Beethoven as Traditionalist?

Jeremy Denk has a thoughtful (as usual) post on whether Beethoven and Bach actually wrote against their historic type (of Beethoven as revolutionary, Bach as reactionary). I recommend reading it for yourself.

It made me think of something I've been meaning to write about: One of my uneasy secrets is that I can't stand Op. 111. I always feel extremely uncomfortable after listening to it, precisely because it wanders so far afield, without any real resolution. It's not that I need music to resolve neatly in order to like it. But Op. 111 just disintegrates, until nothing is left. Making things even more uncomfortable is the fact that this is the last of Beethoven's 32 sonatas, so there is an expectation that it somehow is a completion or summation of what comes before it. Not only does it not complete anything; it even undoes the previous sonatas.

Ultimately, there is a happy ending, however. It just takes some liberal classification. The Diabelli Variations, in all their massive glory, is the perfect medicine -- an epilogue for anyone who wants to take the sonatas as some sort of massive life-long cycle.