I'll be doing much the same journey in May, including staying at Bonn's Beethoven Hotel. But my Beethoven Adventure will include a stop at Opa Ludwig's ancestral home of Mechelen in Belgium.
I’m listening to Erik Satie right now. It would be difficult, intellectually, to link him to Beethoven. As a pianist it isn’t difficult whatsoever. What is the link? Chopin, I would say.
2
Thank you for this wonderful and enjoyable article.
7
"The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra" in D major, op 61 played by the South German Philharmonic Orchestra is, in my humble opinion, the greatest single piece of music ever written and played. Several minutes in, when Wilhelm Klepper comes in with the solo violin, I get chills up my spine.
(If you are a filmmaker, please stop reading right now.)
Much of Beethoven's music is spoiled by his success; I can't listen to the Sixth Symphony without visions of Disney's cute little Greek satyrs, cherubs, flying horses, and creatures that are half horse/half 6th grader; or the Fifth, by violent images of the Normandy invasion. But the "Concerto for Violin..." remains relatively, unspoiled.
I'll be toasting the great man with a Non-Alcohol St. Pauli Girl later today.
3
@Thucydides I'm not so sure about the Violin Conc. but maybe the greatest pieces music ever written and played are the last quartets by Beethoven!
3
Great article, Michael Cooper. I, too, visited Heiligenstadt before adapting Beethoven's letter for composer Jake Runestad: The result, "A Silence Haunts Me," will be performed at Carnegie Hall on March 8, 2020, at 8:30pm by The Capital University Chapel Choir with Michael Lester at the piano, Linda Hasseler conducting. The work ends in an excruciating silence, as the conductor conducts a choir the audience can no longer hear, nearly forcing the audience to empathize with the great composer, and know him in a whole new way. As indeed you have. I hope you can attend.
5
I just want to put on record that living in Vienna has enriched my life through the understanding of Mozart and Beethoven, especially through the tutelage of my music appreciation teacher, Prentiss. We are surely blessed, having the opportunity to live in this great city.
7
@Janet The writer Karl Kraus, a Czech, said of his adopted city, "In other cities the streets are paved with asphalt. In Vienna the streets are paved with culture."
3
I was lucky enough to go to Vienna 3-4 years ago. I have friends who live there, one of whom is Austrian. They started their family there. It’s a great city. Genuinely. Grand. I’ve never been to any major city with such gigantic thoroughfares and monumental buildings. It is impressive.
5
@Ben Like you said, Vienna is not a "big" city but a "great" city.
5
Dear Mr. Cooper. Thank you for writing this insightful article, especially Bonn, that help celebrate the life of an icon in Classical Music.
As a child I was placed in ESL (English as Second Language) course and despite came from a place that taught two languages (English and Chinese) in schools. One day after attending the music class and the lesson was on Beethoven’s life, i went to the library and picked up a book on The composer. Since then, I won’t stop reading. As an adult, I had the opportunity to travel to Vienna and visit two Beethoven museums. I got to eat what he would have eaten and get to know more about his mentors (Mozart and Haydn)
No one can imagine how he overcame hearing loss.
I was glad to see a room focus on Effects of hearing loss and reading Heiligenstadt Testament.
Beethoven brought me to a better life.
(I.e. Beethoven’s second movement of Fifth Symphony )
8
@Rosana Wan What was that book? I respectfully recommend to read "Les Grandes Epoques Creatrices" by Romain Rolland, probably the best book ever written about Beethoven.
1
As a music lover and Beethoven fan, I really enjoyed this article.
6
dear Beethoven! you define human possibility for me. your late quartets, your missa solemnis, your 9th (and 8th!), your cavatina, the most intimate gentle caress that sound can make...beyond such astounding beauty, is the sense of fearless change, heading straight into the future and into the unknown. Even though I only listen to Bach nowadays, yet I know when I become myself again, you will be there. Happy birthday, dear dear Beethoven. My hero always.
7
If all music were erased from my memory except Beethoven's late quartets I would still consider myself a rich man.
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@Dirk If a civilization from another world ever visits Earth and asks what have we accomplished, play for them Beethoven's late quartets.
3
@Dirk Late quartets...always!
1
As someone who was raised in Bonn and has spent most of his life there, I am very disappointed in how my hometown has handled the Beethoven year.
The Beethovenhalle, a concert hall which was supposed to be renovated for this years festivities will be finished in 2024 and will 4 times more expensive, according to the mayor.
Despite the two biggest companies in Bonn having offered to build a brand new Beethovenhalle for free more than a decade ago, the city insisted in paying for a renovation itself.
The opera, where concerts performances take place instead, is currently falling apart in a literal sense. Stones are falling from its facade and it forbidden to walk along the Rhine below its walls.
Bonn still is a great destination for tourists. The number of visitors still grows every year and Lonely Planet named it one of 10 the best cities to visit in 2020.
