어찌하랴, 詩과 禮를 알아도, 樂을 모른다면, ...

子曰 興於詩 立於禮 成於樂 -논어, 태백 제8장

완벽한 곡과 탁월한 연주자 그리고 좋은 청중이 훌륭한 음악을 완성한다. 서양 음악에 있어서 베토벤이 차지하고 있는 위상을 다시금 생각한다. 연주자이기에 앞서 불완전하고 솔직한 인간들의 이야기이다. 영화속에 나오는 T.S. Eliot와 Ogden Nash의 시도 '예술과 사랑을 하기에 인생은 짧다'는 썸머셋 모옴의 말을 생각케 한다. ... 아내와 같이 A Late Quartet을 보았다.

This extract from the Lettres Italiennes sur Haydn by Giuseppe Carpani, taken up by Stendhal in his Vie de Haydn, describes somewhat mischievously the String Quartet:

“A woman of wit and learning said that when she was hearing the Haydn Quartets, she thought she was present at the conversation of four nice persons. She found that the first violin looked like a man of much wit, middle-aged, a fine talker, who sustained the conversation of which he had given the subject.

In the second violin, she recognized a friend of the first one, who sought by all means to make him shine, very seldom thought of himself, and sustained the conversation rather by approving of what the others said than by putting forward ideas

The cello was a solid man, learned and sententious. He supported the first violin speeches with maxims laconic, but convincing by their truth.

As to the viola, it was a woman a little talkative, who did not say much yet nevertheless wanted to come in on the conversation. But she acted gracefully and, while she was speaking, the other interlocutors had time to get their breath. However one could see that she had a secrete fondness for the cello that she preferred to the other instruments.”