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| | | | | | Samuel Beckett's Chamber Music | | |  | | |  Martha Dow Fehsenfeld and Lois More Overbeck
A brunch-time talk by the editors of Beckett’s letters on the influence of music on his art.
An accomplished pianist, playwright Samuel Beckett was passionate about music all his life. He preferred Beethoven to Mozart, Bartók to Bach—and revered Schubert and Haydn. Many of his letters—the first volume of which was published this year—are full of colorful descriptions (if not downright contempt) for the concerts he’s attending.
From an early letter to his friend Tom McGreevy:
“At the R.D.S yesterday afternoon the music was so tepid that I was conscious of my neck. Impossible to hear any music here. Yesterday they played one of Beethoven’s last string quartets, a Mendelssohn Quintette & a Schubert Quintette. I feel that Beethoven’s Quintettes are a waste of time. . . . And why do they go on playing that bloody Mendelssohn! . . . The Schubert had plenty of nobility and one understood the need of relating his chamber music to his song settings. I don’t know any chamber music that works so skillfully. A waste in conception—you know that lamentable pebble in the pond effect—but rigid economy of application. Alas! Why can’t I tell you what I feel without getting on a platform?”
In 1985, Samuel Beckett authorized an edition of his letters to be published after his death, naming Martha Dow Fehsenfeld and Lois More Overbeck as editors. “The prospect of reading Beckett’s letters quickens the blood like none other’s,” wrote Tom Stoppard. “One must hope to stay alive until the fourth [and final] volume is safely delivered.”
Includes a light brunch and an opportunity for informal conversation with the speaker and fellow audience members. | |
| | Programs, venues, instructors/moderators are subject to change or cancellation without notice |
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© 2010 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association
All Rights Reserved. |
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