# Beethoven



## DavidA

Please note that to mark the 250 anniversary of Beethoven BBC4 (UK) is broadcasting three hour long documentary programmes on Monday nights beginning tonight (July 6) at 9pm.


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## Merl

Thanks DavidA. I'll record thst later.


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## annaw

Duh, pity it's not available outside the UK . Thanks DavidA for creating the thread though. How come there wasn't one before?!


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## Rogerx

annaw said:


> Duh, pity it's not available outside the UK . Thanks DavidA for creating the thread though. How come there wasn't one before?!


It depends on where you live, here in Europe we have a about 5 BBC channels 
Outside the U.K


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## annaw

Rogerx said:


> It depends on where you live, here in Europe we have a about 5 BBC channels
> Outside the U.K


Yea, probably depends on the telecommunications company as well, but I think we have only two BBC channels or something in Estonia... Not entirely sure though.

Luckily I have all those Beethoven string quartet recordings to listen to .


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## mrdoc

DavidA said:


> Please note that to mark the 250 anniversary of Beethoven BBC4 (UK) is broadcasting three hour long documentary programmes on Monday nights beginning tonight (July 6) at 9pm.


I get hundreds of stations from all over the world including BBC4 on internet radio but it is now too late (10:58pm) just cant win unless it is available as pod cast.


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## Rogerx

mrdoc said:


> I get hundreds of stations from all over the world including BBC4 on internet radio but it is now too late (10:58pm) just cant win unless it is available as pod cast.


I do think DavidA is talking about TV. I did programmed it for recording.


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## DavidA

mrdoc said:


> I get hundreds of stations from all over the world including BBC4 on internet radio but it is now too late (10:58pm) just cant win unless it is available as pod cast.


Sorry it is BBC 4 TV in the UK. It will also be on BBCi player online. You can also check YouTube in case someone puts it on there


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## mrdoc

DavidA said:


> Sorry it is BBC 4 TV in the UK. It will also be on BBCi player online. You can also check YouTube in case someone puts it on there


*Bummer*  ///////////////////////////////////


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## Guest

I think most of us already know well most of the content which is likely to appear in this program.


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## mrdoc

Christabel said:


> I think most of us already know well most of the content which is likely to appear in this program.


What is that supposed to mean do you know enough about LvB and therefore not interested? The more you know about something the more you realise you don't know.


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## KenOC

mrdoc said:


> What is that supposed to mean do you know enough about LvB and therefore not interested? The more you know about something the more you realise you don't know.


Certainly there is much about Beethoven that is generally unknown and even skipped over in the standard biographies. For instance, Beethoven's culinary studies in Italy and resulting dishes such as Foie Gras a Ludwig (still popular today), his physical experiments and observations that led to early steam-powered armored vehicles with cannons (proto-tanks), and suggestions of the invariance of the speed of life that would not be fully explained for almost a century.

Amazing that he still had time to compose his music.


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## Guest

Well, I watched the first programme. It was less radical than the puff seemed to be claiming, but interesting nevertheless. There was a range of talking heads in various pretty locations round Europe - pianists, musicologists, biographers (Swafford), museum curators, conductors (Ivan Fischer) - talking enthusiastically about Louis, his childhood, his wildness, his relationship with his parents and his early growth as a composer and player. If you've read a decent biography, I doubt you'll have heard anything new, but if you're at the beginning of your Beethoven journey, it would have made a useful contribution.

It ended on a cliff hanger: would the declaration of the Heiligen Testament come good - would he really change the face of music for ever?


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## Guest

mrdoc said:


> What is that supposed to mean do you know enough about LvB and therefore not interested? The more you know about something the more you realise you don't know.


I've never seen any documentary about Beethoven where I learned something new. I've read several books on the composer and there are never any surprises in such programs.


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## mrdoc

Christabel said:


> I've never seen any documentary about Beethoven where I *learned something new.* I've read several books on the composer and there are *never* any surprises in such programs.


Wow you truly are an expert, I can now understand your disdain for these silly docos but you never know it may interesting but at least you won't have to waste your time reading any more books about him.


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## Caroline

Handel and Haydn has posted a lot of recordings for this summer. The recording of Symphony No. 6 was delightful - very different than the Gardiner recording. They had a live stream (now on youtube) of Beethoven's Sonata in A Minor for Fortepiano and Violin, as well as two violin sonatas by Mozart. The audio and video of this was wonderful.

https://handelandhaydn.org/summer-of-beethoven/

Groupmuse is featuring live streams of Beethoven as well (and I missed one this past Sat.!) of all Beethoven. 
https://www.groupmuse.com/

Does anyone have experience with Groupmuse?


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## Guest

DavidA said:


> Please note that to mark the 250 anniversary of Beethoven BBC4 (UK) is broadcasting three hour long documentary programmes on Monday nights beginning tonight (July 6) at 9pm.


So, did anyone finish watching the series?

I thought it was rather good, though it perhaps spent less time on the music itself (I would have preferred more). What came across strongly was the impact of his deafness, and his frustration with it. Also his simultaneous popularity, but inability to form secure intimate relationships.


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## Caroline

mrdoc said:


> *Bummer*  ///////////////////////////////////


Thanks to David A for posting this. I found it (link below) and look forward to watching it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kqq4/episodes/player

So far as I could find it is not on YouTube.

A documentary which may be of interest to some is "In Search of Beethoven."


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## DavidA

Nanette Streicher gave Beethoven patient-unto-heroic service for part of his life. However she was under no illusions as to what he was like: “ As a beggar he was so dirty in his dress, and in manner like a bass sulky and froward, he laughed like no one else it was a scream, he would call people names as he passed them... He was avaricious and always mistrustful.” Yet we must be grateful to her for taking care of the man who wrote some of the greatest music ever written by a human being.


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## DavidA

Just finished Swafford’s monumental ‘Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph’. The anguish: “deafness, colitis, rheumatism, rheumatic fever, typhus, skin disorders, abscesses, a variety of infections, ophthalmia, inflammatory degeneration of the arteries, jaundice and at the end chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver.” The triumph: Music such has never been written before or since


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## flamencosketches

DavidA said:


> Just finished Swafford's monumental 'Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph'. The anguish: "deafness, colitis, rheumatism, rheumatic fever, typhus, skin disorders, abscesses, a variety of infections, ophthalmia, inflammatory degeneration of the arteries, jaundice and at the end chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver." The triumph: Music such has never been written before or since


I'm glad you've finished it. I'm still stuck in the middle of Swafford's Brahms tome; the chapter around the German Requiem is surprisingly not very compelling. But once I finally finish it, his Beethoven bio is on my list.


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## flamencosketches

Caroline said:


> Does anyone have experience with Groupmuse?


My girlfriend and her flutist friend did a Groupmuse recital right before the pandemic shut all that stuff down. (I was page turner ) It was pretty cool! The hosts were great and ended up getting a pretty good size crowd together. Of course now Groupmuse is doing all streaming stuff. I haven't checked out any of that.


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## eljr

flamencosketches said:


> My girlfriend and her flutist friend did a Groupmuse recital right before the pandemic shut all that stuff down. (I was page turner ) It was pretty cool! The hosts were great and ended up getting a pretty good size crowd together. Of course now Groupmuse is doing all streaming stuff. I haven't checked out any of that.


Sounds cool, do you have any pics of the even the to share?


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