This is the piece that Schubert asked to hear before he died. Very beautiful.

At his request, this was the very last work Schubert heard as he lye on his deathbed in 1828 aged just 31.

It's kinda hard to believe that Beethoven was fully deaf when he made this music at that time. He's a totally in different level.

I like the sound quality. It's so honest.

0:00 Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo 7:16 Allegro molto vivace 9:59 Allegro moderato 10:54 Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile 25:57 Presto 31:00 Adagio quasi un poco andante 33:10 Allegro

Probably the greatest work of Beethoven, with the Great fugue.

My love of Beethoven's music just keeps getting deeper.

Me and 7 other people played the 6th movement of this as a chamber piece in our last band concert and it sounded cool in different instruments (it was 3 flutes, 4 clarinets, and a bassoon)

there is just something so moving about this piece

The adagio at 31:00 always makes me think of Band of Brothers.

One needs such great music, at least now and then. It has healing effects. How staggering Beethoven's achievements are! And how good the Afiara Quartet is!

The WQXR Marathon of Beethoven String Quartets is a Great Achievement and Mandatory Listening! My favest ever set of this wonderful, trancendental music for sure!Thank you guys at WQXR for gifiting us with such wonderful performances and great recordings too!!! (great recordings are MANDATORY for this music and you did it flawlessly!) ❤❤❤❤

A marvelous performance of what is arguably the greatest of all Beethoven quartets.

A very very greet Beethoven ' s masterpiece played by a very greet string quartet , the Afiara string quartet; thank you, WQXR, for sharing this video on KZfaq!

Well I have some great performances of this great Beethoven quartet on CD and I'm very picky. But I absolutely loved this. The fugue drew me in immediately with its passion, commitment and perfect (for me anyway!) tempo. The variations were sublime and the hymn-variation was, as it should be, the emotional heart of this movement, and of the whole quartet. The final sections of the movement took us right into those sunlit uplands! The presto was quirky, and, dare I say it, had me laughing out loud on occasion as the ensemble executed Beethoven's childlike wit perfectly. The finale was muscular and sinewy, bravely and boldly played exactly as it needs to be, but, in turns, very tender in its more reflective passages. Live music exactly as it should be in these late, quartets, passionate, edgy and seat-of-pants. I'm still mopping away the tears and I'll be looking out for all your stuff from now on. Thank you so much!

The sixth and seventh movements always gives me chills

I don't see how people sit and watch this so calmly. I feel myself moving along with the musicians. I want to feel like them.

always amazes me how seemingly random the 4th movement is - just how many themes does it have, how many extraordinary changes of mood and style

I love how the audience applauded after the fifth movement! Sure it means they don't know the quartet like many of us - but I love their enthusiasm at hearing this wonderful piece for the first time!

The genre of the string quartet, is the most pure essence of music. This is the greatest string quartet EVER, courtesy by the greatest composer ever. Period.

Beautiful musics are much better than garbage musics arround us.

30:53 "Let me clap before the others!" "Oh, they are clapping! Let me clap, too!" ... "Oh, shit!"

the beginning sounds so deep and sad, and knowing he was completely deaf when he wrote this, i literally cried LOL....

The film brought me here. A nice touch to have Maestro's portrait displayed behind the players. He seems to be among them, a well as his music

That last movement is spellbinding.

Peace of mind at last

The Shwedagon Pagoda (began 15 centuries ago) in Yangon, Myanmar, is the world’s most expensive temple ever built: now plated with 60 tons of solid gold worth $2.4 billion in today’s money, it has a stupa whose crown is tipped with 5448 diamonds and 2317 rubies and whose very top, the diamond bud, is tipped with a 76-karat diamond. Beethoven’s music is the priceless Shwedagon Pagoda of music. His 600 works are the solid-gold plates of that temple, his 16 string quartets are the diamonds and the rubies of the crown of that temple, and his String Quartet No 14 in c#, Opus 131, is the 76-karat diamond tip of the diamond bud of that temple. The pagoda in Yangon will end someday but your music, beloved Beethoven, will continue forever in this universe out of an infinite number of universes…So, as the greatest writer ever, Shakespeare, says in the couplet of his Sonnet 18, “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

beautiful just beautiful

31:00 Adagio quasi un poco andante is my heart breaking into 1000 pieces at the loss of dearly missed loved ones. I cry at very few things, but I cry now hearing the pain resonate with every bow stroke.

The Cello takes me to heaven. Al the SQ is so great, but the score for the cello is super outstanding.

Very beautiful piece

heart warming to see/hear the asian players as representatives of their cultured knowledge and worldly sophistication

A most engaging and spirited performance. Bravo!

Valerie Li and Yuri Cho, violins; David Samuel, viola; Adrian Fung, cello

E' vero Beethoven non ha scritto questo per noi, ma per un ascoltatore che forse non esisterà mai.

VERY ENJOYABLE MUSIC !

Seems like a lot of the audience listened to it for the first time :)

The andante Is so good

30:53 not yet....

mais que c'est beau !!! ♥ ♥ ♥

A Treasure!

good taste in music

Awesome!

