Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

One of LvB's most underrated sonatas, here from Daniel Barenboim (who I'll be seeing two weeks from today doing The Ninth with West-East Divan at Carnegie).

Putting Up My 'Archduke'

This may now be my favorite version of "The Archduke," which is saying something.   Pianist Jeremy Denk, who I interviewed for my Beethoven book, and knows a thing or two about all this, calls this movement his favorite music in the world--"the holiest of holies."

Beethoven Rules!

WQXR, the famous and influential classical music station in NYC, does an annual listener poll ranking (and then playing) the greatest 100 compositions of all time.  This year, no shock (to this listener), my man Beethoven took six of the top ten slots, with symphonies 3,5,6,7 and 9 and the "Emperor" piano concerto, including three of the top four.  My #1 pick, and theirs (and enjoy our book): 

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

My weekly featuring, this time with the final movement of his string quartet no. 6--also the final movement of his first opus grouping of six quartets.  It truly pointed the way to all that followed in his quartet writing.  As always, if interested, check out my Beethoven book.

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

As I noted last week, I am reading the new book on LvB's Fifth Symphony, so to continue that theme, here is a bit of Leonard Bernstein's famous TV special on this from the 1950s (I think all of it is at YouTube somewhere).

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

  This week:  the second movement of the revolutionary Eroica symphony (which I heard in an amazing performance at Lincoln Center on Tuesday).

Barenboim Carries the Flag at the Olympics

One of the highlights of the opening ceremony last night came as a surprise (to me):  One of the eight flag bearers at end was Daniel Barenboim, the great classical pianist for decades but here honored for his incredible work (with Edward Said) in founding the West-East Divan Orchestra--made up of Israelis and Arabs, and mainly young people, against great odds.  They have played everywhere from Ramallah to (this winter) Carnegie Hall, and I will be there.  Here's a current video that I'm posting again:

Musical Event of the Year

It could be Daniel Barenboim leading his longstanding (with Edward Said) Arab/Israeli orchestra in doing complete Beethoven symphony cycle in London (the Proms),  New York (Carnegie Hall) and elsewhere.  New CDs document.  Here is new interview today and see video below. RIP Edward Said.

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

In our weekly feature, a rather offbeat pick: David Beckham, the soccer great, bends it to play the "Ode to Joy," in a ball-on-drum exercise.

For July 4th: Beethoven's No. 4

Yes, it will always be the "greatest Fourth."  Here via Helene Grimaud in a newly uploaded full version of her Proms concert.

Essential Beethoven for Two Bucks

As  many know, the Schnabel recording of all of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas was a landmark and influenced most pianists ever since.  Thanks to a tip from Tim Page let me point to Amazon putting nearly the full set (missing, for some reason, #31) on sale for just $1.99.  What are you waiting for?

Meeting of the Giants

Two hundreds years ago this month two of the all-time greats, Goethe and Beethoven finally met.  As we know, Beethoven admired the writer without reservations while Goethe expressed some doubts about Ludwig (too much of a wild man, maybe).  Great piece here on the visit, including the famous "Taplitz Incident"--when Beethoven refused to make way for dukes and other rich folk while Goethe bowed to them.

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

In July we will mark the 200th anniversary of the epic meeting of the two German giants--Beethoven and Goethe.   LvB sent Goethe his "Egmont" (which he helped inspire).  Here is the famous overture via another German great.

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

This week's pick, one of my favorite (if not so famous) string quartet movements, from "The Harp."

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

Returning to my weekly feature after my vacation, here's rare orchestral version of the famous "Cavatina" string quartet movement, via the great Furtwangler.

Happy Birthday, Kreutzer Sonata

One of LvB's most significant works, the Kreutzer violin sonata debuted on this date in 1803. Among other things, it inspired the famaous novella of that name by Tolstoy, which I have covered here in recent weeks by way of the stage play (which I saw in NY) and movie. In our new book, I briefly discuss the recent Rita Dove epic poem about George Bridgewater (the half-black violinist) and Beethoven inspired by an incident on this day. Here's a Wikipedia write-up and then video of the great Milstein.

"The sonata was originally dedicated to the violinist George Bridgetower (1778–1860), who performed it with Beethoven at the premiere on 24 May 1803 at the Augarten Theatre at a concert that started at the unusually early hour of 8:00 am. Bridgetower sight-read the sonata; he had never seen the work before, and there had been no time for any rehearsal. However, research indicates that after the performance, while the two were drinking, Bridgetower insulted the morals of a woman whom Beethoven cherished. Enraged, Beethoven removed the dedication of the piece, dedicating it instead to Rodolphe Kreutzer, who was considered the finest violinist of the day.However, Kreutzer never performed it, considering it "outrageously unintelligible."

Young Beethoven

Young HJ Lim got nice review in NYT a couple weeks back for recital and has just released complete LvB sonatas via iTunes for just $9.99.  Here's video of her talking and playing:

The Ninth's New York Debut

Just back from a week in France (with no Beethoven exposure), but here is today's "Composer's Notebook" from American Public Media:   "On today's date in 1846, a Grand Festival Concert took place at New York's Castle Garden, a popular spot for 19th century Manhattanites to enjoy fireworks, balloon ascensions, ice cream, and band concerts.

"The band on this occasion consisted of some 400 vocalists and instrumentalists, including members of the four-year-old New York Philharmonic. They gave, for the first time in America, a complete performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, the "Choral Symphony."

"In attendance was a 26-year old lawyer named George Templeton Strong, who kept a diary and recorded his impressions -- which were not favorable:  'A splendid failure, I'm sorry to say," he wrote. "The first movement was utterly barren . . . the minuet was well enough, quite brilliant in parts [and] the only point I found worth remembering in the whole piece . . . then came an andante (very tedious) . . . then the fourth movement with its chorus, which was a bore . . . a small achievement for Beethoven, and the orchestra might as well have been playing at the bottom of a well...'"

Viva France

Heading to Nantes for annual visit with daughter and young grandson, so in honor, Helene Grimaud doing the Choral Fantasy in 2008, although we could have picked Aimard, I guess. See you in a week or so.

A Borne Leader

This may now be my favorite version of "The Archduke," which is saying something.