Grasp Beethoven For A Later Age: The Journey Of A String Quartet Constructed By Edward Dusinberre Format PDF

for the general reader, Recommended primarily for those interested in string quartets, Written by Edward Dusinberre, First Violin of the Takács String Quartet, resident quartet at the University of Colorado at Boulder and perhaps the best quartet in the world.


This is a history of the Takács and considerations guiding their performances of Beethoven's amazing sixteen string quartets and the history of those, Dusinberre relates his experiences traveling, practicing and performing with his remarkable associates, Some musical notation included. Some comparison of qualities among different violins, The serious student may want to have recordings at hand the quartets are addressed in chronological order,

Living near Boulder, I have heard the quartet in person several times, My marvel is beyond description, This unique book gives an inside look at what life is like for a member of one of the world's most celebrated string quartets, But the real revelations come when the author describes in detail how a string quartet negotiates the many, many choices that go into interpreting a Beethoven composition.
Along the way, we get many anecdotes from the life of Beethoven, which humanize a composer whose problematic personality has made him a stereotype,

It's engaging throughout, possibly one of the bestwritten books on music you'll ever read, Fascinating memoir of a professional life in an extremely demanding and specialized artistic career two things stand out: First, the context of Beethoven's creations that represent a significant part of the Takács Quartet's repertoire second, the way the ensemble has kept it soul, as the members, all originally from Hungary, are replaced.
The book is, I think, a relevant literary achievement, by which I mean that the first violinist of this string quartet is also, clearly, an equally accomplished writer.


N. B. : Considerations based on the highly recommended BBC Radioabridgment of the book, which includes a number of carefully selected musical excerpts and their usual unapproachable production values check availability in sitelink bbc. co. uk/programmes/bpnt Beethoven, we all know, became deaf, And profoundly so. My hearing has diminished, but not tragically so, Still, others encouraged me to get hearing aids, I have not noticed a dramatic difference, Others, who can fill up a threestory house with a cellphone conversation, will ask me a question by turning their her back to me and mumbling, All the bluetooth in the world cannot solve that,

But one cool thing about these innocuous little buggers behind the ears is that I can listen to my music, and pretty much without anyone else knowing it.
Not streaming services, but my music, culled from CDs to the music app on my phone, and from there to me, It's an eclectic mix that follows me as I hike through mountain trails, trying to avoid novel viruses, But mostly classical and, in that genre, mostly Beethoven, Part of my celebration of histh birthday,

Which got me to the Late Quartets,

They're not for you, Beethoven famously said, but for a later age, And there's, as always, two ways to take that, I am, of course, a denizen of that later age, But I'm also, myself, of a later age, I've heard the Late Quartets before, but I don't think I was ready then, I'm ready now. And this book helped.

This book was written by the first violinist sinceof the Takács Quartet, It is not ghostwritten. There is some obligatory biography of Beethoven, some breakdown of the quartets, and some essence of what it is to be in an ensemble of brilliant musicians trying, perhaps impossibly, to understand this great music.


Real musicians may get more out of this than I did, But, then again, maybe not,

After Virginia Woolf took her own life in, her husband was so devastated that he did not have the energy to organize the music for her funeral.
Leonard had previously agreed with his wife that the Catavina from Beethoven's last Galitzin quartet, Opus, would be suitable music to have at one's cremation, When it came to the time, however, Leonard could not bring himself to suggest the Catavina to the man making the funeral arrangements, Instead he listened to a recording of it alone in his home,

As have I too, a last evening or two, closer still to those who were,

I suspect I would have gotten a lot more out of this book if my familiarity with Beethoven's string quartets was greater than it is.
My own classical music tastes have always run strongly to the orchestral, with "I should listen to more chamber music" a general thought/resolution of mine ever since my college years.
Nevertheless, this book is a lovingly written account of both Beethoven's compositional history with regard to the quartets and the experiences of author Dusinberre after he auditioned for, and secured, the position of First Violin for the Takacs Quartet in.
Dusinberre alternates between the events of Beethoven's life as he wrote the quartets focusing on his dealings with musical patrons

in Vienna and his political existence and the concerns of the Takacs Quartet as they work to constantly mold four distinct personalities and approaches to musicmaking into a single vision for the music they perform.
The book is a fascinating peek behind the curtains at the lives of musicians during the times when they are not on stage performing, contrasting with the life of the great composer whose sequence of string quartets are among the greatest sequences of artistic work ever produced.
Dusinberre playsst violin with Takacs Quartet, a group with an extraordinary reputation, On the basis of a writeup in the NY or Boston newspapers, I made two trips to Boston to hear them play the Bartok quartets and was not disappointed.


This volume focuses on the Beethoven quartets also recorded by the Takacs and which I have been listening to for the past two weeks, placing them in their biographical and historical contexts, describing the interactions of the quartets a new member "joins" as they rehearse the various pieces for performance or recording, and indicating at least Dusinberre's experience of playing his parts within the group's effort.


There is not a lot to say about the writer's style which is competent, clear, straightforward, The best lines are Beethoven's the violinist for Opusdeclared the quartets "not music" to which Beethoven replied, "Oh, they are not for you, they are for a later age!" p.
One of the epigraphs: "Art demands of us that we not stand still" Beethoven, in relation to the late quartets,

The detail in the narrative fascinated me of course, I now own and am listening to the three CD sets the group made, and I certainly picked up pointers that make my listening more responsive.


A worthwhile volume, .