Waterloo Public Library Digital Collections

Waterloo Chronicle (Waterloo, On1868), 19 Apr 2000, p. 19

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Could it ever be possible to get too much Beethoven? We‘re not talking famous big symphonies here, but something a little more esoâ€" teric, something on a smaller scale; string quartets, for example. If you‘ve been around to the Kâ€"W Chamber Music Society lately, the very idea of asking how much Beethoven is enough borders on blasphemy There are people in KW who can‘t possibly get enough, even after a total immersion experience Thanks to the astonishing talent, and stamina, of Victoâ€" tia, B.C‘s Lafayette Quartet (Ann Ethottâ€"Goldschmid and Sharon Stanis, violins; Joanna Hood, viola; Pamela Highâ€" baugh Aloni, cello} their cravâ€" ings aren‘t hard to understand at all. On six evenings between April 5 and 14, everyone able to squeeze into the KWCMS music room {capacity 80â€"ish, if you sit tight} heard all 18 of the Big B‘s string quartets â€" every movement, every note, every nuance, every shade of depth and emotion. When the final chord of Op.131 in Câ€"sharp minor (written in 1826, the year before Beethoven died) sounded last Friday night, it left behind feelings of both euphoria and a little wistfulâ€" ness. It‘s been 17 years since the KWCMS presented the entire quartets in one season (back in 1983 with the Purcell Quarâ€" tet) and it‘ll likely be a similar stretch of time before such a gargantuan venture happens again. While he wouldn‘t reveal the cost of bringing in one of North America‘s leading quarâ€" tets for such a concentrated engagement, KWCMS presiâ€" dent Jan Narveson did conâ€" firm that the Beethoven cycle has been the organization‘s most expensive artistic project in 25â€"plus years of operation But thanks to a total ticket sellâ€"out, support from moare than two dozen individual donors and a grant from the City of Waterloo‘s Millennium Fund, the series actually broke even More importantly, however, all that Beethoven live and up close recreated much of the atmosphere of 19thâ€"century musical gatherings where composers could unveil their new works before friends or colleagues in the intimacy of a patron‘s home. There weren‘t any "demo" albums, or RealAudio websites in those days; no anonymous filters between musician and audiâ€" ence By Pauline Finch For The Chromicle

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