this movement. The movement, though, is pretty funny. Beethoven at the beginning writes a little fugue on his C major theme, and we tinker along as innocent as the first movement was dramatic. This movement is full of little jokes, a fake pomposity here. Playful accents passing around the group here. A mock philosophical discussion between the violins. Which the second violin and viola take up. Silence is interrupted by more mock seriousness. Part of the reason this movement is so not serious and so fun is that all of that relentless accompaniment that we heard in the first movement is just absent here. Instead, we have a different kind of relentlessness, just with that motive, which is passed around the group like a football. But Beethoven tosses that idea off with total charm. Charm in a gentle humor is the name of the game in the second movement, a welcome relief after the first. Now we come to the third movement, and this is a good time to mention the difference between a minuet and a scaredso. A minuet is a dance form that heighten perfected as a third movement or sometimes second of a quartet or symphony. Beethoven, as he was known to do, supercharged this idea and created the scaredso, a much faster version of the minuet with a lot more energy and bite. At this point in his career, Beethoven was often calling his scaredso-like movements "minuets". He just wrote minuets with a lot more energy than heightens. The third movement of 184 brings back that pulsing energy of the first movement. It's in C minor, quite rare for a dance movement, and for sure if you can dance this movement, you're a much better dancer than I am. This movement is kaleidoscopic harmonically, but it is always dominated by those offbeat accents that destabilize the whole momentum of the movement. The trio or middle section of the minuet is worth mentioning because it is Beethoven and it is most heavenly. We transform the harmony into C major and a second violin in the cello-traded glorious and angelic theme. All the while though the first violin is playing repeated running triplets, an idea that will come back in force in the last movement. One other interesting note about this movement is that Beethoven says to play the return of the minuet theme in a faster tempo than the first time, something that quartets have to carefully calibrate. In the end, it's all in service of the furious energy of the last movement. Everything in the minuet is preparing us for that. The last movement is probably the most thrilling of the Opposite Team quartets, and features Beethoven in a more rambunctious mood than ever. It's a movement in a rondo form, meaning that this main theme comes back over and over again. With interlude themes that are often in very different characters. I think Beethoven was trying to portray some element of folk music in this spicy theme, one that is in keeping with the C minor mood, but with a little bit more of a rye smile than in the first movement. And in total contrast to that is the most accommodating music of the whole quartet. The first interlude is warm and kind as anything Beethoven would ever write, in the warm key of E-flat major. The second interlude is in C major and it feels like we are recapping all of the different ideas of the quartet so far. It's a dramatic C minor, warm E flat major and now funny and silly C major. Another variation of the rondo with more answers, Beethoven is never content to just sit still. A normal composer would keep his or her rondo theme the same but Beethoven never does it ending this version of the rondo with a virtuosic and dramatic pause followed by the warm theme now in C major. The rondo theme now plays between C major and C minor. And that conflict has to be resolved somehow. And it seems like the first violin now takes charge saying that C minor is the way in a coda that Beethoven marks to be played as fast as possible. But was that ending in C major or C minor? We don't really know. The last chord we hear is in C major, so by all rights we should think that we've ended in the major key, but the dominant feeling of the whole piece has been C minor. And Beethoven doesn't give us a hint on those last furious runs. So we're left unsure whether C major or C minor 1, it's all a matter of perspective. Beethoven's opposite number 5 quartet is a complete and total contrast from opposite number 4, and it is inextricably entwined with another quartet, this one by Mozart, his K464 quartet sometimes nicknamed "the drum". Beethoven reportedly said after hearing this quartet, "That's a work, that's where Mozart said to the world, behold what I might have done for you if the time were right". I find something pretty sad in that quotation is it really does remind us of Mozart's major death, and the possibilities that awaited us had he been able to continue to compose and live a normal life. Beethoven not only loved this quartet, he paid homage to it in his opposite number 5. 