Ironically, despite being deaf he must have had one of the best inner ears in musical history. The more i come back to this work the more I understand that I don't understand how he could imagine any of this.
@damaljinev
4 ай бұрын
Yes! Something like this would be so hard to hear just in your mind.
@aparacity9676
4 жыл бұрын
Now we need the Hammerklaiver Fuge
@OnlyMozart1
4 жыл бұрын
You mean the last movement? Amen to that.
@MasonIshida
4 жыл бұрын
Agreed
@ivanmakhalin1635
4 жыл бұрын
Agreed
@davidbudo5551
4 жыл бұрын
Yes!
@golem2008
4 жыл бұрын
yup
@stefanparrott
4 жыл бұрын
That second fugue is probably my favorite fragment of any composition. It's insane to think it was written almost 200 years ago.
@Richard.Atkinson
4 жыл бұрын
It's insane to think it was ever written.
@FiveSharps
4 жыл бұрын
I remember when a string orchestra arrangement of this quartet and Schoenberg's Notturno for Strings and Harp were programmed on the same evening at a concert in my college, and the sheer confusion in the audience when they realised this was beethoven, and not Schoenberg. Truly, one hell of a gorgeous piece.
@Durtlepower
Жыл бұрын
I think it sounds more like Beethoven than shoenberg, so I disagree with that audience, what do you think?
@mozartsbumbumsrus7750
Жыл бұрын
Which college was that?
@vincent-ataramaniko
Жыл бұрын
How can anyone think Beethoven is Schoenberg... I love both but it's impossible to mix them up
@mozartsbumbumsrus7750
Жыл бұрын
@Vincent True but they could both be on the same program
@billguyan9626
4 жыл бұрын
What I've found with Beethoven's late quartets is that no matter how long you've listened and familiarised yourself with them (and I've listened to them for decades) you frequently hear something you haven't noticed before.
@ultimateconstruction
Ай бұрын
Remove the word "late". His early and middle masterpieces are just as good.
@billguyan9626
Ай бұрын
@@ultimateconstruction The late quartets are on an entirely different level, you clearly don't know what you're talking about.
@ultimateconstruction
Ай бұрын
@@billguyan9626 I do know what I'm talking about. Some aspects of His early and middle period are lost in His late. You're clearly deliberately avoiding listening to Nos.1-10 Quartets because everyone praises His late and you think His earlier Masterpieces aren't worth a listen. Such logic only reveals your insular mindset. Of course His late Quartets are Masterpieces, I'm only saying that the earlier Quartets are not a single bit worse (if not better in some aspects), they're just different.
@billguyan9626
Ай бұрын
@@ultimateconstruction How do you know if I've heard Nos 1`-10. That and "His early and middle masterpieces are just as good" proves you'll just say anything.
@ultimateconstruction
Ай бұрын
@@billguyan9626 You're spouting a bunch of words that lack substance and aren't backed up by anything. If you disagree with me, then at least burp out actual argumentative points. Why exactly do you think His early and middle works are "worse"?
@luigivercotti6410
3 жыл бұрын
People cry out "this sounds bad", I don't think so. Not holistically, not if you immerse yourself in the structure of its story. It only "sounds bad" moment-to-moment, and if you go down this slippery slope, all music, if you zoom in enough, sounds ugly, just like you can't see a beautiful picture if you only think about each pixel individually. People often misunderstand my very favourite composer, as I'm sure they did back in the day as well; "Singability", "Catchyness", these are all traits that can be powerful tools in a composer's arsenal, but not universal, and if you're gonna ostracise Beethoven for not constantly relying on them, you should think equally of Bach, with his long-winded, asymmetric, "nonsensical" melody lines. I love his Bm Mass to bits, but it is has even less straight-forward motivic appeal than this. My apologies if I'm about to get a little maudlin, but due to some... impactful, let's say, personal experiences and circumstances surrounding Beethoven's music, I find myself resonant with his works beyond others, I "get" what they're saying so clearly and unambiguously, and it is in his late period, starting the all-important 9th (that many people have brought up in the comments, as it has many similarities with this) that in one of his pieces, no matter if it lasts 5 minutes, or 15, or 50, that from the start to the finish, I have seen my entire life spring into being, pass all its twists and turns, and come to its end. It's not something I can describe in words, much less so in a youtube text wall no-one will read, but the cerebral gist of all this is that Beethoven's music is uniquely dynamic, like a living person, it is not a still frame, but an animation (I mean, it's in the very word). And, well, life can get very ugly and nasty and bad and painful and cruel at times, but it is only to the extent of that uglyness and cruelty that it can also be beautiful, joyful, and exuberant; Because these properties are the two sides of the same coin, like Yin and Yang, one contains the other. And it's not like it's so much of an "acquired taste" or a "hard listen"; Bruckner's 8th is way more of that in my opinion (and so absolutely worth it); It's nowhere near as "catchy" as this. All there is to it, you can't listen to Beethoven and really get it if you're not ready and able to hear a whole story. And I don't judge there, not everyone has, or wants, the time and energy to sit down and listen in this way; Still, people shouldn't be coming to the Große Fuge looking for light entertainment and then blaming the author when they don't get what said author never purported to deliver. Finally however, I can get not liking this even if you do listen "proper". My heart cannot understand it, but cerebrally, it's true people have different tastes and so on. I'm just saying it's not qualitatively different from the Eroica or the Appassionata or the 9th, so if you resonate with one you most certainly can do the same with the other.