3
You made the trip that I want to do but not only for Beethoven but for classical music in general 'cause Vienna is classical music' paradise!!
2
The classical music museum in Vienna is pretty amazing. They have rooms which are dedicated to certain composers and are decorated accordingly. I remember the last two the best—a room dedicated to Johann Strauss(es) with a gazebo in a room painted like late nineteenth century Vienna. And best of all, a room which was a virtual forest dedicated to Mahler.
3
@Ben Next time in Vienna please visit "Collection of Historic Musical Instruments" within the monumental Kunsthistorisches
Museum Wien.
1
OK, there is no way that this post I upvoted from a long past article was recommended by another person within a matter of seconds. I get it. There is some “double vote” effect going on with my recommends.
As an Austro-American, I was asked once by (American) friends who I considered the greatest Austrian composer. With no hesitation: "Beethoven". My German friend Elke immediately interjected, with her thick German accent: "Ha, you think he is Austrian! He is German, off course!". That settled that question.
5
Thanks, Michael Cooper, for an entertaining article.
To me, music is divided in two big eras: BB and AB, Before and After the greatest composer among the great ones.
The progression from Vivaldi, through Bach and Mozart, culminating with Beethoven (i.e., from Baroque to Romanticism) has an interesting parallel in the History of Science and of Physics & Astronomy in particular.
In the latter, the transition from Tycho Brahe, through Kepler, Galileo and Newton, culminating with Newton/Maxwell & Einstein, is also evident.
My wife and I attended the historic '1808 concert' but in San Francisco in 2000. With the Sixth, my favorite, I felt I could levitate. I read somewhere that Beethoven himself had to pay for the heating in the theater, though the article might make one conclude otherwise. Not sure if that is just folklore...
4
When a visitor from London came to Vienna on March 29, 1827, the day Beethoven was buried, she noticed a crowd estimated as large as 20,000 lining the city's streets. She asked a resident what was going on. His answer, "They are burying the general of musicians."
3
Thank you for this wonderful piece about the troubled man and his many nearly perfect works. My grandparents are buried in the same cemetry as his mother in Bonn (Alter Friedhof). Every time i go there to visit my ancestors, i will drop by his mother’s grave too. Just to pay hommage to this great composer.
4
@HPE Many years ago in a summer day I was at Beethoven's grave in Vienna; same day afternoon I visited Mozart's grave. I was surprised and very touched to see people coming to visit their graves ... hundreds of years after their deaths!
2
In Travel Dispatch, Amy Virship writes that 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's death. Her math skills are worse than mine. And that's saying something.
Great article, Michael Cooper.
As in the case of others in the wresting of great achievement, most especially here in the art and science of musical composition, Beethoven stood on the shoulders of giants. I love the story that Haydn compelled his young, impatient aspirant to play all of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, giving him a more solid grounding in the science part of composition he might otherwise not have had. As for music as a form of dramatic expression, LvB “would remove his hat and bow” to Georg Friedrich Handel, whose score of The Messiah he is reported to have had with him on his journey to the afterlife. So what is about Beethoven that is still alive for public and private enjoyment outside the fetid atmosphere of museum enshrinement and commemorative, obligatory performances? Though the composers of the so-called Baroque period were more prodigious in their output, even more inventive, and needing at the same time to master and perform and teach on different musical instruments to earn their precarious keep, I think what he did to the extent we can still hear it, was to draw the curtains and throw open the windows, so to speak, onto the project of music as dramatic expression and personal struggle. Don’t know about all the celebrations though. Can’t pledge allegiance.
1
Excellent article. Thank you.
They found Beethoven is his casket with his Fifth Symphony and an eraser in his hand: He was decomposing.
2
Absolutely beautiful travel writing. Thank you for bringing me along on your Beethoven oddessey. I wish I could be there in person.
1
Thank you for this article.
Michael Copper: amazing photo at the intro. How was it taken? has it been stitched together from different shots? Great write -up. This is why l love NYT and pay for subscription!
I can't believe you omitted, unless perhaps you were not informed, that Beethoven's consummate stage mother father tried for some while to establish that he was born in 1772, so as to make him even more of a prodigy, a la Leopold Mozart and son.
As his hearing deteriorated, Beethoveen cut the legs off his pianos so that he could lie on the floor and feel the music. This didn't make him popular with the other apartment dwellers below him, and apparently he had to change apartments frequently.....
I've done part of the "tour" described here. I think its great that the Austrian's have not created a "Mozart-industrial" complex for Beethoveen. Nice turn of phrase.
1
You ever go to Mozart’s apartments where he died in Vienna? They were pretty awesome, actually. I would live there. All kinds of frescos in the walls and cool little ornamentation everywhere.
