Music Banter - Do you like Beethoven's works?

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To me, there is no composer or artist, period, who can rival Ludwig van Beethoven. I cannot describe the joy his music gives me, how grateful I am to live in a world where music exists and in particular, the compositions of Beethoven. Even at its most melancholic, Beethoven's music makes me feel so human, so connected to everything and everyone else. I'm glad to see so many fans of his 7th here, I actually happen to be seeing it performed by my local chamber orchestra tonight!

Only recently have I begun to really listen to the 9th, and it may well be my favorite music, ever. A friend of mine was telling me about Huxley's "The Island" yesterday, how in that book the mini-society on the island believes that human consciousness cannot be elevated any higher than when they are listening to the Ode to Joy. This past weekend I had the opportunity to listen to the 9th after taking some tabs and smoking some herb, and it was magnificent. I might agree with Huxley's islanders. It's fascinating to me how the 9th has become a sort of "empty signifier," appropriated both by Western capitalists as an "Ode to Freedom" (Bernstein conducting it at the Berlin Wall in 1989) as well as totalitarian regimes (Hitler was notoriously obsessed with the 9th). And of course, that horrible protagonist of A Clockwork Orange and his punctuation of disgusting acts of violence and sexual perversion with the 9th.

I know a few people who, in their fascination with 20th century avant garde classical music (John Cage, Steve Reich, Pierre Boulez) forget that Beethoven is an extremely "modern" composer. The evolution of his symphonies from 1 to 9 is, among other things, a story of modernization. Consider along with that his late quartets and the Grosse Fuge, and we have a portrait of a thoroughly modern composer. Cue Wagner's tonal innovations in Tristan, Debussy's new tonal language, and finally the invention of serialism by Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School, and we're in the throes of the 20th century, where "things fall apart, the centre cannot hold"... To me, it all starts with Beethoven. Fate is knocking at the door... da da da DAAAAA... da da da daaaaaa....

It takes mental and emotional patience. and maturity, to deeply appreciate Beethoven. When it starts making sense to you, you realize it to be some of the most profound art ever created. This moment will feel like an epiphany

Of Beethoven’s works it’s his last string quartets that move me the most. In fact the effect is so intense I limit myself to how often I go there. The recordings of his last quartets by the Fine Arts Quartet made in the late 1950s and early 60,s are still at the top of my list. With only a few exceptions most other versions/recordings strike me as idiosyncratic and wrong.

https://www.amazon.com/Late-String-Q.../dp/B0000023HM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk_PjjH6d5I

I wanted to contribute to the thread and share a handsome Beethoven collectible from my archive. It's worth seeking out and is terrifically inexpensive when it surfaces.

This is the 80-LP Beethoven Bicentennial Collection issued by Deutsche Grammophon in 1972.

the companion book from the set is a beautiful leather bound oversize edition with hundreds of pages of the original sheet music, oil painting portraits, and the life story of Beethoven. I picked it up for $2.75 because NO ONE is buying classical lit.

In 2020 I also secured a digital counterpart sourced from the DG compact disc edition of the collection with scans of the accompanying booklets. The audio is v0 as I was unable to acquire it in FLAC at the time.

A nice keepsake for my library.

https://i.imgur.com/USKQ99Fl.jpg