@coreylapinas1000
4 ай бұрын
tl;dr
@PatrickOfTav
4 жыл бұрын
I remember a discussion which happened a long time ago between Hans Keller and Deryck Cooke during an introduction to Schoenberg's Op.31 Variations. Cooke, who thought music stopped at Mahler, said something to the effect that if you can't sing it it isn't music. Keller promptly sang the theme from the Schoenberg and then said to Cooke, "Now sing the Grosse Fuge".
@Richard.Atkinson
4 жыл бұрын
Well this video proved that I can't sing it...
@lvbbbasdsjcjm
3 жыл бұрын
It's all about the who the you is.
@davidrothstein765
4 жыл бұрын
Although I have been listening to classical music for over 50 years, I first heard this composition only 10 years ago. I remember that I was literally paralysed for 20 minutes, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, this was Beethoven in 1825??? This was 100 years before it’s time! Many thanks for this fascinating video!
@riverstun
Жыл бұрын
yeah, try the Bach fugue 24 book 1 from, what 1720? Better yet, Bwv 802
@user-ok8rh6py1x
4 жыл бұрын
In a way, I met my wife thanks to this incredible piece. We met at a chamber house concert organized by the startup Groupmuse, whose founder decided to start the organization after being immeasurably moved by a recording of the Große Fuge. Thank you, dear Beethoven, as well as Groupmuse, for helping me find the love my life. And thank you, Richard, for creating this brilliant video.
@Richard.Atkinson
4 жыл бұрын
I love your story! For me, the Große Fuge IS the love of my life!
@ruanpingshan
4 жыл бұрын
When I was in uni, a company was promoting a brain tonic called "essence of chicken". I asked a friend what is tasted like, and he said it tasted like "a hundred chickens squeezed into a bottle". The Grosse Fuge sounds like a hundred classical music pieces squeezed into a bottle.
@micheasz2552
4 жыл бұрын
Beethoven is like history of music in a nutshell. Great video as always !
@pablov1973
4 жыл бұрын
Beethoven was a genius, but he was insane!!! He had to be crazy to leave his own time, his own world and jump more than 100 years and meet Bartok, Webern and the late Stravinsky. Thank you so much for create and share this video!!!
@bullshitman155
23 күн бұрын
fyi "late Stravinsky" - work of Stravinsky's later life "THE late Stravinsky" - Stravinsky, who has died
@user-ol1ib1ss2b
4 жыл бұрын
Glad you picked the Takács Quartet recording. Love their intensity!
@Richard.Atkinson
4 жыл бұрын
It was the only version I even considered using.
@user-ol1ib1ss2b
4 жыл бұрын
@@Richard.Atkinson Right?? I think they best capture Beethoven's character.
@diegeigergarnele7975
4 жыл бұрын
I usually listen to Italiano sq for Beethoven but I agree that for the great fugue Takacs is just much better because it has more nerve. Still I'd suggest listening the italiano sq for the first Razumosky quartet and the op 132
@gervaisfrykman266
4 жыл бұрын
@@diegeigergarnele7975 I loved the Italian Quartet, but for me they have been superseded by Quatuor Mosaique.
