Beethoven's «Great Fugue», a masterpiece at the risk of being misunderstood6 reading minutes

Le Regard Libre N° 67 - Jean-David Ponci

Five years ago, Neuchâtel Conservatoire piano teachers Raphaël Colin and Emile Willemin set out to perform Beethoven's Great Fugue, transcribed for piano four-hands. This work was composed in 1825 as the sixth and final movement of the String Quartet No. 13. When Beethoven was told that only the second and fourth movements had been bisected, he flew into a memorable rage: «Ah, the oxen! Ah, the donkeys! They're having them served up again! Why not the fugue? That alone should have been re-enacted.» Following the lukewarm reception of the Grande Fugue, the publisher Artaria persuaded Beethoven to publish it in a version for piano four hands. The composer asked Anton Halm to make the transcription. Halm's work did not satisfy Beethoven, and so he made the