Bravo!

That viola player....C-C-C-C-C-Combo Breaker!

super your all~~~

31:00 for all you Band of Brothers people

El despistado es usted, que no tiene la sensibilidad para ver la genialidad de este cuarteto.

Beethoven thought this was his most perfect piece of music.

Si, esto es música.

CAPTAIN NIXON BROUGHT ME HEEEEEERE.

In un quartetto così difficile è impossibile non commettere qualche errore

6:27 something happened that freaked out the 1st violinist. I don't hear anything, but she is disturbed.

Not really overblown in my opinion, it is you who is perceiving it that way, as it is they who is perceiving the poster as lame. They were just expressing their opinion, and you yours. Though it is a trivial matter, I happen to agree with them, in my opinion the poster doesnt need to be there and I would prefer it that way, it is a bit silly and tacky. But I understand the circumstances and am appreciative to listen to all the music this event provided.

@31:00 Band of brothers anyone?

35:16

a partir del minuto 31, grandioso

Came here for the first movement. I would say a bit rushed with some phrase endings a little 'unfinished' but otherwise beautiful! You guys deserve a better recording space!

Keith Stevenson composed this while deaf! amazing

I'll tell you one thing about the krauts, they sure clean up good.

How about running BWV 1043 for two violas and cello quartet? This transcription is very good. I have watched all the concerts of Beethoven's WQXR and so lack the Brandenburg Concertos transcribed for Cello Quartet. It's a creativity that is worth to be executed, is something simply wonderful! How about posting it?

very slow and nice

Share with any Babies you know

Agreed. But, no, this is what happens when the marketing department has no idea what they are marketing, which is a sad testament to the state of marketing for classical music.

sorry for this- im definitely not one to point out wrong notes in a performance, but i thought I would mention this because it looks deliberate and so i was wondering- is there some sort of argument for the D natural the cellist plays at 1.34. Shouldn't it be a D Sharp??(?) anyone? :)

L'esecuzione è onesta, ma nessuna punta di diamante

The performance, overall is quite nice. One problem, the interpretation of the great Allegro (final movement) is a little stiff and lacks the median degree of tension or what will you. There should be more interplay, tighter ensemble, more voicing among the instruments. Less stiffness and let loose.

Obwohl ein bisschen langsam im ersten Satz, ist das Tempo überall angemessen.

Though a bit slow in the first movement, the tempo is overall appropriate.

Could do with a bit of EQ to remove some low frequency clumping about from the audience, constantly hearing stuff on the left hand side and thinking someone's in the room with me. Performance is great, though! \m/

The seventh mov is so stacatto they decepcioned me... u.u

A Late Quartet.

How unfortunate the video production and editing was so musically out of sync. (The opening fugue is a perfect example.) The camera shot and editing not quite where it needed to be when it needed to be there. As a classically trained pianist and video producer, it is obvious whomever edited this knew little about the score. We can all now see on youtube that classical music is produced, directed and shot like rock videos - a sad state. At least we can hear this wonderful performance through fine microphone placement. The musical joke worked quite well as evidenced by the applause (almost like the no-longer-available LaSalle performance). Overall - the performance was great; the video production so-so.

平均律かなぁこれも。

Largo ma non troppo

練習のたまものでしょうね。美しい。欲を言えば、もう少し艶のある響きが欲しい。でも、アンサンブルは素晴らしい。

TwoSet brought me here

lol

I HATE THAT THEY DON T KNOW THE PIECE!!!!!! GRRR....

I understand there is a need to involve one's whole body when playing music which requires so much concentration...however, some of it really seems like unnecessary showboating. Am I the only one thinking this? A fine performance either way though.

第三楽章で素人でもわかる大きなミスが出た（第二バイオリンの失音）。実演でもこれは珍しいはずで、奏者も悔いているだろう……。あとカメラがほんとひどい。曲を知らない人が適当に撮ってる（なんかの自動撮影なのか？）。これなら固定カメラの方がよい。

I just noticed the lame, tasteless and inappropriate "Obey-thoven" poster. This is what happens when clueless people try way too hard to be clever & hip.

Para los despistados: Beethoven no escribió esta porquería. Lamentable.

Beethoven is so overrated.

Well I have some great performances of this great Beethoven quartet on CD and I'm very picky. But I absolutely loved this. The fugue drew me in immediately with its passion, commitment and perfect (for me anyway!) tempo. The variations were sublime and the hymn-variation was, as it should be, the emotional heart of this movement, and of the whole quartet. The final sections of the movement took us right into those sunlit uplands! The presto was quirky, and, dare I say it, had me laughing out loud on occasion as the ensemble executed Beethoven's childlike wit perfectly. The finale was muscular and sinewy, bravely and boldly played exactly as it needs to be, but, in turns, very tender in its more reflective passages. Live music exactly as it should be in these late, quartets, passionate, edgy and seat-of-pants. I'm still mopping away the tears and I'll be looking out for all your stuff from now on. Thank you so much!