@davidbudo5551
4 жыл бұрын
I share your love for fugal music, but not your knowledge. Your hard work driven by incredible passion is truly impressive and I appreciate all of it. Thank you for breaking down a piece of music that has broken me down to tears of joy, sorrow, anguish, rage, elation, and more. To Beethoven and to you, good sir. Cheers!
@jmrecillas
4 жыл бұрын
I think, my friend, this is the most anticipated video of the year, and not all the thanks in the world will extend and signs my gratitude to all the effort you put on every video you made. This is the best hommage to Beethoven on his 200 anniversary!
@erikbreathes
4 жыл бұрын
its his 250th
@genemcmichael351
4 жыл бұрын
@@erikbreathes )
@ottovogel8191
3 жыл бұрын
This is my comfort KZitem Video
@dfkfgjfg
4 жыл бұрын
I just about to sleep. Thank you for keeping me up an extra 40 minutes. I'm sure this will be worth it Edit: It was 50 minutes and definitely worth it. Best video on the channel so far!
@jernejoblak7633
4 жыл бұрын
Regarding the discussion about which piece should be the final movement of the b flat quartet; a similar thing happened with Beethoven's Waldstein sonata! He originally composed a different 2nd movement - Andante Favori (you can listen to it here on youtube). But when he played the sonata for some patrons and friends they suggested that it doesn't fit well with the rest of the work. Beethoven stormed off but then thought about it thoroughly, concluded they were right and composed the 2nd movement of the Waldstein sonata we all know and love today!
@mariofattori6526
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you for giving us the keys to open such a treasure coffer.
@reecerivalland1528
4 жыл бұрын
WOW! 50 mins of explaining hardcore Beethoven could never be done better than you sir. You really do the musical gods work. Thank you.
@didierdemeestere2496
4 жыл бұрын
Contemplating the beauty of music is (for me at least) the strongest source of joy and an important drive in my life. The only thing that could beat it is discovering a new sense of beauty in music I already know. Your videos always do the trick and for that I thank you very much.
@CanofSoda_
4 жыл бұрын
50 minutes of auditory gold. Worth the wait!!
@fredhoupt4078
4 жыл бұрын
BRAVO!!!!!! Best music analysis video I've seen / heard this year. I am really surprised that you didn't mention the great fuge at the end of the Hammerklavier. The G.Fuge has so many textures that remind me so much of the H. fuge. Andras Schiff, in his famous lecture on the great H piano sonata makes it clear that the work was not pretty music at all. The Grosse Fuge fits this description to a "t", as we say. As a matter of my own sense, it seems to me that philosophically speaking, Beethoven had in mind to change the manner in which his audience would think of musical lines. He embarked on completely shaking up sonata writing with the Hammerklavier in 1817. He seems to have pushed chamber musical lines as far as he could go with the G. Fuge in 1825. Chamber music writing was never the same, was it? I mean you would still get the delicious Romantic era musical compositions yet to come. But, the Hammer and the Grosse were unprecedented and totally transformative. I also heard rhythmic motifs that appear in earlier works in his sonatas and quartets. And, whoever said that Beethoven was not much of a fuge writer should eat their words after listening to this hyper complex monster. It is not pretty music, as Schiff said of the H. It sounded to me that each instrument was existing in its own dimension. Hence the aural impression is of a 4 dimensional storm, hurricanes and tornadoes that intermingled with each other in fragments, bumped into each and then spun off in different directions. It sounds to me that in Beethoven's imagination he tapped into the creative and destructive powers of nature. The G. Fuge allowed us, so to speak, to see how the universe assembles, disassembles and smashes creation into shape and then repeats the process of tearing apart and assembling. No wonder why Gould was so enamored of this piece. A monster of a piece but totally necessary in the spectrum of what music could be. Beethoven said that the Hammerklavier would give generations of performers trouble for a long time to come. The same could be said for this grenade that he lovingly tossed into the medium of string quartets. BOOM.
@Richard.Atkinson
4 жыл бұрын
"this grenade that he lovingly tossed into the medium of string quartets" I wish I'd thought up this phrase!
@patrickrealdeal
4 жыл бұрын
The more you listen to the Grossa Fuga the more it grows into you. Thanks for the amazing analysis!
