Beethoven String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 performed by Afiara Quartet (Live). Filmed live in The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in New York for WQXR's Beethoven String Quartet Marathon on November 18, 2012.
By 1820, when he was almost totally deaf, Beethoven composed his greatest works. These include the last five piano sonatas, the Missa solemnis, the Ninth Symphony, with its choral finale, and the last five string quartets. Unbelievable !!
0:00 Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo 7:16 Allegro molto vivace 9:59 Allegro moderato 10:54 Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile 25:57 Presto 31:00 Adagio quasi un poco andante 33:10 Allegro
Me and 7 other people played the 6th movement of this as a chamber piece in our last band concert and it sounded cool in different instruments (it was 3 flutes, 4 clarinets, and a bassoon)
A very very greet Beethoven ' s masterpiece played by a very greet string quartet , the Afiara string quartet; thank you, WQXR, for sharing this video on RU-vid!
The WQXR Marathon of Beethoven String Quartets is a Great Achievement and Mandatory Listening! My favest ever set of this wonderful, trancendental music for sure!Thank you guys at WQXR for gifiting us with such wonderful performances and great recordings too!!! (great recordings are MANDATORY for this music and you did it flawlessly!) ❤❤❤❤
One needs such great music, at least now and then. It has healing effects. How staggering Beethoven's achievements are! And how good the Afiara Quartet is!
I love how the audience applauded after the fifth movement! Sure it means they don't know the quartet like many of us - but I love their enthusiasm at hearing this wonderful piece for the first time!
Luke Cocchi Yes-I know it's unlikely,but I like to think that Beethoven somehow sensed that Schubert would die while listening to this at the age of 31,and so deliberately made the best bit at the 31-minute mark,as a way of honouring a fellow suffering composer of genius.But if that's what did indeed happen,I say,"Bravo Beethoven,a true genius indeed!"
Well I have some great performances of this great Beethoven quartet on CD and I'm very picky. But I absolutely loved this. The fugue drew me in immediately with its passion, commitment and perfect (for me anyway!) tempo. The variations were sublime and the hymn-variation was, as it should be, the emotional heart of this movement, and of the whole quartet. The final sections of the movement took us right into those sunlit uplands! The presto was quirky, and, dare I say it, had me laughing out loud on occasion as the ensemble executed Beethoven's childlike wit perfectly. The finale was muscular and sinewy, bravely and boldly played exactly as it needs to be, but, in turns, very tender in its more reflective passages. Live music exactly as it should be in these late, quartets, passionate, edgy and seat-of-pants. I'm still mopping away the tears and I'll be looking out for all your stuff from now on. Thank you so much!
The genre of the string quartet, is the most pure essence of music. This is the greatest string quartet EVER, courtesy by the greatest composer ever. Period.
The Shwedagon Pagoda (began 15 centuries ago) in Yangon, Myanmar, is the world’s most expensive temple ever built: now plated with 60 tons of solid gold worth $2.4 billion in today’s money, it has a stupa whose crown is tipped with 5448 diamonds and 2317 rubies and whose very top, the diamond bud, is tipped with a 76-karat diamond. Beethoven’s music is the priceless Shwedagon Pagoda of music. His 600 works are the solid-gold plates of that temple, his 16 string quartets are the diamonds and the rubies of the crown of that temple, and his String Quartet No 14 in c#, Opus 131, is the 76-karat diamond tip of the diamond bud of that temple. The pagoda in Yangon will end someday but your music, beloved Beethoven, will continue forever in this universe out of an infinite number of universes…So, as the greatest writer ever, Shakespeare, says in the couplet of his Sonnet 18, “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
31:00 Adagio quasi un poco andante is my heart breaking into 1000 pieces at the loss of dearly missed loved ones. I cry at very few things, but I cry now hearing the pain resonate with every bow stroke.
How about running BWV 1043 for two violas and cello quartet? This transcription is very good. I have watched all the concerts of Beethoven's WQXR and so lack the Brandenburg Concertos transcribed for Cello Quartet. It's a creativity that is worth to be executed, is something simply wonderful! How about posting it?
