Sculpture at the Beethoven House in Bonn Photo: Supplied by Deutsche Welle
Beethoven's String Quartet No 14 is the last-composed of a trio of string quartets, and the last of his large-scale works.
Beethoven composed Op 131 during the first half of 1826, but did not live to witness its première.
Robert Schumann believed that the first and this the last quartet had a "grandeur ... which no words can express.”
“They seem to me to stand”, Schumann said “on the extreme boundary of all that has hitherto been attained by human art and imagination."
Beethoven dispensed with the traditional four-movement structure. This piece has seven movements, which are played without a break in an amazing feat of integration.
This arrangement by the great Greek conductor, Dimitri Mitropoulos reimagines the music with the fullness of a string orchestra.
Recorded in Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington on 21 September 2019 by RNZ Concert
Producer/sound engineer: Darryl Stack
