How an encounter with Beethoven's Op. 130 floored a 15-year-old Lucia Micarelli 3s67w

Since the age of five, Lucia Micarelli has been immersed in the world of classical music. Her early training at Juilliard laid a strong foundation for a remarkable career that seamlessly bridges multiple artistic disciplines. Over her years as a violinist, she has collaborated with an impressive array of artists — including Josh Groban, Lang Lang, Ian Anderson, Chris Botti, and Barbra Streisand — showcasing her versatility in genres ranging from classical, to jazz, to rock, and points beyond. Micarelli ventured into acting in 2010, making her debut in HBO’s Emmy-winning series Treme. While working in New Orleans on Treme, she discovered that music is less about perfection and more about fostering connection and community. Her latest album, Anthropology is due on June 6 and offers (among other stylistic detours) a fresh take on Nina Simone’s "Be My Husband.” More: Musician Lucia Micarelli talks New Orleans and Nina Simone (The Treatment, 2025) For her Treat, Micarelli reflects on her first experience with Beethoven's Opus 130, at the age of 15. Along with the cavatina, it's a piece that remains close to her heart. She marvels at Beethoven's groundbreaking approach to string quartets, how he was able to elevate the sound and complexity that four players could produce. She highlights how Beethoven’s piece was far ahead of its time. How — despite his age and deafness — Beethoven defied limitations, composing music that was initially misunderstood, but has since been celebrated as a masterwork. More: Lucia Micarelli: An Evening with Lucia Micarelli (The Treatment, 2017) This segment has been edited and condensed for clarity. When I was maybe 15 years old, I heard for the first time one of Beethoven's late string quartets – Opus 130. The slow movement from that, specifically the cavatina, is still one of my top five pieces of music ever, to this day. String quartets had never been written in that style before, so Beethoven just completely changed the whole landscape of the way that string quartets were written and the amount of sound, richness, and harmonic complexity that could happen within a string quartet with only four players. [Beethoven] blew that whole form so far open. There's a record of Schubert hearing Opus 130 on his deathbed and saying, 'Well, what is left for any of us to ever compose?' Beethoven wrote those late quartets at the end of his life. He was really struggling. He was very, very deaf and really struggling with his health, but still trying. It wasn't entirely well-received at the time. People just thought it was so, so odd and so weird. It was only way later that people realized this was absolutely just leagues ahead, just light years ahead of its time — musically and compositionally. He wrote in his journal, something along the lines of, 'I feel that I am on the threshold of some possibly great things.' And he was Beethoven! He was already Beethoven. He was already the goat. So that combination of what he, as an artist, was going through and still pushing himself to do and then, of course, what he did do… All of those pieces and then specifically, the cavatina is just really, really beautiful. Oddly so simple, but haunting. You should go check it out. I recommend the Guarneri [Eastern] quartet recording of it, just because that was the first one that I heard. I'll never forget listening to that recording in a car when I was 15, with my string quartet in the car with me at the time, and all of us just needing to pull over and have some quiet time. We were just blown away by the immensity of the work and how beautiful he made four lines sound. 3n5g6h