2
All art, which results from the behavior of mere mortals, can be separated from their personal faults, shortcomings, and eccentricities. One can listen to and be inspired and moved by Beethoven's music without knowing anything about him. Knowing about him makes what he produced even more astounding.
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Join the American Beethoven Society and take part in its tours of Beethoven sites in Vienna. Next one is Oct. 3-14!
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"...outside the loftier precincts of the city’s museums and concert halls, he is far less visible. But why? Beethoven is one of the most-recognizable, most-performed composers in the world. "
But why, the writer asks? Over-exposure is my answer. Who really needs yet another performance of the Ninth? Surely there must be other celebratory works that don't keep us in this lazy, slavish endless repetition.
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@Watchful
Why? Why??
Because music moves the human spirit and the notes play the instruments of our souls. Complex classical music moves our souls in complex ways, so that a variation here, or a change or tempo there evokes a different response within us.
Classical music survives, and its orchestration is still the soundtrack of most of our entertainment. While modern music can delight and entertain, a good classical piece soars.
The 9th specifically is considered the anthem of the Council of Europe and the EU. It is easy to understand why. It isn't very difficult to hear the struggle of people to be free and the progress of evolution capped with an Ode to Joy within its movements.
Today, classical music may seem like a table filled with the foods of a foreign land, but when sampled and appreciated are an unequaled feast.
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@Watchful
Beethoven's music stirs our souls. Mozart does the same, but with a bit less emotion. Both, in my opinion, deserve equal exposure. And I would submit that none of their glorious masterpieces could ever possibly be overexposed.
I attend a lot of symphonic concerts. When anything of Beethoven's works is on the program, it always brings the audience to its feet.
That is why his music is so often repeated.
1
I can’t disagree more. I love “classical” music. I trained on piano as a child and played all the greats—Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Debussy, Bach, etc. I listen to my favorite compositions almost every night. But there are certain compositions I return to over and over again. Schubert’s lieder. Mozart’s Requiem. Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. But none more so than Beethoven’s Ninth. I know it by heart and often sing pieces of it impulsively. And every time I listen to it, it is like meditating on beauty as spirituality. It is part of the core of who of who I am. If I get tired of it, it will mean that I have grown tired of life.
4
You certainly didn't visit the Austrian parliament, a neoclassical building on the Ringstrasse, which is closed for renovations, but its temporary quarters across the street in the Hofburg:
https://www.parlament.gv.at/ENGL/GEBF/SAN/index.shtml
3
@gs Yes, as the piece notes, I wanted to visit the Grosser Redoutensaal, a ballroom in the Hofburg where Beethoven gave concerts to world leaders during the Congress of Vienna. But the Austrian Parliament is meeting there temporarily during the renovations of its headquarters (it's being used as the plenarsaal). So I took the free guided tour, offered by the Parliament, which was quite educational. But renovations after a 1992 fire made it hard to imagine what it would have looked like in Beethoven's day.
3
A lifelong Beethoven devotee, I was once tiling a floor in my house and had removed all the furniture save the stereo. The Piano Cocerto # 4 was turned up to quite loud. The acoustics prompted a neighbor to ask the next day : " What WAS that ?"
As a twelve year old, I played the 9th until I had memorized every note. My Mother, not a fan , would hit the ceiling below with a broom to make me turn down the volume. Decades later, I took her to a performance of the 9th. At the crescendo in the fourth movement, I whispered " This is the part that made you hit the ceiling with a broom."
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@Thomas ...and your Mother should be grateful...you could have been listening to Black Sabbath..or...Good Heavens...KISS??….If that were the case...she would have had to get a ….bigger broom or perhaps a ...shovel !!!....Priceless story...Thanks for Sharing it !!
1
The story is told that, in the spring of 1945, after American forces captured Bonn, one night, sentries heard someone playing the piano. Investigating, they found a GI at the keyboard of Beethoven's own piano, playing the Moonlight Sonata.
The story was reported on March 16, 1945, by Thomas R. Henry in the Boston Globe. The infantryman, a pianist in peacetime, had not known that the piano (or the house in which it stood) belonged to the composer.
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This story is too nice to be destroyed by a fact check. Maybe the „moonlight“ in the sonata‘s german name is an innuendo: Mondschein = moonshine. ;-)
3
@Video Non Taceo I guess that infantryman represents the typical USA citizen who didn’t have a clue about where he was. Just like the guys who bombed the opera in Vienna, thinking the building was a train station. Not enough history education!
4
Thank you Mr Cooper for such an interesting essay.
You wrote of Beethoven’s funeral procession that “it took nearly an hour and a half for the procession to reach the nearby Church of the Holy Trinity, where his funeral was held.” When I read your words my mind went instantly to the Marche funebre of the Eroica Symphony, and imagined the mourners that day walking at that pace through the streets of Vienna toward the church. That movement is so exquisitely powerful in its intensity that I always find listening to it both overwhelming and exhausting. I believe Beethoven was likely the first symphonist to compose a funeral march to serve as the entire movement of a symphony.