185 is his most explicitly Mozartian and charming quartet. The two quartets have the same order of movements, with Beethoven for the only time in his set of six reversing the order of the middle movements, putting the menu at second, just like Mozart did. He also writes a theme in variation's third movement, the only one of the six quartets. And in the same position as Mozart's third movement theme in variations. Beethoven even pays a cheeky little homage to Mozart with the very opening of the quartet, which shows off the fundamental characteristics of these great composers. Mozart's opening is this. And pays special attention to the rising scale at the end of the theme. Now listen to Beethoven's. Did you hear the rising scale? I think this is a bit of an homage and a bit of Beethoven's striking out his own path, all at the same time. Mozart's opening is, well, it sounds like Mozart, and its lyricism and gentle nature. Beethoven sounds like Beethoven. It's sprightly full of character and isn't quite as accommodating as Mozart's. I think this is why we think of these composers as so great. They have their own completely unique voices. Think about actors. We know the voice of Tom Hanks. We know the voice of Al Pacino. We know the voice of Meryl Streep. We know the voice of Kate Blanchett. These are four distinctive voices that sound like nobody else. And that's what makes them, among many other things, great actors and actresses. But it's also what makes them memorable. Beethoven and Mozart are the same in that if you are familiar with their musical language, their voices are unmistakable. And throughout this first movement, Beethoven is writing in a joyous and happy way, much like Mozart does. But in Beethoven's joyous and happy way. The theme in variation's third movement is really the center of the piece. And it's one of the prime examples of Beethoven making magic out of the smallest and slightest of materials. It's almost like Beethoven gave himself a challenge. Let me take a scale down and then walk it right back up again and create something interesting out of it. This theme is pretty boring. How on earth will Beethoven make an interesting movement out of it? While the first variation already starts the fun, with a perky and jaunting line led by the cello, that features those Beethovenian offbeat accents that give this variation a lot of humor. The second variation is a gentle virtuoso showpiece for the first violin. This variation could easily have been written by Mozart. The third variation is honestly pretty funny. The theme valiantly tries to come out while the violin answers with what I can only describe is something very annoying. It's like the theme trying to speak over something. someone constantly interrupting them and this accompaniment continues throughout the variation all the way to the end. But you could hear that accompaniment, it's something completely different. Could be flapping wings, allowing the theme to take flight. It's all in the way this movement is performed and that's why live performances are so essential to this music and why we'll never get old. There are simply so many ways to look at this little 30 seconds of music. The fourth variation is stunning. It replaces the slow movement that we never get in this piece. And even though the theme remains as bland as ever, the harmony creates a much more intimate, even quietly sad atmosphere. Beethoven might have been the greatest theme in variations composer ever and you can see his amazing talent for it already in this early example. [Music] The fifth variation is a tremendous contrast to the beauty of the fourth. It combines all the other variations in some ways. We have the John T. accompaniment of the first variation, the trills of the third variation and the pride and joy of the second. And now as if Beethoven is announcing that he is different from everyone who comes before him, we swerve off the variation road to a totally new key. [Music] Is this a variation? Is it the coda? We have no idea except the harmony and key is completely foreign to us. Actually it's in B flat major which is why it sounds so different from the fundamental D major key we started in. D major is two sharps in the key signature, B flat, two flats, so they are a whirl the way from each other. The detour ends though with the first violin with a total innocence, rediscovering D major with some of the most delicate and tender music the Beethoven would ever write. This moment is just ravishing and its creativity and Mozartian/Betro Vennian magic. [Music] The last moment is back to fun with dialogues of plenty between the instruments and a kind of fidgety energy that early Beethoven is full of. [Music] And just like in the Mozart quartet that Beethoven is paying tribute to, the music ends not with a bang but with a gentle and soft landing. Certainly not in character for Beethoven but perfectly in keeping with Mozart's grace. [Music] [Music] Opus 18 number six is another story entirely and I don't think it's an accident that Beethoven wrote it last and placed it last in a set. It clearly sets off on some new past that the other quartets don't approach, though with the same respect for tradition that these quartets still embody. It's actually something I always come back to with Beethoven. He's often portrayed including by me as a rule breaker, a destructive force of musical energy, but I'm not sure that's really the case. I think rather