Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

[kernelbogey]

Fair enough, LMcD; I've enjoyed learning more about his life and work, not having read a biography. For example, the source of his radical political views in his education in Bonn. The Fidelio and Symphony 9 finale themes had sat, for me, in a kind of vacuum.

[cloughie]

For me, one of the strengths and joys of CoTW is that it (re)introduces me to a variety of composers and works through the year - something which 26 doses of Beethoven, or indeed of another composer, every other week will fail to do.

I love Beethoven’s music but I’m not sure I want a year of him - typical R3 overkill!

[LMcD]

I love Beethoven’s music but I’m not sure I want a year of him - typical R3 overkill!

Which would you rather have - a year of Beethoven or 20 minutes of Piazzolla? Tough call!

[Sir Velo]

I am curious, as this thread attracts little attention, whether members here are listening to these programmes. Or is there perhaps little to say about them...?

Since you ask I have been disappointed by the preponderance of "old school" recordings to the neglect of HIPP which, particularly in those compositions in which the keyboard dominates profoundly influences the way in which one hears these pieces.

Some little known facts about Beethoven's life, but I have never been overly interested in biography per se and the "once upon a time" approach of the presenter does grate a little on these ears. Having said that, one did hear (a movement from) the Op 29 quintet for the first time so there are redeeming features.

[gurnemanz]

Ever since the last Beethovenfest 50 years ago I've deliberately avoided over-exposure to Ludwig much though I love him. It's easy to pick and choose performances. I certainly won't listen every time there's a symphony on but I will listen to any old Missa Solemnis. I don't think I've ever attended a symphony performance at the Proms. We have waited quite a while for our first-ever live Fidelio which come up at ROH Sunday week.

I don't mind a few "little-known facts" and got a lot out of carefully reading Jan Swafford's recent Anguish and Triumph bio, at the same time getting to know quite a few works that had passed me by or not received due attention.

[Bryn]

Currently reacquainting myself with percussive keyboard concertos 3 and 4 as recorded by Melvyn Tan, the LCP and Roger Norrington. Other performance aspects notwithsrading, probably the closest on disc to Beethoven's intended tempi.

[Matamore]

Was I alone in being dismayed by the apparent lifelessness of the performance of Beethoven's piano sonata No 12 in A flat major, Op 26 by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (BBC Legends, BBCL 4064-2) in today's programme?

I had enjoyed the rest of the music in the programme, so I wasn't in a bad mood, but this performance had me literally shouting at the radio!

[BBMmk2]

The new box set from Decca containing the recordings that Wilhelm Baxkhaus made with them looks very good, with a lot of Beethoven

[Sir Velo]

the recordings that Wilhelm Baxkhaus made

That's a new name to me!

[Once Was 4]

Interesting background information today on how LvB was introduced in Bonn to radical thinking of the day: the background to Choral Symphony finale and Fidelio.

Have a look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtA7m3viB70

Some very interesting social comment (musicians classed as household servants etc). Also showing that they would have had their domestic problems then as now (the 2nd horn's children hiding one of his crooks when he was off to work etc). Interestingly a researcher in the USA once documented the lives of the three horn players (their names are known) who did the first performance of the Eroica. All three died fairly young and the children of two predeceased them.

The man actually playing the 2nd horn part (now retired) taught me in Manchester for two years and the actor playing the part has a striking resemblance to him.

And of course it brings home to us that, before becoming a shabby and rather seedy genius, Beethoven was a handsome young man.

[Bryn]

Have a look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtA7m3viB70 . . .

Some illuminating remarks in that film, as I recall, re Beethoven's attitude towards those who played his music slower than he intended.

[kernelbogey]

A new week of COTW Beeethoven: exploring some of the everyday objects and household artefacts owned by the composer to see what they can tell us about how he lived. See OP for description, as before.

[Bryn]

Decisions, decisions. Ian Pace is due to start his survey of the Liszt transcriptions of the Beethoven Symphonies at City University on the 27th of this month. I have booked my place but will it, and later concerts there, go ahead? No sign of cancellation as yet. My guess is that passenger numbers on the buses I take to get there will, in the main, have lower occupancy than normal, as with the event itself. Since this first concert in the series comprises the 5th Symphony and Ives's 'Concord' Sonata, I really hope it goes ahead and I can make it.

https://www.city.ac.uk/events/2020/march/beethoven-liszt-symphony-5

I might give the Javanese Gamelan lunchtime concert at the same venue and date a miss due to the likely greater passenger numbers on the buses I would need to catch to get there in time.

[kernelbogey]

A musical calling card
Beethoven Unleashed: At the Keyboard

Pianist Jonathan Biss shares the wonder of Beethoven's piano sonatas with Donald Macleod, beginning today with the innovations of No 4 in E flat, the 'Grand Sonata'.

Week 7 of CoTW's 26 week survey of Beethoven.

(Full description, as usual, in the OP.)

[kernelbogey]

Finding a Voice
Beethoven Unleashed: Vocal Music
Week 9 of 26: w/c 4.5.20

Donald Macleod explores Beethoven's early vocal music, including Adelaide and his only oratorio, Christ on the Mount of Olives, with conductor Simone Young and pianist and writer Iain Burnside.

Beethoven was born into a family of singers. His grandfather Ludwig and his father Johann were both remarked on for their voices. Judging by contemporary accounts it seems that Beethoven himself wasn't similarly gifted. The librettist and lepidopterist Georg Friedrich Treitschke claimed that Beethoven would growl when he was composing; Beethoven's biographer Anton Schindler said that he howled, and Beethoven's pupil Ferdinand Ries was of the view that his teacher did both. If those reports are true, then Beethoven's inability to produce a harmonious sound himself certainly didn't act as a deterrent to his compositional focus. A quick tally shows that somewhere in the region of half of his six hundred plus works were written for voice, mining subjects like love, persecution, loneliness, freedom, brotherhood and sacrifice, themes that Beethoven held very close to his heart.

Across the week Donald Macleod and his guests will be discussing some personal favourites from Beethoven's vocal music, taking in the giants of choral repertory like Missa Solemnis and the ninth symphony, his opera Fidelio and orchestral vocal music, as well as relishing the astonishing variety of his songwriting, from the song cycle An die Ferne Geliebte and the most profoundly moving vocal masterpieces, to a comic song most likely dashed off to amuse friends in a bar.

Flagging next week's programmes a little early as this thread has become somewhat moribund....