# Beethoven's Birthday!



## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

The holiday season is upon us: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Years, Three Kings Day; but for us classical music fanatics, December 17 marks Beethoven's 250th birthday. How will you celebrate?


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Composer Birthdays


----------



## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Heaven Full of Stars

Vasari Singers, Jeremy Backhouse

Release Date: 9th Oct 2020
Catalogue No: 8574179
Label: Naxos
Length: 81 minutes


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Beethoven spent most of his 56 years composing.

When they opened up his casket on his 250th birthday, what did they find he's been doing since then?


----------



## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Happy birthday, Ludwig! More than anything else for your anniversary I’d like cat food companies (and countless other advertisements) to stop butchering the finale of your 9th by using it in commercials...more than any other piece of classical music I cringe when it is taken so far out of context.


----------



## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

NoCoPilot said:


> Beethoven spent most of his 56 years composing.
> 
> When they opened up his casket on his 250th birthday, what did they find he's been doing since then?


De-composing?

Anton Bruckner was such a Beethoven fanatic that when Beethoven's de-composing body was exhumed in 1888 for relocation, Bruckner took the opportunity to scoop up Beethoven's skull, hold it in his arms and kiss it.


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I've been soundfully celebrating the Beethoven 250th year (2020) since last December -- combing through my various Beethoven boxes in search of treasures new and old. One of my ventures has been to listen to a cycle of the nine symphonies each month. (I have enough cycles on hand to go for well beyond a single year, and so shall continue into the next year.) I've also taken on quite a few of the more obscure pieces, notably lieder.

I look forward to the 250th birthdate. I have some new recordings to venture unto. I will spend the day with the Maestro's music. No contemporary classical, Baroque, jazz, or even punk rock for Beethoven's 250th. Certainly the _Hammerklavier_ with score in hand ... and what else peaks my interest.


----------



## regnaDkciN (May 24, 2011)

Last month, I finished my traversal of all Beethoven's works in chronological order, working from the 2008 Brilliant Classics and 2019 Naxos complete sets. Starting on the 16th, I'll be "attending" _This Is Beethoven_, an online festival being put on by the Seattle arts community, which can be streamed without charge at ThisIsBeethoven.org.


----------



## Marc (Jun 15, 2007)

NoCoPilot said:


> Beethoven spent most of his 56 years composing.
> [...]


I turned 55 today.
Darn.


----------



## Handelian (Nov 18, 2020)

Coach G said:


> The holiday season is upon us: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Years, Three Kings Day; but for us classical music fanatics, December 17 marks Beethoven's 250th birthday. How will you celebrate?


He claimed to have been born on the 16th. He was baptised on the 17th.


----------



## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

https://www.facebook.com/470171603110724/photos/a.470186579775893/3406122349515620/


----------



## Caroline (Oct 27, 2018)

250 years ago - one of humanity's great souls was born...

Online things today and which will remain up for a few days :

Beethoven Celebration by Lincoln Chamber Music Society (divided into early, heroic and late periods)


----------



## Guest (Dec 16, 2020)

Today is also my youngest son's birthday so I never forget Beethoven's. (I wouldn't anyway and he's my hero.)


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Began my early "Beethoven 250th" concert this 16th of December, 2020, at a grand beginning: the Symphony No. 1 in C, Opus 21. This recording on Ambroisie AM120 is from a 5 disc set of the complete symphonies with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris directed by John Nelson.









I then turned to a Sonata I had been intending for some while to rehearing, albeit in a previously unfamiliar recording, the _Hammerklavier_ Piano Sonata No. 29 in B Flat Major, Opus 106, as performed by Georges Pludermacher on a Transart Live release, Volume 6 from the box set _Complete Piano Sonatas & Diabelli Variations_, Transart TR101.









Intermission. (Out my window the snow begins to fall.)

I completed my early day concert with an equally (to the beginning) grand ending (and a touch of "spiritual" consolation), _Missa Solemnis_, Op. 123. This recording is part of the NAXOS _Beethoven Complete Edition_ box set (Disc 74) and features the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, soloists Lori Phillips (s), Robynne Redman (m-s), James Taylor (t), and Jay Baylon (b-b) with Mary Kathryn Van Osdale on solo violin, all conducted by Kenneth Schermerhorn.















For this concert, all three works were first hearings (of the recordings) for me. I removed shrink wrap today from two of the box sets. The NAXOS box I had been exploring through this year but hadn't previously touched the _Missa Solemnis_. The experience was well saved-up for.

Hopefully my evening concert will be equally invigorating. But, of course it will be: the music is by Beethoven!

Happy 250th, Big Guy. And thank you for the Music.


