Beethoven

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Amateur_Soul said:
Chopin is probably my overall favorite. So much emotion in his music and I really love the piano.

My other favorites, in no order, include:
Scriabin
Liszt
Vivaldi
Bach
Beethoven
Mozart
Corelli
Rachmaninov
Palestrina
Satie

and there are others…

Once you open that door to “classical” (meaning what most think it means) there is just so much to explore.
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Im reading the Letters of Chopin, and the Life of Chopin, by Franz Lizt.
Chopin was also a great pianist, and composer of the piano.
 
Maratom said:
Im reading the Letters of Chopin, and the Life of Chopin, by Franz Lizt.
Chopin was also a great pianist, and composer of the piano.
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If you like Chopin as much as you seem to with such reading, if you haven’t already, I would highly recommend listening to Scriabin – but you may be familiar with his piano music already. If not, he was hugely influenced by Chopin (Scriabin wrote Preludes and Etudes modeled after Chopin’s.) He was also heavily influenced by Liszt and Wagner – all three are a great combo for piano composition. Scriabin was a bit of a strange person but if you allow his music to stand alone it is really something.
 
I grew up playing the piano, played several of the Beethoven Sonatas. Love Waldstien, also Pathetique. I still sit down and bang these out, although my fingers don’t fly as fast as they did when I was a teenager. I always loved playing Beethoven because his music was dramatic and full of feeling.

Here’s a cool Beethoven story that I heard a few weeks ago when I attended the IMEA Middle School Music Competition in our Region.

The student, an 8th grade boy, played a very nice 1st Mvt. of Pathetique. The judge made some pithy comments, then told this story.

Apparently Beethoven’s piano was built with a sounding board in the floor; in fact, the floor WAS the sounding board. A long wooden paddle came up out of the floor, and Beethoven would hold the end of the paddle in his MOUTH when he played his piano, because he could feel the vibrations of the music in his mouth.

That same judge also commented that Beethoven was very fond of big contrasts in his music–a soft section followed by loud, booming chords. This was, of course, because he could hear (feel in his mouth) these contrasts. So the judges said that when you play Beethoven, it should always be over the top, never understated. That’s the way Beethoven would have played it-big and exciting.

I don’t understand why people don’t like classical music. I think that if children are exposed to all kinds of music and not indoctrinated with prejudice, they will enjoy all kinds of music. My daughters do (ages 24 and 21). My older daughter loves good rock music, country music, classical music, Cajun music, in fact, I challenge someone to name a style she doesn’t like. Same for my younger daughter; she loves American Idol, but loves Renee Fleming, too.
 
Amateur_Soul said:
If you like Chopin as much as you seem to with such reading, if you haven’t already, I would highly recommend listening to Scriabin – but you may be familiar with his piano music already. If not, he was hugely influenced by Chopin (Scriabin wrote Preludes and Etudes modeled after Chopin’s.) He was also heavily influenced by Liszt and Wagner – all three are a great combo for piano composition. Scriabin was a bit of a strange person but if you allow his music to stand alone it is really something.
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I don’t listen to Scriabin as much as I should. I do have Horowitz playing Scriabin on some of his CD’s. thanks for sharing.
 
Cat said:
I grew up playing the piano, played several of the Beethoven Sonatas. Love Waldstien, also Pathetique. I still sit down and bang these out, although my fingers don’t fly as fast as they did when I was a teenager. I always loved playing Beethoven because his music was dramatic and full of feeling.

Here’s a cool Beethoven story that I heard a few weeks ago when I attended the IMEA Middle School Music Competition in our Region.

The student, an 8th grade boy, played a very nice 1st Mvt. of Pathetique. The judge made some pithy comments, then told this story.

Apparently Beethoven’s piano was built with a sounding board in the floor; in fact, the floor WAS the sounding board. A long wooden paddle came up out of the floor, and Beethoven would hold the end of the paddle in his MOUTH when he played his piano, because he could feel the vibrations of the music in his mouth.

That same judge also commented that Beethoven was very fond of big contrasts in his music–a soft section followed by loud, booming chords. This was, of course, because he could hear (feel in his mouth) these contrasts. So the judges said that when you play Beethoven, it should always be over the top, never understated. That’s the way Beethoven would have played it-big and exciting.

I don’t understand why people don’t like classical music. I think that if children are exposed to all kinds of music and not indoctrinated with prejudice, they will enjoy all kinds of music. My daughters do (ages 24 and 21). My older daughter loves good rock music, country music, classical music, Cajun music, in fact, I challenge someone to name a style she doesn’t like. Same for my younger daughter; she loves American Idol, but loves Renee Fleming, too.
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You must be an accomplished pianist if you are playing the sonatas you mentioned above. I have Horowitz playing the Pathetique and Waldstien, and the Moonlight.
It took me a while to appreciate the sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major. Op. 106 “Hammerklavier”
My theory of introducing a person to “Classical Music” is to let them hear pieces with lush melodies; something that they can identify. Not Bach, that comes later.
I’m beginning to listen to Jazz for the first time–something I regret not doing years ago.
I agree with you a person should be educated in all varieties of music.
 
