BEETHOVEN’S LATE QUARTETS BLOG
Svend McEwan-Brown, ENF’s Artistic Director
In June 2025 at the 20th ENF the 4 string quartets who have made the greatest impact at ENF over the past 20 years (alphabetically: Belcea, Castalian, Elias, Pavel Haas) will come together to perform all of Beethoven’s late quartets in chronological order: 5 masterpieces written around 200 years ago that have awed, inspired, terrified and intimidated generations of musicians and listeners since. Many claim them to be the greatest music ever written. That praise can be a forbidding obstacle when it comes to enjoying these works, so between now and next June, I will be spending a lot of time getting to know them as well as I can (mostly a personal thing), and writing about them: these are pieces I have heard countless times yet still find mysterious, often mind-boggling.
I can’t be doing with a lot of the pretentious and frankly self-regarding tosh I have read about them: there is a whole priesthood of people (nearly all men, it has to be admitted) who love the idea of themselves as special because they listen to The Late Quartets, but their lofty language usually fails to measure up to the task of illuminating Beethoven. Many times I have just had to shut the book and turn back to the music to remind me what is most important – which is every individual’s encounter with it. So this will not be lofty: I claim no special expertise, just my own curiosity and love of the music. I offer facts, context, ways in, thoughts, insights I want to share.
This blog will be updated every few weeks with my latest thoughts – if you would like to be alerted to new posts, please sign up to the mailing list to receive emails and we will send you updates.