The Eroica was the first symphony I fell in love with, as my mother played it for me when I was an infant. I have loved the Eroica all my life. It is easy to imagine how perplexed the men and women who heard the first performances of it no doubt were. I think it was Jan Swafford who wrote that the first program note was prepared to accompany performances of Beethoven’s Third Symphony.
I hope you will write more articles about Beethoven’s life and music Mr. Cooper.
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@Allen—A wonderful story I’ve heard, perhaps apocryphal:
At the Eroica’s premiere, the middle of the great slow movement approached the half-hour mark, already longer than any previous symphony. At that point, a flummoxed attendee jumped to his feet and cried “Stop!”
2
Where I grew up, in Chicago, WFMT played a 24-hour LvB marathon every year on his birthday, December 16. At least they did in the 1960s--anyone know if they still do?
3
@David smith They used to do this on KDFC in San Francisco when I was a teenager in the 80's. I'm not sure when they stopped doing it. I was such a Beethoven nerd, I would spend the big day by logging each piece they played, from midnight to midnight (provided I could stay awake), on a yellow legal pad. Good times. Even today, on 12/16, if someone asks what the date is, I say, "December 16th... Beethoven's birthday." Usually the response is, "What?"
1
@David smith Sadly, no. These days WFMT plays a few Beethoven selections on Dec. 16, mostly in the morning hours but prefers to schedule other composers. This past Dec. 16, 2019, there was only one Beethoven work played after noon, the great Violin Concerto. There seemed to be as much Gustav Holst during the day as Beethoven. Same thing on Jan. 27, which used to be all-Mozart.
There is for we moderns still alive, Beethoven the man and Beethoven the dog.
2
The Times music critic author talks about a "Mozart industry" in Austria and how Beethoven could be "notoriously difficult" to deal with.
But at Beethoven's death at age 57 the streets of Vienna were thronged in commemoration. Quite a contrast from 1791 when still 35-year-old Mozart—called "the principal divinity in music" by NYTimes chief music critic Harold Schonberg (a predecessor of Mr. Cooper)—exited the earth. And the same goes for another transcendent truly Viennese genius, Schubert, who left at age 31.
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Oh that was wonderful. Thank you. I loved every word.
BUT--
--is there not something basically unknowable about every great composer?
There are the ups and downs these marvelous persons experienced as human beings. Beethoven throwing the contents of an entire dinner into the poor waiter's face: he hadn't ORDERED that--he wanted something else.
The wretched business with his nephew, Carl--who begged to be taken away from "that crazy old man."
The sharp--really, just a bit TOO sharp--businessman that sold (I believe) his Fourth Symphony not once but twice.
Oh--this and that, this and that.
AND THEN--
--the Eroica Symphony. So long--my goodness, so VERY long--
--and every single note--excuse me, I said EVERY SINGLE NOTE--
--perfect. Not a note more or less than needed.
Somewhere, in that troubled and chaotic life was the man who created the Eroica. Or the Ninth Symphony. Or the Waldstein Sonata. Or this. Or that.
Somewhere where our gaze cannot penetrate. Somewhere totally opaque and invisible to us.
BUT--
--I'd still love to visit those places. Oh indeed I would.
So thank you.
VIELE DANK! As I say--
--I loved every word.
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@Susan Fitzwater ….I don't have time to investigate your claims...but I'd really love to know how you came about knowing these facts?? Perhaps you are a music historian or professor? Never heard such things....but I believe you !
2
@Susan Fitzwater
Thank you my day like many days was suffused with Beethoven, first by this article, then by Alicia Keys playing the Moonlight at Kobe Bryant's memorial, and now by your wise commentary on how elusive and frustrating and contradictory the pursuit of Beethoven's genius can be.
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@Dave
probably not a music historian or professor, as she misspelled "vielen Dank."
5
With respect to comparisons and rating one great compose against another: Why do we do this?
Do we want to score composers the way we do Olympic athletes - giving one a 9.5 and another 9.9?
This is no way to discuss Bach, Mozart and Beethoven - or for that matter Brahms, Debussy, Bartok - or for that matter Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington or Ella Fitzgerald.
20
@HH Certainly agree. Ranking of composers is unenlightening - each is great in his/her own way. I say only, as Peter Schickele has memorably said: "if it sounds good, it is good".
8
Lots of "I's" and "me's" here; this vapid article is as much about Michael Cooper as it is about Ludvig von Beethoven. "Would facing his faults color how I hear his music?" Who cares? The dumbing-down of classical music continues.