than smashing the rule book, Beethoven added dozens of new chapters to it, showing where music could be pulled if only people had the courage and the invention to do it. One of the ways that Beethoven expanded that rule book is by constricting his material to create a kind of concision that is almost overwhelming. The beginning of Opus 18 number six is like the beginning of a race with a starting gun propeliness forward. You might recognize this music as the intro music for season eight of the show, and I chose it precisely for that reason. This is that Heiden on steroids character I love to describe Beethoven's early music is having. It has Heiden's wit and energy, but with that added muscle of Beethoven's accents and wider range of expression. It's absolutely nothing against Heiden to say that. Some people don't appreciate the muscle of Beethoven's music. Just makes the two composers quite different in the end, despite their similarities. The second theme is completely in unison adding to the concision of the music. We feel like we can't quite escape out of it, until the first violin finally adds some variation in some forward motion, and we come right to the end of the exposition with some memories of the opening. One interesting thing in this movement is that it completely lacks a coda, one of Beethoven's favorite devices. You get the impression that he said exactly what he wanted to say in this movement, and then finishes it with a bang. The chapter is over, you close the book and you take a breath, because the whirlwind of this movement is both thrilling and a bit exhausting. The slow movement is Beethoven in his most tender mood, but in his own way, in that the theme itself is not as beautiful and heartwarming in its melody, as it is in the harmony and its gently pulsing rhythm. Again, that's what makes Beethoven so different from Mozart and Heiden as well. (gentle music) There is a dignity in this movement that I've always loved. The second iteration of the theme reminds me of the slow movement of Schubert's great cello quintet, with its seemingly endless held notes in two instruments, the theme floating above in one other, and then the softly insisted rhythm from down below in the cello. But this music is not completely without distress, as without warning we are plunged into the C minor, the key of Op. 184, for music that is as despairing as anything we've heard so far, the stage is turned dark. This music becomes truly passionate, and looking back, we really haven't had a slow movement like this in all of the 6 quartets so far. This movement reaches the farthest towards sadness and hopelessness than any of the others, and it is a preview of the last moment which will be the subject of our final deep dive. [Music] A heart-stopping moment appears later in the second movement, when that C minor music suddenly appears to us again, but not despair, but in heavenly and glowingly ecstatic tones, as if the darkness has been pushed away at least for a moment. This is one of my absolute favorite moments of these quartets. [Music] The third movement, Scherzzo, the only movement in the 6th that Beethoven actually calls a Scherzzo, is all fun, all accents, all off balance, and all Beethoven. [Music] The trio section, if you can believe it, is even more silly, and gives the first violin a run for its money. [Music] And then we come to the famous last movement, which features a slow introduction, the only one of the 6th Opus 18 quartets. Beethoven subtitled this introduction, La Malanconia, or Melancholy. It is marked by Beethoven with this inscription. This piece is to be played with the greatest delicacy. It is without question the most intense music of the 6th Opus 18 quartets, so let's take a deep dive into it. There is a quiet sense of benediction at the opening of the movement, almost the sense that we are witnessing a procession, or perhaps we are hearing a preacher and a choir, with the violins beginning with the theme and being answered by the lower strings. [Music] But that change marks that this movement is like none of the others. It takes us into a much darker world, and slowly Beethoven continues to promise a resolution, only to take our breath away with further changes. Every time we think we know where we are, the harmony changes, as if the grief contained in this music keeps hitting us in a different way. Beethoven completely distorts the sense of harmony at this point, with constant changes of both key and dynamic, all based on the "bada-bada" motive. The motion now seems to stop altogether as the quartet gropes around the harmonic spectrum, trying to find the certainty of the earlier movements that we have completely lost. Trying to do a harmonic analysis here would be extremely difficult. Now Beethoven obviously would not have known the psychological terms of 2022 that we use like depression, anxiety, trauma, and the like. But this section has always seemed to me like the expression of a disordered mind. We are lost in the caverns of this seemingly limitless abyss of melancholy. Finally, the cello, which is not taken on a huge role in this piece so far, now begins to climb from the depths of the quartet, again with the motive, but