Not really overblown in my opinion, it is you who is perceiving it that way, as it is they who is perceiving the poster as lame. They were just expressing their opinion, and you yours. Though it is a trivial matter, I happen to agree with them, in my opinion the poster doesnt need to be there and I would prefer it that way, it is a bit silly and tacky. But I understand the circumstances and am appreciative to listen to all the music this event provided.
sorry for this- im definitely not one to point out wrong notes in a performance, but i thought I would mention this because it looks deliberate and so i was wondering- is there some sort of argument for the D natural the cellist plays at 1.34. Shouldn't it be a D Sharp??(?) anyone? :)
Agreed. But, no, this is what happens when the marketing department has no idea what they are marketing, which is a sad testament to the state of marketing for classical music.
Came here for the first movement. I would say a bit rushed with some phrase endings a little 'unfinished' but otherwise beautiful! You guys deserve a better recording space!
The performance, overall is quite nice. One problem, the interpretation of the great Allegro (final movement) is a little stiff and lacks the median degree of tension or what will you. There should be more interplay, tighter ensemble, more voicing among the instruments. Less stiffness and let loose.
Could do with a bit of EQ to remove some low frequency clumping about from the audience, constantly hearing stuff on the left hand side and thinking someone's in the room with me. Performance is great, though! \m/
How unfortunate the video production and editing was so musically out of sync. (The opening fugue is a perfect example.) The camera shot and editing not quite where it needed to be when it needed to be there. As a classically trained pianist and video producer, it is obvious whomever edited this knew little about the score. We can all now see on youtube that classical music is produced, directed and shot like rock videos - a sad state. At least we can hear this wonderful performance through fine microphone placement. The musical joke worked quite well as evidenced by the applause (almost like the no-longer-available LaSalle performance). Overall - the performance was great; the video production so-so.
I understand there is a need to involve one's whole body when playing music which requires so much concentration...however, some of it really seems like unnecessary showboating. Am I the only one thinking this? A fine performance either way though.
+DrGonzo2781 I would hope that they are moving due to an emotional connection to the music, but musicians like all people can be prone to vanity. It isn't unlikely for someone to do a lot of moving around as a natural response to the music however, and I prefer to be optimistic about people if at all possible.
Do you play in a string quartet? I do! And symphonies as well, both violin and viola. I do agree with you about excessive motion (I can't stand watching, for example, Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg.) My wife and my friends tell me I am the great stone-face when I play. My major teachers (BTW I'm now 74, so my instruction was a while ago but included members of the Pro Arte String Quartet) pointed out that you don't just move the bow across the violin. Expert players will have a certain amount of movement of the violin for accents, sforzandi, etc. I'm not a deadpan as Heifetz (I'm not Heifetz either) but for most of us there is a certain amount of movement implicit in bowing which is (or should be) more than just arm and shoulder pressure. But I've been only playing for 64 years, 58 of them in adult symphony orchestras, what would I know about it, LOL
Beethoven wrote this. If you mean he didn’t write it because they played it with a few mistakes then remember Beethoven‘s own quote: „To play a wrong note is insignificant. To play without passion is inexcusable!“
I just noticed the lame, tasteless and inappropriate "Obey-thoven" poster. This is what happens when clueless people try way too hard to be clever & hip.
Well I have some great performances of this great Beethoven quartet on CD and I'm very picky. But I absolutely loved this. The fugue drew me in immediately with its passion, commitment and perfect (for me anyway!) tempo. The variations were sublime and the hymn-variation was, as it should be, the emotional heart of this movement, and of the whole quartet. The final sections of the movement took us right into those sunlit uplands! The presto was quirky, and, dare I say it, had me laughing out loud on occasion as the ensemble executed Beethoven's childlike wit perfectly. The finale was muscular and sinewy, bravely and boldly played exactly as it needs to be, but, in turns, very tender in its more reflective passages. Live music exactly as it should be in these late, quartets, passionate, edgy and seat-of-pants. I'm still mopping away the tears and I'll be looking out for all your stuff from now on. Thank you so much!
