11/27 Beethoven is "Serious", Mozart is "Dissonant"

Dissonance.

Beethoven's "Serioso" String Quartet was originally written just for a small circle of friends and was never meant to be published: "The quartet (op. 95) is written for a small circle of connoisseurs and is never to be performed in public."  Fortunately for us it "got out" and we have one of B.'s most sublime middle period quartets.  Some people say it was written in reaction to a rejection letter from a lady friend, others say it was inspired by the shelling Napoleon inflicted on Vienna with his cannons (not canons).  You can find a fine visual analysis of movement 1 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES6Ejlo5wzc
and additional analysis here at the Wiki page.

Here's The New Russian Quartet performing Beethoven's String Quartet No. 11 in Fm, Op.95 "Serioso" (1811), followed by Mozart's "Dissonance" Quartet K465 to fill out the program....