at a thumb, as the music becomes completely despairing and tragic. It's one of the great moments of Beethoven's early music and results in an agonizing cry of pain from the whole quartet. As if that cry broke the circular harmonic path we've been on, we finally get the hint of a real cadence. This is much more than just a slow introduction now, as it's taken nearly half the movement, and took us into uncharted emotional waters that are unlike anything else we've heard. And to be honest, they are more intense than many moments in his middle period quartets as well, only in his late quartets would Beethoven truly return this kind of emotional complexity. But as for 186, Beethoven throws off the melancholy with admirable courage, beginning the second section of the movement as if he didn't have a care in the world. This is where we are still resolutely in the classical era. In the romantic era, mood shifts took longer, took more work, took more struggle, and Beethoven would later do this as well. But for Heiden Mozart and the other classical era composers, these kinds of rapid mood shifts were a matter of course, and didn't suggest anything untoward. It's a simple contrast, after all, though it's very difficult to think about anything after that first section. This movement is full of a spinning charm, tear-free and featuring some of the same accompanimental ideas that marked the theme in variations of Opus 18 #5. As Misha Amiri of the Brantano quartet says, quote, "This is a rondo with a spinning cheerful demeanor, never content to remain in one place for long. It has the quality of being compressed or abbreviated by the gravity of the Malanconia. It's true that each new appearance of the rondo interlude is cut short, and the same concise style as in the first movement. But there's another reason for this compression, which I'll play for you now." Suddenly, the forward motion is stopped, and we come to a halt on a diminished chord, the most dissonant of all harmonies. And we return to the Malanconia music at the beginning of the quartet. This is the first time Beethoven has played with forms so boldly in his quartets, and it is striking because it emphasizes even more the distance between these two characters. Once again, the motion seems to stop. Before more stabbing cries of pain, of loss of grief and agony ring out, we're two minutes from the end of this piece. Beethoven tries to tame the Malanconia music with a minor key version of his dance from section 2, as if saying if the dance is minor will you let me be, but no, it breaks off, and is answered by yet another appearance, this time lower and more despairing than before of the Malanconia theme. These two forces have been doing battle, and one of them has to win. Beethoven always in his heart married at least somewhat to tradition, gives the ball to the joyous dance, but it is now constantly inflected with the minor key. This imbibes some characteristics of the Malanconia theme, and our dance is tinged with sadness. We have one more moment of uncertainty here, as the music comes to a stop. The best performances make us think we will hear the Malanconia music again. Instead, we hear a slow version of the dance, as if not sure we're nervous of what will come next, and then. Pure, unadulterated joy and fun and virtuosity, the total contrast to the Malanconia, and a fitting end to this dizzying quartet. I find this quartet beyond remarkable, and it is the perfect capstone to these remarkable pieces. In them you find everything that would make Beethoven the greatest composer of all time, arguably. The harmonic invention, the rhythmic creativity, the gift of making something out of nothing, the intensity, the drama, the courage, the sense of adventure, and that fearlessness of expression that makes Beethoven like nobody else. Beethoven makes my heart beat faster, makes me sweat, makes me want to run through a wall with the exhilaration of his music, and alternately he makes me despair with the emotional intensity he sometimes portrays. He put Beethoven portrays humanity in every emotion, in all of its extremes, in all of its ups and downs. There's no one like Beethoven, a phrase I've said many times today, but it's true. In my opinion, no one quite approaches the depths and the heights that Beethoven achieves, and these opus 18 quartets are the beginning of a journey that would result in a collection of 16, someone say 17, quartets that are among the supreme achievements of humanity. We'll explore more of these quartets later in the season, but in the meantime. Thanks so much for listening to Sticky Notes Today. We'll have some more exciting stuff for you next week so don't miss our next episode. If you like what you heard today, please feel free to rate and review the show on iTunes that really helps the show gain more visibility. Please send any questions to Sticky Notes Podcasts at gmail.com or my Facebook page @stickynotespodcast and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. If you'd like to support the podcast monetarily just head over to patreon.com/stickynotespodcast. Thanks and I'll talk to you again after a while. 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