Beethoven, Ludwig van that ilk (1770 - 1827)

[Richard Tarleton]

I would rarely put on a CD of a symphony these days, preferring to leave it to the vagaries of broadcast performances. For home listening, I turn increasingly to the string quartets (the piano music has always been there). I left it until relatively late in life to really get into the SQs - recently bought my 3rd complete set, by the Belceas, and am contemplating a 4th. Listening at home, the 3rd movement of Op 132 akin to Zen meditation, inducing a trance-like state. The piano music - I never cease to be amazed by the profundities of the Op 126 Bagatelles. Bernard Roberts talked during a recital about how much of them, and indeed other sections of Beethoven's late piano music, takes place at the extremes of the keyboard. His was the first complete set of the sonatas I bought. The Diabellis have always fascinated me, since sitting in the front row of a recital in 1969 consisting of the Waldstein (with Andante Favori as slow movement) followed by the Diabelli....several versions, starting with Brendel's on a Turnabout LP which I bought nearly 50 years ago and which is still playing well (since joined by others, most recently Paul Lewis's fine version). I always find something new in the Diabellis.

[BBMmk2]

Just thinking of LVB's piano sonata. I don't think there could one ideal pianist that would be accorded to one artist? Paul Lewis, Alfred Brendel, Caudio Arrau?

[Bryn]

I find it refreshing to revisit an original off-air 2003 video, later transferred to DVD,
Eroica, a re-enactment of the events surrounding the composition of Beethoven's
Symphony No 3. Set against the revolutionary climate of the 19th century, the 91mins documentary charts the composer's struggle to cope with the gradual loss of his hearing,
and explores his almost inexhaustible passion for music.

A first rate cast, Ian Hart as Beethoven, Jack Davenport, Prince Lobkowitz and a superb vignette from Frank Finlay, Joseph Haydn, earnestly listening to a complete performance before seizing his moment as he departs, "Everything is different from today". Orchestre Revolutionaire/
John Eliot Gardiner. Writer, Nick Dear, Director, Simon Cellan Jones.

[Alison]

Prompted by the above I've been dipping into Bernard Roberts Set of piano sonatas.

op 10 no 1 is a highlight. Nobody else phrases the opening of (iv) quite so magically

[Barbirollians]

The piano concertos were my introduction to Beethoven together with the fifth and sixth symphonies plus a LP of Alfred Brendel playing the Moonlight . Pathetique and Appassionata .

I have never come across a work of his that I didn't at least like - Barenboim and Klemperer in the Emperor, Perlman and Giulini in the Violin Concerto , Erich Kleiber and the VPO in the Eroica , Bruggen in the Fourth Symphony, the Quartetto Italiano , Annie Fischer and Fricsay in the Third Piano Concerto , Solomon in anything , the live Klemperer Fidelio , the Philharmonia Furtwangler Ninth from 1954, the 1960s Karajan symphony cycle , Brendel , Kempff , Lewis and Barenboim in the Piano Sonatas , Callas singing Ah Perfido …. there is no end .

[rauschwerk]

I have a soft spot for the Choral Fantasy, which seems to be regarded in some quarters as second rank Beethoven. I was pleased to hear a broadcast yesterday of the splendid recording by Tan and Norrington. What an original structure this piece has! It never fails to hold my attention throughout, at any rate in a good performance.

[pastoralguy]

I have a soft spot for the Choral Fantasy, which seems to be regarded in some quarters as second rank Beethoven. I was pleased to hear a broadcast yesterday of the splendid recording by Tan and Norrington. What an original structure this piece has! It never fails to hold my attention throughout, at any rate in a good performance.

One of the first recordings I ever bought was the Gibson/Lill/(R)SNO on CfP and I played it to distraction! A piece I'm very fond of.

[Bryn]

One of the first recordings I ever bought was the Gibson/Lill/(R)SNO on CfP and I played it to distraction! A piece I'm very fond of.

One of my favoured Beethoven works too. I have a good many recordings of it. The four I return to most often are the Levin/JEG, Komen/Weil, Pollini/Abbado and Brautigam/Parrott.

[cloughie]

One of the first recordings I ever bought was the Gibson/Lill/(R)SNO on CfP and I played it to distraction! A piece I'm very fond of.

I like the Katchen/LSO/Gamba which was an early purchase on Ace of Diamonds.

[Lat-Literal]

As a former teacher of hearing impaired students, I am very interested in deafness and creativity.

LvB became more creative as his impairment progressed...or am I wrong?

Sand in the oyster?

This is an important and interesting point. May I suggest that there is much more knowledge currently about creativity and the loss of sight than creativity and hearing loss? Essays could be written on the former topic. It's prevalent in the visual arts. And I am currently in conversation with a woman whose rhododendron and azalea garden has been a recent inspiration to me. She hasn't a lot of talk but whatever she says is educational, especially as she has close friends in high places at Wisley. Now she has macular degeneration and help from a gardener. The precision has gone. The colours are fading and yet somehow the garden has a new poignancy that in some but not all ways suggests rejuvenation. My proposal is that we might consider how hearing loss has produced extraordinary works and/but also poignancy with Beethoven as the springboard. That's here or somewhere else.

[jpegasus]

I still have the 'Beethoven Experience', the BBC's first 'Total Immersion project when there was a week of Beethoven's music 24 hours a day. ALL of which I recorded on mini-disc. One day, I'm going to find the time to listen to it.

I also have this recorded - and have been listening to it in chunks of varying sizes over the last year or so. The very first programme includes a cracking performance of the piano trio op. 70/2 given by Heifetz, Piatigorsky and Pennario in 1963, which I'm going to play again now!

[richardfinegold]

I have a soft spot for the Choral Fantasy, which seems to be regarded in some quarters as second rank Beethoven. I was pleased to hear a broadcast yesterday of the splendid recording by Tan and Norrington. What an original structure this piece has! It never fails to hold my attention throughout, at any rate in a good performance.

I love the cadenza like Piano introduction.

[Pulcinella]

Many thanks for starting the Beethoven Thread, anton - the sheer scale of the project has always cowed me! He'll need a sub-Forum all to himself, I'm sure - to be continued ...

Yes, a subforum, or at the very least a renaming of this thread so it is alphabetically under B not L; anton didn't follow the 'rules' (Beethoven, Ludwig van ....) when he started us off!

[antongould]

Yes, a subforum, or at the very least a renaming of this thread so it is alphabetically under B not L; anton didn't follow the 'rules' (Beethoven, Ludwig van ....) when he started us off!

Anton the Idiot is all remorse .......

[Pulcinella]

Anton the Idiot is all remorse .......

I'm sure that ferney will sort it all out.