Popular and Early Reception

Chapter 2 takes in two popular contemporary reception documents—a film and a TV drama—which reinforce themes found in the reception of the work from Wagner onwards: lack, loss, and tragedy. The typical conflation of biography and work in the reception of late Beethoven is nicely exemplified by the 2012 film A Late Quartet. Sequences from the film help one to understand this work as a portrayal of struggle brought on by lack—of health, of power, of ability to express passion and love, and of time. The later reception, especially the popular later reception, contrasts sharply with the early reception of Op. 131, which underscores fantasy, fecundity, and plenitude.