From A
Reading Of The Two Works, Mozart And Beethoven, It Is Evident
That, If The Studies, Predilections, And Habits
Of mind of Mr.
Oulibicheff have perfectly predisposed him to accomplish an
excellent work in its entirety, yours, my dear
Lenz, have led you
to a sort of intimacy, the familiarity of which nourished a sort
of religious exaltation, with the genius of Beethoven. Mr.
Oulibicheff in his method proceeds more as proprietor and
professor; you more as poet and lawyer. But, whatever may be said
about this or that hiatus in your work, the plan of which has
confined you disadvantageously to the analysis of the piano
sonatas, and however much people may think themselves justified
in cavilling at you about the distribution of your materials, the
chief merit, which none could refuse you without injustice, is
that you have really understood Beethoven, and have succeeded in
making your imagination adequate to his by your intuitive
penetration into the secrets of his genius.
For us musicians, Beethoven's work is like the pillar of cloud
and fire which guided the Israelites through the desert - a pillar
of cloud to guide us by day, a pillar of fire to guide us by
night, "so that we may progress both day and night." His
obscurity and his light trace for us equally the path we have to
follow; they are each of them a perpetual commandment, an
infallible revelation. Were it my place to categorize the
different periods of the great master's thoughts, as manifested
in his Sonatas, Symphonies, and Quartets, I should certainly not
fix the division into three styles, which is now pretty generally
adopted and which you have followed; but, simply recording the
questions which have been raised hitherto, I should frankly weigh
the great question which is the axis of criticism and of musical
aestheticism at the point to which Beethoven has led us - namely,
in how far is traditional or recognized form a necessary
determinant for the organism of thought?
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