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Foreword

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2017

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Summary

Angus Watson has set himself to survey the entire body of chamber works composed by Beethoven between 1792, when he settled in Vienna, and 1827, the year of his death, and to place each one in the context of Beethoven's life and his relationships with contemporaries, and of the works in other genres that he was writing at the time – a formidable challenge and one that, to my mind, he rises to magnificently.

The story of the thirty-five year journey from the piano trios, op. 1, startling fruit of Beethoven's studies with Haydn, to the visionary beauties of the last string quartets is arguably without parallel in the history of music, and it is told here in absorbing detail: a constantly changing landscape, as Beethoven's ‘restlessly and profoundly ranging mind’ (Richard Capell's phrase) impels him to strike out new paths and open up unknown worlds of music. But though the author does moving justice to those last transcendent creations, he never falls into the error of patronizing the early works and treating them as mere forerunners. On the contrary, he is equally alive to the energy and extraordinary self-confidence, the sheer originality of those first sonatas, trios and quartets with which the young Beethoven disconcerted the Viennese as much as he dazzled them.

Throughout, the book benefits richly from the fact that its wisdom is grounded in the experience of a professional string player who has played and lived, note by note, the music he writes about with such deep and searching insight.

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Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2010

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