@felix699
4 жыл бұрын
This kind of content is what we need more to appear on KZitem
@arthurgreene4567
11 ай бұрын
I love that you have a favorite note in the meno mosso section
@TGMGame
4 жыл бұрын
The Große Fuge has been a huge inspiration for me. It's one of my favorites of Beethoven.
@4034miguel
Ай бұрын
Given the time and effort to build and edit these analysis, I understand why they are not so frequent. But, how I would love to listen and watch one every single week. It is the absolutely best way to find, understand and appreciate these masterpieces. I cannot stop listening to Schubert's C major string quintet. And now I am adding a new favorite. Thank you so much.
@sharmilasengupta9250
4 жыл бұрын
Große fuge is one of my most favourite pieces. Thank you for explaining it. I love it more now.
@enriquesanchez2001
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you, Richard. I fell in love with the Große Fuge over 40 years ago (and consider it along with Bach's Chaconne, the greatest pieces by mankind.) The one place where I would like to detract from your excellent and to most people, mind-boggling analysis is the CODA. Upon first hearing this almost a half-century ago, I whimsically perhaps, but realistically considered quite a unique and perfect culmination of what had gone before. If we can consider the last gathering of motifs as a respite from the monumental searching Beethoven had wrought during the piece. Beethoven brings in the most lyric and unexpected conclusion imaginable to his great fugue. In essence for me, here I am whimsical again, I can feel the oncoming entire romantic period of music emerging from the "red" subject. Certainly, you might be charitable to agree that the chordal/harmonic progression of the last few measures is tantamount to Beethoven heralding the coming romantic era of music - not as a let-down to the entire piece but as a clarion call. Well, there you have it. My entire impression of the coda as a most perfect culmination of one of the two greatest pieces composed. Thank you, again.
@neilgoodman2885
4 жыл бұрын
As a non-musician growing up with a mom (dad was into early 20th c. popular) who loved the classics, I can tell you, "If you put it that way, now it makes some sense." Thank you for explaining some stuff I never knew, please keep explaining. I like it.
@ArianSadrayi
4 жыл бұрын
Oh finally. The anticipation is over!
@Виталий-я4ъ9ю
4 жыл бұрын
From a non-musician's perspective, I feel in this piece Beethoven "transforms" the somewhat abrasive original themes in such a way, so in the end they (as if naturally) shed their form and emerge in such blinding sparkle, it takes my breath away every time I hear it. Also, I can't understand, after years of listening to this piece, how on Earth a deaf man could create such a miracle.
@anthonyehrenzweig7697
4 жыл бұрын
Because he heard it in his head
@julianmanjarres1998
3 жыл бұрын
@@anthonyehrenzweig7697 yeah but how many can compose without being able to hear
@Walexo45
2 жыл бұрын
After writing sheets, listening passages on his piano for so many years, I wouldn't even need to listen to pieces at the end as he already knew how it would sound. It is in fact « music literature » technically.
@edwardchen9619
3 жыл бұрын
whenever there's chaotic situation happening in the debut you know the piece is a masterpiece
@TheEtude
4 жыл бұрын
I got goosebumps when I saw this video uploaded. That's how much I love the Große Fuge.
@afonsosalazar689
3 жыл бұрын
Probably my favorite video on KZitem right now. Can’t stop rewatching.
@m.calloway2624
4 жыл бұрын
Great analysis! Worthy of its subject. "Demystified" is an understatement. As someone who has listened to this work many times over 50 years, I am grateful for this enriching and illuminating experience.
@yaboibobby7776
4 жыл бұрын
I've never clicked on any video so fast, I've waited for this specific video, from you especially, thank you!!!
@tomseligman4842
2 жыл бұрын
Rocking a baby to sleep in my arms in the early morning light here in Berlin, and watching/listening to Richard‘s witty, self-deprecating, deeply-thought, vibrant analysis… takes me back to the source of why music is the richest stuff in this life. An absolute gift. I used to put Klemperer‘s recording of the GFuge on the turntable in the LP room at school (there was such a room! with sound-proofed walls and a musty old carpet!) and listen over and over.
@donconde6570
4 жыл бұрын
This is phenomenal. I thank the author of the video for this tremendous gift.