10
@James
The purpose of the article is to describe the experience of visiting the important sites of Beethoven's life in this 250th anniversary of his birth. I was able to go to Vienna in 1991 to mark the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death, and I got to hear Mozart music I had never heard of, including the opera "Idomeneo,"and it was wonderful.My wife and I will be headed to Germany in June to share in this Beethoven-inspired experience with our German exchange student sons.
19
Worth quoting here the late great Christopher Hitchens:
"...the two great achievements of Austria, was to convince the world that Hitler was German, and that Beethoven was Viennese."
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@steven (nyc) on the VE Day May 8, 1945, Arturo Toscanini conducted Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in c minor. And he did so for VJ Day September 2, 1945 with Beethoven’s the third symphony.
Music led humanity through all wars and in the end music brought unity and peace.
3
Thank you Michael for taking us on this Beethoven journey. I was listening to his Pastoral as I read your informative article. Such eternal beauty! I would love to see articles like yours on the front page every day! Keep us informed on your future musical travels.
12
@Mrit Your excellent comment should be directed to NYT, not to Michael I believe!
Thank you so much for this very fine travelogue following the trail of Beethoven. I traveled last year to Boston to hear Benjamin Zander conduct Beethoven's 5th Symphony with the intention of adhering as closely as he could to the notes on interpretation Beethoven had given.
The 7th Symphony and the 4th Piano Concerto are my favorites, but this performance was astonishing and deeply moving. Jordon Hall became a vehicle in time and I was swept into another dimension of experience.
Beethoven is truly are heroic figure in my mind, certainly for the genius of his music, but even more so for the incredible strength of character that allowed him to leave the painful testament unsent and to live on, believing that his life was meant for the expression of a universal spirit in the language of music that needs no translation.
11
Thank you for this article, especially for those of us who have yet to visit these storied places. If you are OK with the idea that the three greatest composers in Western classical music were Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, it has occurred to me that Bach is who you listen to when contemplating life alone, whereas Mozart is who you listen to with your lover. Beethoven is the one I think of when celebrating music with All of Humanity ('Alle menschen werden Brüder').
And of all the eras of Western classical music history, I cannot think of a decade that produced more profound music than the 1820s in Vienna, when LvB brought forth the 9th, the Missa Solemnis, the final Piano Sonatas, and those most amazing final Quartets. All at the same time the young Schubert was writing his great song cycles, the Unfinished and Great C Major Symphonies, the final Sonatas and Quartets, and of course that sublime String Quintet. Such a time!
17
@William Yes, "such a time": in one night on Dec. 22, 1808 you could listen "world premiers" of Piano Conc#4, Ah Perfido, Choral Fantasy , Gloria (mess) , 6th Symphonie, 5th Symphonie,.....unbeliveable isn't it?
1
When I was 17 years old and still in high school, I became literally enchanted with Beethoven's late quartets (as played by the Budapest Quartet on old-fashioned vinyl discs).
I thought of myself as some kind of weirdo because my classmates (I went to a boy's Catholic school) barely knew who Beethoven was.
How was I, a young boy who had no musical training become enamored of some of the most transcendent music ever written?
Because Beethoven's solipsistic genius (he was totally deaf by then) allowed him to touch the hearts and minds of lonely people, and make them feel that life was worthwhile, and deeply endowed with surpassing beauty.
43
I would also like to attest to the emotional, uplifting effect of Beethoven's music. I few weeks ago, I went to a performance of a Beethoven-only program at the Yale School of Music. It started with the Choral Fantasy. The pianist was one of the piano teachers at the school, and he tore into the part from the first note on (as opposed to the more "tasteful" beginnings I've herad by other performers). It produced a rush of happiness in me that lasted through the entire performance and culminated in the choral part--too bad, one couldn't sign along!
One more word about Beethoven's "swing": I found myself tapping my foot involuntarily as if I were listening to jazz. And the lady in front of me seemed to react the same way.
5
@UFlemm I believe the third or fourth variation in the second movement of Beethoven's final piano sonata (Opus 111) could be described as the beginning of boogywoogy.
1
Lovely piece about a genius. Thank you!
4
Lovely! Thank you for writing this. Beethoven was one of my mother's favorite composers (herself a musician - she actually used to celebrate his birthday on Dec. 16!), so this article informed me more about the composer and brought up good memories of my mother. I also purchased a digital recording by the London Symphony of the nine symphonies so I could listen as I read. Finally, the Eroica is my all-time favorite. I had an English teacher in high school who played it for our class as part of our reading the book "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," in which that piece makes an appearance. I fell in love with it the day she played it for us.
5
What a lovely, illuminating article about the great man. Thank you so much for this.
4
As to the issue of Germany/Austria: At the time of both of Mozart and Beethoven, the states of Germany and Austria did not exist as we know it today. It was a world of late dynastic feudalism with many German speaking states run by dynasties who all intermarried. This world was about to be changing through the French Revolution. Mozart always referred to himself as "German." So it is useless to ponder about who was Austrian or German from the perspective of today's political realities that did not come into existence before the later 19th century.
