2019 Incredible Decades Disc 3 Choose Quantity

× Disc III contrasts early and late chamber masterworks of Ludwig van Beethoven. The Quintet for Winds and Piano, op. 16, dates from the composer’s early years in Vienna. The quintet, with its sophisticated conversational language, reveals young Beethoven still beholden to the Classical style inherited from Haydn and Mozart, which he would extend with his audacious later works. At the end of his life, Beethoven turned to the string quartet as the medium for his deepest musical thoughts. The quartets to which Beethoven devoted his final years represent the pinnacle of the composer’s mighty creative powers and infinite imagination. In his final complete work, String Quartet in F Major, op. 135, Beethoven surpassed all precedent for the expressive capabilities of music, as if transcending this world and composing for the listeners of all future generations.