@pawdaw
4 жыл бұрын
So many thanks Richard! I'm reminded that I saw the Arditti Quartet play this as the OPENING WORK in a recital that went on to include Dutilleux's Ainsi la nuit and Xenakis' insanely difficult Tetras. It was just as modern, blistering and overwhelming as the rest of the program.
@mjrbruckner9539
4 жыл бұрын
He is back and ready to deliver. What a masterful analysis!
@EvangelinoFranca
4 жыл бұрын
Brilliant analysis of a magnum opus like the Grosse Fugue. Congratulations on the work and I hope it continues.
@lilawylie
Жыл бұрын
Can't thank you enough for your analysis. Unbelievably, I lived seventy-one years without knowing about this eccentric masterpiece. Now I listen to it almost every other day. So much rich detail to absorb.
@tinibari456
4 жыл бұрын
Well I'll be damned, here's the big one. Literally.
@wodzimierzwosimieta2758
4 жыл бұрын
Not only my favourite composer, favourite analyser but also my favourite performance of this fugue.
@brendanbennett6770
4 жыл бұрын
This is why I clicked the bell THIS IS WHY
@claricechen563
4 жыл бұрын
Oh man, this is so complicated, I may need to watch this video many times. It's absolutely great, thank you so much for it.
@nicolagiaquinto8496
4 жыл бұрын
Classical music has always been a huge part of my life (I'm currently 22 and a full time concert pianist), so naturally I've listened to quite the amount of repertoire throughout my experience... I've always been kind of afraid to listen to this mysterious and (literally) bloody piece though. This video gave me the courage to listen to it for the first time in years and appreciate Beethoven's immense genius once again. Thank you for dedication and your will to shed light on classical music's most interesting and beautiful pearls! P.S. Glenn Gould has always been my biggest idol!
@nathangale7702
4 жыл бұрын
Glad to know that there are concert pianists who look to Gould as a master. I read comments of so many pianists who seem to just treat him as an interesting weirdo. Do you incorporate Gould’s philosophy of experimental repertoire performances?
@schubertuk
4 жыл бұрын
My favourite fugue - by far. Love it to bits. Thank-you Richard.
@steve29roses
Жыл бұрын
Great video. I learned so in terms of understanding what Beethoven was up to in this mind-boggling muisc! 🎶🙏
@tamed4171
4 жыл бұрын
What a great present, 50 minutes of brilliant analysis from one of my favorite musical youtubers
@ironmaz1
3 жыл бұрын
From 32:30, I do this too when wandering around london and it reminded me of this quote: ''"I can do things in the performance of music, and so can any conductor or performer, that if I did on an ordinary street would land me in jail. In other words, I can fume and rage and storm at a hundred men in an orchestra and make them play this or that chord, and get rid of all kinds of tensions and hostilities. By the time I come to the end of Beethoven's Fifth, I'm a new man. Whereas if I did that down on Seventh Avenue, I'd be picked up. This is a very lucky kind of profession." -Leonard Bernstein, 1963
@tabmoo
4 жыл бұрын
The orange theme is simply the best music ever written. It is the perfection of one of musical ideas he was obsessed with in his late years. Ode to Joy is the same idea, for example. The other is the blue theme, you can find its variants in many late quartets, in Kyrie of Missa Solemnis etc.
@Geopholus
4 жыл бұрын
I think the first time I heard Grosse Fugue, in my teens, and already familiar with Bach's unfinished Contrapuntis # 14, I was struck by both the similarity of the Bb A , C B (nat), & C# D series of "coupled" "ambiguously" chromatic 1/2 steps, of its theme, (Beeth different 1/2 step couplings but similar possibilities) and the complex development of so many possibilities contained in such a choice of theme. i also felt at that time that Beethoven's efforts were somewhat of a trainwreck. i commented to a friend, 'Well it IS Grosse". All these many years later, like say 50, I have been increasingly impressed with it's apparently increasing intelligence and profundity with each passing year. Now I tremble in its presence, in a GOD this is GOOD way! Thanks so much Richard for shining a beam from heaven on this difficult masterpiece. Great to hear those comments from other great Composers too.
@souio
4 жыл бұрын
I always saw this piece as the perfect representation of mental illness and how it feels to struggle with one. You can feel the frustration B was going through with his deafness and life situation throughout the piece
@gevenliu1931
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you so much for the fantastic video! I burst into tears at the triumphant moment in second fugue 37:26
@Richard.Atkinson
3 жыл бұрын
It's such an overwhelming moment.