13
What a wonderful article about Beethoven. There may never be a another composer as great as him. And while he was excellent when young he was not in the same class as prodigies such as Mozart, Mendelssohn or Schubert. His greatness came later than all three. But he surpassed them all save for Mozart. Generally fellow musical historians rate them as equals at the very pinnacle.
6
With respect to the marathon concert of 1808 and the contemporary marathon All Beethoven concerts and radio programs - I wish there were far fewer of them.
Listening to great music should not be "marathon." Each piece should be curated and placed carefully in a concert program. The composition, composer, performers and audience deserve this.
3
@HH I don't know. Even classical music deserves its own Woodstock, like the Dec. 22, 1808, four-hour Beethoven marathon. And instead of the rain and mud at Woodstock, Beethoven's audience had to put up with the cold as the theater was not heated.
Well, You did it again! The beautiful writing of Mr.Cooper moved me to tears, it brought me so many happy memories. I have been reading the New York Times for over 50 years and I should not be surprised by now, I have done the pilgrimages of Beethoven, J.S.Bach, Mozart, C.M. von Weber,Mendelsohn, Schubert and others. For me is like going to a holy land. God bless the New York Times and Michael Cooper
12
The film "Immortal Beloved" was mentioned.
Despite having Sir Georg Solti and the London Symphony Orchestra on the soundtrack—
The movie, following the usual requirements to sell a film, turned Beethoven into a woman-sniffing dog.
5
That isn’t how I saw it. Beethoven very famously wrote a letter to his anonymous “immortal beloved.” To me the movie was an investigation into who it might be, combined with the stories of Beethoven when he was in love. Likely, according to scholars, it wasn’t any of the women depicted, but I don’t think that was the point.
2
I am confused. Re: Article on Beethoven. Is today his bday? I am finding conflicting dates. Is the title of your article throwing me off? Behooved to the core!
Thank you! I developed a lasting love of the symphonies when hearing them for the first time as a grad student looking out at the Nittany hills ever evening after dinner at the student union!
I had the joy of singing the Ninth on two occasions. I quit a chorus decades later when the director announced we would perform without scores and he demonstrated his rehearsal technique: recite together "Deiner tausber binden wieder, vas die moder strength verteil". As the immortal words were already engraved on my heart, I decided to forgo weekly 90 mile drives through the mountains.
3
Bombarded by a complex?
1
"Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine."
Ludwig Van Beethoven
15
Thank you!
6
Beethoven suffered physical ailments besides hearing loss, and begged his brothers to order an autopsy upon his death to give to the world “a description of my illness, and the story of my malady.” The findings from the autopsy were revealing and help fulfill this wish.
Oiseth SJ. Beethoven's autopsy revisited: A pathologist sounds a final note. J. Med Biography. First Published October 27, 2015
https://doi.org/10.1177/0967772015575883
5
Overheard from an American expat tour guide in Vienna - “since the end of World War 2, Austrians have been steadily trying to convince the world that Beethoven was Austrian and Hitler was German.”
7
@SirTobyBelch
What's the difference?
There is an insignificance geographic distance between Germany and Austria.
Both Germany and Austria were responsible for WW II and the atrocities.
1
Thank you so much for this. My son, who is studying composition, will be attending a music festival where he will be working with established composers and composing his own work in Vienna this summer; I just sent this to him as a "preview." It will be something of a pilgrimage for him as well, as Beethoven and Mozart are probably his greatest musical idols. When he is facing obstacles, I can always remind him that Beethoven (as he well knows) composed some of his most beautiful work as he was losing his hearing (the dreadful irony of that is so heartbreakingly evoked in the quote you share here--it must have seemed to Beethoven the cruelest of cosmic jokes...and yet...).
As a former travel writer, I should also mention that this is one of the best travel pieces I've read in a long time! Now I would like to see Vienna and Bonn myself (even though I've always been more drawn to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern destinations).
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We made a similar - but hardly so exhaustive - of the sites, so it was a wonderful memory-filled tour of places where we had similar emotions and experiences. We hiked up the hill from the metro station to the Beethoven Haus in Heilenstadt on a very warm day, only to discover it closed for two hours for lunch and we were in serious need of water and facilities. The kind manager of Mayer am Pfarrplatz "Heurige" took one look at us at her door and invited us in, even though they were closed until evening, and commanded the kitchen personnel to bring us water immediately. We revived in the courtyard and remember their hospitality to strangers and fellow lovers of Beethoven.
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I saw this article first thing in the morning. What a pleasure to listen to the genius as I was reading it. Thank you for writing enjoyable pieces, I am sure Beethoven would have been delighted.
