We celebrate the birthday of the larger than life composer. Ludwig van Beethoven today. It was my late Aunt Barbara who introduced me to classical music and her love of everything Beethoven. It was after some time that I heard his music and recognized it for what it was: beautiful, sensitive, witty, dramatic, evocative, heartbreaking and deeply, deeply human.
All of the stories that mythologize him are sort of beside the point, which is that Beethoven makes us feel because he felt. Seeking out ways to communicate better with each other, sharing thoughts and feeling with people and having those thoughts and feelings reflected right back to you- that's what being human is all about. Some of us just manage to communicate and keep communicating, for centuries after we're gone. The December, I invite you to listen to Beethoven with fresh ears. Think of this as the In Three Words...or comment if you love his music...or not comment and just listen. But enjoy!
We present this from the great Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Eugene Ormandy.
Your so cool! Very nice post! I'm partial to Beethoven myself so I can always side with Schoeder.
ReplyDeleteOrmandy was not famous for his Beethoven, but this is a really fine performance and from the orchestra. It's a great orchestra to be part of. He and Yannick respectively, did, and are doing great work with it.
Happy Birthday Beethoven!!!!!
Be proud! Philadelphia has a hell of an orchestra. I still listen and stream their performances. Yannick Nezet- Seguin is genius and one of the best new conductors og modern time. And balances conducting and the Met Opera?!?!
DeleteThank you so much! Yannick is nothing short of amazing.
DeleteEven right now, I think that Eugene Ormandy has been the only director who deeply understood this Symphony. That wonderful world renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, followed him as only a great string quartet could do.
ReplyDeleteThis and the 6th are my two favorite Beethoven symphonies. The second movement of this is just beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHonestly one of my favorite pieces by Beethoven... His whole musical career blows me away, but this piece seems to be in complete defiance to those who tried to say his work was impossible because of his disability. Throughout all of their naysaying, he held his head high and created some of the most BEAUTIFUL music ever written!
DeleteI do love this music. Maybe I'll get out my drawing materials and turn this on for background. My mother was a lover of classical music and opera. My father liked Johnny Cash.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful tribute to Ludwig - - and to think that he was deaf when he composed most of his greatest works.
ReplyDeleteI performed many of his piano sonatas when I was in college....formidable work but the results were so rewarding.
I can imagine. Haven't heard a few years from your blog they sound amazing, and I can imagine by the end of the playing you felt very exhausted. I've always liked when you featured your little videos.
DeleteNo music grabs you by the lapels quite so much as Beethoven's!
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna let this play while I peruse the interwebz for a spell.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to mention that he felt the music since he went deaf.
ReplyDeleteThe second movement has to be one of the most sublime pieces of classical music ever written.Moves me to tears every time I hear it played.
ReplyDeleteI love all Beethoven symphonies, but this is my all-around favorite., thank you Ludwig~!
ReplyDeleteI like some classical music to relax by, but I'd admit, I don't always know who the composer is. I love the Peanuts strip. Schoeder sure did love his Beethoven.
ReplyDeleteB. has ben my 'fave' composer since I was a boy. His constant striving for an elusive perfection beyond the human experience (and very often not quite succeeding) I've always found deeply touching - so unlike Mozart, the one 'major' composer I could live without (apart from some dozen or so of his blissfully glorious piano concertos!). Beethoven's attempt to reach a universal 'beyond' is something we can all relate to. However, he does take so much out of me emotionally - practically everything he wrote in his middle and late periods - perhaps 'cos I can understand him more than any other composer.
ReplyDeleteI think you touched upon why many like and enjoy his music Raybeard. My late Aunt LOVED Beethoven. Closer to Christmas here, they have a whole day of his music...a countdown of sorts to number one of his works. I hope you and the kitties are keeping well and are all set with your Yuletide traditions.
DeleteThanks, M.M. - and wishing you AND yours all the best too for the Yuletide season. My Xmas tradition is quite simple - doing NOTHING special! - and has been so for over 40 years now, certainly since I dropped all pretence of being even remotely 'religious'. (I might make myself a couple of peanut butter sandwiches for my Xmas dinner!) With the passing of the few friends which I did have there's an even stronger reason now to do zilch. Why bother?
DeleteI couldn't do as your late Aunt seem to manage i.e. listen to more than one major Beethoven work in a row. They go so deep into my psyche that after hearing just one I'm frequently very near to being an emotional wreck! On the other hand there is one composer I CAN go on listening to ad infinitum, and that is J.S.Bach who just NEVER tires me out yet affords me constant, unbounded amazement and admiration - surprising really as his music has such 'intellectual' appeal that the one thing it ought to give rise to is brain-fatigue, but for me no. If I had to name a 'joint-favourite' of mine along with Ludwig, it would undoubtedly be he!
I'm more like you myself. I can only handle one Beethoven symphony at one time. Generally when I'm home I have my classical station on so they play a huge selection of composers obviously. But I do believe Beethoven Bach, Chopin and Dvorak are probably my favorites.
DeleteAnd there ain't nothing wrong with your Christmas traditions. I say whatever makes you happy comfortable warm and content are good traditions.
Love Beethoven and the older I get the more I appreciate his music
ReplyDeleteThere is a place in Beethoven's heart , where the notes are born and raised, and by the time they grow up , each one carries its own bag of emotions and jumps into sheets out of turn , creating complex eternal pieces.
ReplyDeleteThere are some classical compositions that will be admired and adored forever. And the 2nd movement of this symphony is one of them. So beautiful, powerful, expressive... total masterpiece. When I hear those strings at the beginning of it, happy tears automatically come into my eyes. I just can't help myself.
ReplyDeleteI like Beethoven, his 9th is one of the immortal pieces of music. But he is not my favourite, although no one composer sits at #1. There's Mozart, whose Laudate Domine has played at so many family funerals, Verdi, Thomas Tallis, Gabrieli......
ReplyDeleteFor me at the end of the day it really is hard to pick just one, as I told Raybeard above.. I also enjoy Bach, chopin, and Dvorak. There's nothing wrong with some Mozart. That was one of the things that made the Vienna trip so special.
DeleteEven Better Live
ReplyDeleteWhat's not to love about one of the greatest composers in history?!
ReplyDeleteOf course, over the years, I have discovered many (ahem) variations on a theme - see here, here and here... Jx
I love Beethoven, including the childish joke I heard when I was little.
ReplyDeleteQ: What do you call a poop on a piano bench?
A: Beethoven's First Movement
I like his opera too.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are no so-called minor works by Beethoven. There is no note written by B. that isn't wonderful.
ReplyDelete