I have been to several Detroit Symphony concerts this year where various Beethoven compositions were played. This included one all Beethoven concert. My three favorite composers are Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn.
 
I’ve heard that Hammerklavier is one of the most difficult piano pieces to play. I stopped playing solos before I ever got to this piece. For many years, I’ve enjoyed accompanying anything and anyone, from folk dancing classes to musicals to vocalists to church to children to anything!

I never felt comfortable playing solos, but loved accompanying others. I wonder how many kid would keep playing piano instead of quitting if they could have a chance to learn to accompany rather than playing solos.
 
I appreciate Beethoven’s music and as a semi-retired classical musician myself, I played most of his symphonies back in my orchestra days as well as some of his piano pieces. But my personal taste runs more toward the Baroque and Renaissance periods. If I had to choose one and only one composer to listen to for the rest of my days, it would be Bach, hands down. Not that one is “better” than the other, just my preference. :twocents:
 
Beethoven is my absolute favorite classical composer. I have most of his works on CD.

One of my favorite conductors/orchestra-ensembles is Neville Mariner and his Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

I also tried to keep up with YoYo Ma, but he is so prolific in releasing albums that I lost track. He is my favorite performer.
 
Right now I’m listening to "Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1, by Alfred Brendel.
The last movement “Teme con variazioni” of his sonata No 30 in E Major is spectacular.
 
Hello,

My favorite classical composer has got to be Antonin Dvorak.

Other favorites:
Chopin
Brahms
Bach
Mozart
Puccini
Verdi

The list could go on and on. And there are many pieces that I enjoy to listen to, but I don’t know who composed them.

As for Beethoven, the most moving work of his that I have heard has got to be his Op. 131 - the one that played in Band of Brothers.
 
Just wanted everyone on this thread to know that I just watched the film “Copying Beethoven” which was just released on DVD. It stars Ed Harris as Ludwig and I have to say, I thought it was a beautiful film. The main story is fiction (a female “composer” who is sent to him to help copy his manuscripts) but the bulk of the movie records actual events. In addition, the score is rhapsodic. Catholics will also love the wonderful discussions about God that the Maestro has with his new friend. Big thumbs up!
 
blessedtoo said:
Just wanted everyone on this thread to know that I just watched the film “Copying Beethoven” which was just released on DVD. It stars Ed Harris as Ludwig and I have to say, I thought it was a beautiful film. The main story is fiction (a female “composer” who is sent to him to help copy his manuscripts) but the bulk of the movie records actual events. In addition, the score is rhapsodic. Catholics will also love the wonderful discussions about God that the Maestro has with his new friend. Big thumbs up!
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Looking forward to seeing that. I’m a fan. I have played much of his music. My wife and I had our hooneymoon in Vienna. There were three “Beethoven Houses” in the area. The one with the view of the river where I believe he wrote 7th and 8th symphonies, (and more) and then it’s a brief train ride out of town to Heiligenstadt where he wrote what was a virtual suicide note. Now they call it his Heiligenstadt testament. He was in the depths of depression then but, lucky for all of us, he did not committ suicide. Never did find that third house. Spent some time at his grave as well…many of the greats are all buried in the same area. Schubert BEGGED to be buried next to Beetohoven! Gotta go!
 
blessedtoo said:
Just wanted everyone on this thread to know that I just watched the film “Copying Beethoven” which was just released on DVD. It stars Ed Harris as Ludwig and I have to say, I thought it was a beautiful film. The main story is fiction (a female “composer” who is sent to him to help copy his manuscripts) but the bulk of the movie records actual events. In addition, the score is rhapsodic. Catholics will also love the wonderful discussions about God that the Maestro has with his new friend. Big thumbs up!
Click to expand...
I just watched it this weekend. There are two things going on in this film. One, is, of course, Beethoven. I fell in love with the 9th when I was a teenager back in the sixties. I have never gotten to sing it (although I was robustly singing along with the sound track of the movie). The second thing I noted is that the female copyist/composer did exist in the period. It’s not so entirely fiction. There were female composers in the period. Excellent female composers existed but they were not allowed their due in the period.

ambache.co.uk/women.htm
 
Interesting link. For me, the point of Ludwig’s opposition was not that she was a female composer, but that he was a notoriously arrogant pig. I can’t imagine him reacting any other way than how it was portrayed in the film. Considering his contempt for all his male contemporaries, I would just assume that female competition would be completely inconceivable for the man.
 
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