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Thanks for the lovely celebratory tour. Last year I indulged myself through buying a C.D. set of Beethoven's nine symphonies conducted by Herbert von Karajan. This, while today's youth play streaming. However, I'm old -- 80 y.o. today. What a gift to be able to celebrate with one of the greats of all time. I am honored!
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@Josie
Happy Birthday! A great milestone for you .
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To the ears of German speakers the great Beethoven is Louie Beetfield. While that takes some of the grandness away his music rarely misses the amazing.
I start my work day (as a musical wake-up) analyzing Bach and then as a challenge analyzing Beethoven then move on to attempt my own meager pittiful writings. -- Started that routine in college music theory in 1975. Beethoven always amazes me every morning.
After teaching my students Beethoven since 1982 my favorite story is about one of history's great Beethoven interpreters, Rudlof Serkin. When people complained to him that he didn't play contemporary classical composers he would respond, "But I do! I play late Beethoven!"
Listen to the last movement of his last sonata and I dare you to not admit it is Jazz. Beethoven wrote out swing!
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@Sean Cairne I've had the same reaction numerous times when listening to Beethoven: "Man, this swings!"
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@Sean Cairne
That swing shows up in the last movement of his first piano concerto, as well -- an anticipation of the second movement of Op. 111. And the bars of syncopated accompaniment toward the end of the violin concerto, almost cool jazz, were the evidence Carl Maria von Weber used in order to conclude that Beethoven had lost his mind. (Many thanks to Nuvi Mehta for that last tidbit.)
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I like Mozart very much. I like Bach, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and many others very much too.
But there is only one Beethoven! His music is humanity, empathy, joy itself.
Beethoven comes on the radio and I fall into a trance. As if captured, mesmerized, unable to move. And before I know it an hour has gone by! (No. One doesn’t listen to Beethoven in the background whilst doing chores. Haha.)
I think it’s the empathy in his music that makes him so special. It runs deep. And that is why his music touches us deeply.
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It is Carnival time here in Cologne and while I am not a fan of the excessive drinking, I attended an event yesterday that stands out as a particular high point - a Carnival version of Beethoven’s Fidelio - “Fidelio am Rhing” - produced and performed by the famed Cäcilia Wolkenburg men’s choir. It casts the story in 1970s Cologne, just a short distance down the Rhine from Bonn, and was filled music from the 70s, political and current events, slap-stick comedy and puns that are a fixture of Carnival.
But at its core was the music of Beethoven and at the end, Beethoven takes the stage. The program notes state, “… with the help of a hearing aid – a gift from the locals - it becomes very clear to him how he should have told "Fidelio": He wouldn't have moved it to Spain, but to his home country, the Rhineland. And he would have stayed here or at least returned here from Vienna. Then Beethoven would have been able to show his Rhineland soul much more openly throughout his life. He would not have become a “grouchy Viennese”, as he appears in most well-known pictures, but would have remained a humorous, smiling Rhinelander. And of course, he would have called his opera "Fidelio am Rhing”.
It was a stirring performance – the very human, comedic and satirical elements adding to already triumphant humanity of the piece. A better Carnival event I could not have imagined, and a wonderful tribute to one of the Rhineland’s most renowned native sons.
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Thanks for letting us know about this fun celebration. I’d love to join you all at some future Carnival.
I much prefer Beethoven's music to Mozart's, but Immortal Beloved is forgettable while Amadeus is an amazing movie. Granted, Amadeus is responsible for seriously distorting the popular impressions of both Mozart and Salieri, but it's worth it.
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Beethoven's grave and building in which he completed his 9th Symphony.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevebrown1/39769038901/in/album-72157662659721217/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevebrown1/39675834492/in/album-72157662659721217/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevebrown1/39675829702/in/album-72157662659721217/
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Thank you for bringing to our attention the many important geographic points of reference in the development of the man and the artist. I wish to add another monumental accomplishment honoring the work of Beethoven. Susanne Kessel who is a Bonn native, has produced a project titled "250 piano pieces for Beethoven". She commissioned 250 of us composers from around the world to compose one work emulating our thoughts of Beethoven. The compositions have been published in ten volumes by Editions Musica Ferrum, London, Nikolas Sideris, editor and have been premiered and recorded in Bonn. Kessel, Sideris, and the composers have created a substantial repository of new works in the spirit of Beethoven.
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As always, The Times offers us, its readers, a great piece on "The man of the year" . I only hope that throughout the rest of this special year this kind of high quality reporting will continue. Beethoven deserves it . Thank you very much from Mexico.
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Great article. I grew up in Vienna because my father who was a musician had wanted to go there to study and then stayed on. Maybe one reason there is less Beethoven kitsch than Mozart kitsch in Vienna is that the Austrians are often accused of trying to convince everybody that Beethoven was Austrian and Hitler German :)
PS By the way, I grew up with Mozartkugeln - the candy you mention - and still can't resist them when I'm back in Austria.
