Beethoven puts this "thank you" into music. He entitles a passage of his
15th string quartet (opus 132): "A Convalescent's Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity" (Heiliger
Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit). The entire third movement of this
quartet, one of the last ones, composed one year after the creation of the Ninth Symphony,
is a long meditation interrupted with moments of joy expressed by a faster
tempo and a more joyful tone. The convalescent who thanks God is none other
than Beethoven himself, who had been seriously ill in the months that preceded
the creation of the work, in September 1825. We must listen to these brilliant fifteen
minutes as a prayer. Here is the version – probably one of the best – of the
Alban Berg Quartet.
Fiodor
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