@firzaakbarpanjaitan
4 жыл бұрын
What i wouldn't drop to quickly open youtube when i got a notif from Richard Atkinson...
@beerserker196
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks for helping us to understand this masterpiece. Thanks to you, now I'm totally overwhelmed by the final of the Intense Fugue #2, what a beautiful moment.
@LuxtremeDE
2 ай бұрын
Crazy to think that this came out of a real persons mind. Feels like Beethoven was fighting for his life in this piece. Given that he was completely deaf at this point it's even more insane. Great work on the video!
@ultimateconstruction
Ай бұрын
Don't forget He is basically a God.
@sergiomaia3029
4 жыл бұрын
Absolute Genius! I asked you to do the Great Fugue a while ago, and did not know so many others asked for the same thing!
@choiyatlam2552
4 жыл бұрын
When I first listen to this fugue as a Highschool kid, I already knew about the name it bears but was still blown away by it. The tonal ambiguity at the beginning shocks me well. I thought,“ how is this even within the boundary of tonal music.“ After watching the video, I was shocked by the rhythmic dissonances. Nonetheless, the thing I marveled the most must be the craftsmanship of Beethoven, which I failed to truly appreciate myself. Having written a fugue myself, a crappy three-voice fugue with cheat (computer playback), I cannot imagine how amazing is it for this masterpiece to be composed by a man who cannot hear.
@orb3796
4 жыл бұрын
I was so excited to have this video pop up in my notifications. Just finished watching it and I already recommended it to a composer friend of mine, I feel like a child on christmas showing off their new toy!
@authenticmusic4815
4 жыл бұрын
Omg, this is uploaded two days ago! I thought i just found a very old video i haven't seen earlier
@alguien9710
4 жыл бұрын
I analyzed this 'giant piece' decades ago. I felt it way over my head. Still there.
@pokerandphilosophy8328
4 жыл бұрын
It's great to have you back after a long absence! ...and with my favourite piece of all the classical repertoire! (Bach is my favourite composer, but Beethoven's Große Fuge is the single work by that amazes me most).
@charlottemarceau8062
4 жыл бұрын
I'm so excited to watch this! (I've obsessed with it for years!)
@AlTheKingBundy
Жыл бұрын
Thank you so much. With your analysis you honor the culmination of Beethoven's creation.
@harrietwetstone6902
3 жыл бұрын
Poor amateur though I am, working out the Grosse Fugue (grossest fugue) not once but twice with different players is probably the most intensely satisfying chamber music experience I have had in all my years of studying chamber music. The experience was punctuated when a workshop coach began the first coaching session by commenting that she didn't know the piece very well and didn't like it. Mindboggling creativity wipes out such factors as 'like'or 'dislike'. Thank you Richard for sharing your work!
@trocomposition4216
4 жыл бұрын
This channel is sublime. Thank you, Richard.
@PFMAGGAMFP
8 ай бұрын
Amazing and very pedagogical analysis Thanks a lot
@jernejoblak7633
4 жыл бұрын
This just might be my new favorite video! I've been waiting for it for over a year, expected a lot, yet was still staring at the screen like a child at a new toy the whole time. I love your work!
@TheWindWaker333
4 жыл бұрын
I completely agree about the "Intense Fuge #2" as you call it. I was of course completely baffled (in a good way) the first time I heard the Grosse Fuge but when I heard this section especially 31:25 - 31:45 it completely won me over. String Quartet No. 14 is my favorite work of Beethoven's but that moment in the Grosse Fuge is my favorite moment of his.
@diegoparra8178
4 жыл бұрын
This is just great, it is impossible to thank you enough for the amount of work put into these amazing videos.
@thisisaloadofbarnacles921
4 жыл бұрын
You are amazing for doing this. The first time I heard this fugue I hated it, but when I listened to it again I liked it more, and now it may be my favorite piece. Thank you!
