Beethoven - String Quartet in F, op 59 (Rasumovsky) no 1

When I first bought classical records I didn't listen to a piece, such as a symphony, all the way through - I would listen to each movement over and over again until I felt I knew it like the back of my hand, and only then - which could be up to a month later - would I listen to it complete. Later on, when I was listening to more music - buying CDs, going to concerts every other week or so, listening to it on the radio - I got more blase. But I can see now that that approach was wrong. I was listening to too much, too carelessly.

I heard the Rasumovsky quartets, once each, about 20 years ago (I borrowed the CDs from the library). I remember thinking they were good, but they really went over my head, because listening to the F major quartet I want to listen to it again and again. I heard it all on Monday, and yesterday I was playing the second movement (the allegretto) over and over. The amazing thing is that normally a scherzo is supposed to provide light relief, but this is incredibly rich in ideas that grow out of each other like the shoots and branches of a tree. So listening to this quartet is work in progress. I am going to keep listening this time until I have understood it.

Overall impressions - on the one hand (little as I remembered from listening to this the first time) I can see more similarity with the late quartets than I expected (I tend to think of the late quartets as completely out on a limb, and that is incorrect); on the other hand I can see a lot of influence from Haydn's quartets.

Sorry this is rather incoherent. But in the end, it is the music that does the talking.