----------



## Guest (Dec 16, 2020)

When I was 18 years old my mother gave me this recording for my birthday. The LP was scratchy like this one (perhaps she'd inadvertently bought a demonstration LP) and it had been recorded many years before I got it. Also on the recording was the "Appassionata" Sonata. My flatmates in Sydney used to whine, "_turn that terrible noise off_"!! One of those people is still friendly with me after a long hiatus and she regularly attends concerts at Sydney Opera House of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra!! She has suggested to me that I might join her and my answer is always the same, "Sorry, no; not after the Vienna Philharmonic and many of the world's greatest orchestras while I was living in Vienna!"


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Listening right now to the Heiliger Dankgesang from Beethoven's Op. 132 string quartet. Amazing that a composer could conceive of this, amazing that he could carry it out so powerfully. Happy birthday, Ludwig, and thanks!


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Ah! An evening concert with Beethoven. On the Master's 250th birthday nonetheless. Epic.

My earlier Beethoven concert still resounds in my ears and spirit, so now comes icing for the cake. And, of course, 250 candles.

A starting point: an overture works well to open a concert, and my favorite Beethoven overture remains the _Egmont_, Opus 84. A great way to begin. The recording is from a 6-disc set: _An Anniversary Tribute for Wilhelm Furtwängler_, "marking the 50th anniversary of Furtwängler's death" and featuring "live recordings from the Forties and Fifties."









Followed by a piano concerto or the violin concerto? How about the rather rare Opus 61a, Beethoven's own arrangement for piano of his Violin Concerto in D. This from the NAXOS box set, disc 12, featuring Jenö Jandó at the piano, and the Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia under the baton of Béla Drahos.









Intermission. (And like icing on a cake, the snow has by now coated the landscape outside with several inches of fresh, sparkling white.)

No celebration of Beethoven would be complete without a nod towards the composer's achievements in the realm of the string quartet, so I tone down to a chamber music mode for the second half of this evening concert to show how serious I am about my Beethoven homage with a performance of String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Opus 95, not uncoincidentally titled _Serioso_.









Next, a much rarer work to my ears, in, again, a new recording to my ears, the String Trio in C minor, Opus 9. This one is from the Warner Classics box set _Beethoven: The Complete Works_ (80 CDs, and which I just cracked into today, having saved the set unopened in anticipation of this day), with the trio comprised of Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, and Lynn Harrell, a formidable cast indeed.









That leaves me with a return to the beginning, but actually a return to the promise of Beethoven the Master and all the glorious music that lies ahead. I end my Beethoven celebration, and the chamber portion of this second concert of the day, with the youthful Piano Trio in E Flat Major, Opus 1, again from the Warner Classics box set and featuring a second formidable trio of Pinchas Zukerman, Jacqueline du Pré, and Daniel Barenboim. A fitting close that leads only to reflections of what is to come.









(Outside the snow has piled to nearly a foot. Plows are working up and down the street. It is icy, cold, and blustery. Inside my listening room the contrast is quite measured. The soft orange glow of the KT88 tubes in my amp has warmed the space comfortably. Still, the real warmth, I know, comes not from electronic components nor my hearty fire-place, but from music composed by one of the most fiery minds ever to wear the human cast, present here on the date of his birth, though the event was marked 250 years ago.)

Happy Birthday, Maestro. You shant be forgotten, nor your music, which will live on as long as beats the human heart.


----------



## Terrapin (Apr 15, 2011)

KenOC said:


> Listening right now to the Heiliger Dankgesang from Beethoven's Op. 132 string quartet. Amazing that a composer could conceive of this, amazing that he could carry it out so powerfully. Happy birthday, Ludwig, and thanks!


That is as good a slow movement as Beethoven (or anybody else) ever wrote.


----------



## Axter (Jan 15, 2020)

May he rest in peace!

I thank Beethoven for all the great pleasures he has left behind. His music influences me in my daily life, in a very good way. The ending of all his works are full of hope!

When I was younger I used to say, “if you listen to Eroica and truly love it from your heart, you will go to heaven. Its like a guaranteed pathway”. LOL. I don’t know about that today, but in short: “Happy Birthday Maestro! And Thank You!”


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

A recent interesting article on Beethoven's tempi:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0243616


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Axter said:


> ...
> 
> When I was younger I used to say, "if you listen to Eroica and truly love it from your heart, you will go to heaven. Its like a guaranteed pathway". ...


I _don't_ know what power the _Eroica_ has upon man's final destiny, but I _do_ know that if Beethoven himself didn't go to Heaven, I don't want to go there either.


----------



## Axter (Jan 15, 2020)

SONNET CLV said:


> I _don't_ know what power the _Eroica_ has upon man's final destiny, but I _do_ know that if Beethoven himself didn't go to Heaven, I don't want to go there either.


Well, let's hope we all at talkclassical go to heaven and play Eroica there


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

.......................


----------



## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Shes a keeper...:angel:


----------