@earlplayspiano
4 жыл бұрын
Like perhaps a few other commenters, I performed the Große Fuge on piano for four hands with a friend. Such a great piece! I've only heard the string quartet performed live once, but the entire quartet was perhaps the most musical performance I have ever heard. Such a great quartet! I've been working on the Goldberg variations for a while now and posted my first public performance of some of the variations today. Maybe that's why your video showed up for me. You've inspired me to make a video or two about the Goldbergs. Thanks for the video and inspiration! :)
@Richard.Atkinson
4 жыл бұрын
I wonder if the KZitem algorithm heard that I mentioned the Goldberg Variations in this video and suggested it to you for that reason?
@earlplayspiano
4 жыл бұрын
@@Richard.Atkinson Totally need to collect my thoughts and make a video around the Goldbergs. I'd think there's plenty of material to make a feature length documentary. Feels like the Goldbergs are in constant rediscovery of late :) Fwiw, I work as a programmer and am just starting a project to programmatically look for patterns in music. Perhaps up your alley? I will likely just open source my code. Not sure if I will find anything, but I am excited to try :) Große Fuge is so amazing. Thanks again for your video and a touch of inspiration!
@Richard.Atkinson
Жыл бұрын
@@earlplayspiano Sorry for the 2-years-late reply! This is definitely something I'm interested in, since I spend so much time in every video doing tangents about patterns that remind me of other patterns.
@florisheijdra6086
4 жыл бұрын
Great video! I ordered the sheets to this fuge 2 weeks ago to analyse it during these times. You were just one step ahead and I do thank you for that :D
@lyricsronen
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you for yet another amazing video. What a bizarre example of Beethoven's complete and utterly indisputable mastery. I think that in this piece, Beethoven is teaching the world that the temporal element of music can be extended and transformed just like any other compositional aspect. What a well worth hour of content!
@620Ramsey
4 жыл бұрын
That moment on the streets of New York ... I imagine a lot of us here have been there! Thank you for such a wonderful and heartfelt analysis. I love how you weave your personal experiences, musical associations and subjective opinions into the theoretical discussion. It's counterpoint, of a sort; these vids are works of art in themselves.
@lucaszavaluentie4855
3 жыл бұрын
I first listened to this piece last year. At first, I did not understand it. I also thought it wasn’t that good. Then I started listening to it more and I don’t regret it. It’s one of the best fugues ever written if not the best.
@kevinpfaff2301
3 жыл бұрын
Beethoven shreds it. He inverts, inside out, upside down and does everything possible to the subjects.
@aronollerer5745
4 жыл бұрын
THANK YOU!
@NN-df7hl
Жыл бұрын
Elemental and timeless, crucial, relentless, horrifying, heavenly, metaphysical, cosmic, more real than reality, shredding the veil, the blast of totality, the pulsation of all that has existed and will ever exist, every nightmare and every glory pressed into the service of the INFINITE...it really affects me! If I ever get another tattoo it will say: Opus 133. I don't fully understand it, but IT understands ME.
@marichristian1072
4 жыл бұрын
So happy to finally see your heroic analysis the Grosse Fuge. I love this piece with an almost irrational enthusiasm. Thank you for your monumental analysis Mr. Atkinson.
@jorgeaguirre7260
4 жыл бұрын
When a stroke of genius, is taken beyond all boundaries and it just seem madness. Thanks Richard for posting. Amazing job!
@billguyan9626
4 жыл бұрын
Some things seem to be madness because they're incomprehensible.
@MyChannelDJC
4 жыл бұрын
This was fabulous congratulations!
@caterscarrots3407
4 жыл бұрын
Finally! The video I have been waiting for. I've tried analyzing this fugue and after the third entry of the fugue exposition, it becomes a confusing sea of counterpoint for me.
@1Victorinus
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you so much for posting this. It is absolutely wonderful.
@Quim1441
4 жыл бұрын
Incredible analisys. Love from Spain
@ivanmakhalin1635
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you, Richard! I really am filled with joy! Love your videos
@toddbevan4414
4 жыл бұрын
Wow....never heard this piece before. Thanks for the enlightenment Richard.
@markwinstonsuits8680
2 жыл бұрын
This plays to a rather exclusive club of people who can deal with the exhaltation of the pin point of human genius, rather than the democratic soup kitchen of fast fun easy more popular idioms. It's always a "holy wow" when hearing and makes me think of christ on the cross, both feeling and redeeming the sins of humanity. How I'd have loved this video as a muisc student in the late 70's early 80's! In those days just had the norton scores of all the quarttets, some good 33lp recordings and a few books by Tovey to go by. Great stuff! Thank you !
@Hazju100
4 жыл бұрын
Oh my gosh!!!!! What an astounding masterpiece. I'm talking about this video of course, the fugue goes without saying ;D I can't believe I've never found your channel before - I just binged your Mozart 41 and Eroica videos and then this popped up and - well, I am so grateful for what you are doing. You're not afraid to go into the nitty gritty details, and you communicate your passion for music so well...and like - I had hoped to go this in depth in upper level theory in undergrad, but alas. I am isolated among my friends for being a music theory nerd haha, so - thank you so much for this!!
@MasonIshida
4 жыл бұрын
At 35:59 that dominant pedal point. I can’t think of a more intense or “dissonant” section in all of Beethoven’s music. I love it. I can’t imagine what the premier audience’s reaction was to hearing it.
@Richard.Atkinson
4 жыл бұрын
8 and 9 measures after this (after K) is one of my favorite half-step dissonances between the two violins. Is this what you’re talking about, or the whole passage in general?
@MasonIshida
4 жыл бұрын
Richard Atkinson that is actually one of my favorite dissonances in the whole piece, but I was referring to the whole pedal point section as “the most tense section in all of Beethoven”. If you look at the harmonies there a all sorts of dissonant passing tones. Like the second measure after K, there is a tone cluster: Eb,D natural, and E natural. Awesome
@pavlenikacevic4976
Жыл бұрын
If I were in that audience, I'd probably have thought that it's just an immensely difficult piece that sounded off because the players couldn't meet the technical demands... But on top of that, add the fact that it was very likely that they couldn't have played it nearly as well as the modern recordings (as it was a work of unprecedented difficulty), so it probably sounded even more chaotic than it's supposed to
@DuoPetrof
Жыл бұрын
Excellent video and excellent channel. Our deep respect for your commitment to music and analysis.
@mozessiwang7751
4 жыл бұрын
Brilliant Beethoven with his masterpiece, and brilliant R.Atkinson with his demystifying video!
@rahymashirov5903
4 жыл бұрын
Wow! What a day I experienced after clicking this video! My afternoon has been illuminated with this masterpiece of an analysis video. Kudos to you dear composer, music analyst and critic, wonderful human being. After I watched the video, I have read all 313 comments and I enjoyed all the discussion regarding this piece including the negative reviews. This piece is just amazing how different people perceive it very variably and also I respect the people who say it is ugly even though I strongly disagree with them. I think great masterpieces should provoke people in some sense or other (another great example is Rite of Spring, which is my all-time favorite composition together with Eroica Symphony). Richard, I really appreciate what you are doing here and please continue to illuminate our minds and souls with your masterful analyses of wonderful compositions!
@vibratoqueen450
4 жыл бұрын
I was so excited when I got the notification. The Takacs Quartet recording is my favorite, probably because I read their book...! :) Can't wait to watch!!!!
@maximilianogavilan3008
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you! Reminds me of Vicente Huidobro's poem "Altazor o el viaje en paracaidas", exploring the possibilities of language. Beautiful
@DylanNaroff
4 жыл бұрын
The Great Fugue’s palindrome-like structure is remarkable. It’s as if Beethoven is looking at himself in the mirror, grappling with the duality of life and death, on the verge of madness. One of the most satisfying endings in all of music! The technique of the “interruption” in m. 26, inspired by Albrechtsberger’s fugal treatise, is very intriguing, and for me, explains the organic transition from cavatina to the Great Fugue in a shocking, interruptive manner. I have always tended to favor the interpretation of Brentano, for they pulsate these repeated eighth notes with a sense of urgency, but Takács’ rendition is very emotionally satisfying. Thank you for your analysis. Wonderful. Just discovered your channel.
@Richard.Atkinson
4 жыл бұрын
I had a whole paragraph about the different articulations performers choose for the blue subject in the first fugue, but the video was already too long so I didn't include it!
@rahymashirov5903
4 жыл бұрын
@@Richard.Atkinson oh what a shame, I hope you will make a separate shorter video about it since I am (and sure a lot of other people are) really interested in different interpretations of this gargantua
@Ideennot
Жыл бұрын
Thanks to your video, which I have now watched 4 times, the Große Fuge has become one of my favorite pieces of music of all time, and I don't usually listen to orchestral music that much.
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