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Not sure what this all adds up to.
John Elliot Gardiner said in a interview, "With Bach you get the sense of living life under God's canopy; with Beethoven, you get the sense it's all about Beethoven."
And, overall, Mozart and Haydn, and even Rossini, did more to advance musical language and form than Beethoven.
@Penn Towers If you told Beethoven (through written words, since he was deaf) on his deathbed that he had not advanced musical language and form, he would laugh and agree with you.
Beethoven's genius was to take the forms and musical language of his time and use them to create music of scope, grandeur and beauty never heard before and since.
The three great geniuses of the Classical era are Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven in sequential order. But in order of brilliance the three were equals, but in different ways.
Bach was the link between the Baroque and the Classical, Mozart was pure Classical, and Beethoven was the link between the Classical and the Romantic.
Until you understand that, you do not understand Classical music.
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@Penn Towers
Are you seriously claiming that Beethoven's Great Fugue (Grosse Fuge) didn't advance the language of music more than the others? As Stravinsky said, that work will remain contemporary forever.
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I wonder if Beethoven-mania will lead to an alternative offering somewhere?
In 2007 when everyone in Vienna, Salzburg and most of the rest of Austria was going Mozart-crazy on the 250th anniversary of his birth, the Austrian region of Steiermark (aka Styria) declared itself to be a Mozart-free zone, hoping to attract defectors from the mainstream who wanted to hear music by someone, anyone, other than Wolfgang Amadeus M.
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@Chris Lyric Opera of Chicago is pretty much a Beethoven-free zone. The company has performed his opera "Fidelio" only once during the past 38 seasons--and not since 2004-05. The company's attitude is Beethoven is fine for the symphony hall but not the opera house. It would rather program curiosity pieces like Verdi's lesser-known early operas.
The above comments and the article discuss the merits of Beethoven Symphonies and his String Quartets. Here as elsewhere, I feel that his 32 Piano Sonatas should also be included as examples of his ground-breaking repertoire. They not only represent his methodology for musical experimentation and show his artistic evolution over time, but also speak to the heart. Beethoven sculpted this musical form, taking it far from where Mozart and Haydn had left it. Each Sonata, with its own personality, demonstrates "handily" that music is a universal language.
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@judopp
You're absolutely right to mention the sonatas.
Hasn't it been suggested that the two volumes of Bach's "Well-tempered Clavier" be called the 'Old Testament' of keyboard writing; with Beethoven's sonatas being the 'New Testament'.
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@judopp
Indeed.
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@judopp Yes I agree about Beethoven's piano sonatas, especially the late ones. But that also includes the late string quartets, they were his ultimate testaments of his genius at expressing his unique vision of musical expression at the highest level.
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Thank you for this wonderful article. I spent part of this past weekend with my three year old grandson watching Disney’s “Fantasia,” specifically with the “Pastorale,” in mind. He sat so quietly, listening to the music and watching the charming little figures dance across the screen. And I considered the remarkable history that had brought us to this place. We will do it again.
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@susabella I learned most of the classical music i know from Disney and Bugs Bunny. Say what you will, but those "cartoons" instilled a love of music that no classroom could touch.
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Great article on a great, great man.
BEETHOVEN ROCK ON BRO!
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Well written article. In spite of the apparent Genius,..there is...as always the inhumanity of Beethoven's life. The negative aspects of his fathers treatment of him. Which actually may have propelled him to make music? Unbelievable that in order to make a Beethoven museum...Jews who had been survivors of the Holocaust were displaced.As always the wonder and joy of life has it's negative counterparts....that may or may not work things out for the better. There are the hats and shirts they sell that say...Life Is Good! It is....when it's good...but it's Bad when it's bad. Best to be optimistic as Beethoven seemed to be regarding his deafness....and soldier on! Who knows what good can come from struggle ? It can certainly take your mind off the negative as you lose yourself in your work whatever it may be. Your struggle unbeknownst to others....may benefit others !! Beethoven's struggles and trials.....as well as those of others....have given Solace and Peace to many of us through the years. Little might they have known how they would be an example and help to others struggling in life as well.
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Than you Coop, always fascinating to learn more about Beethoven’s life and music!
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An interesting further article would be for a musicologist to compare the accomplishments of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. I have read that Mozart favored the agreeable while Beethoven's music the clash of different concepts. Any comments on this?
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@toom No i don't think so. These three giants don't need their work inspected or analyzed by someone without the talent to become a musician. It stands on its own. Leave it be. Sit back, listen, and marvel.
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Beethoven's music and his ability to endure great challenges while creating beautiful and inspiring works, with a themes of triumph, helped me during some difficult times in my life. I'm very grateful to the man and his art, and know many others are too.
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Thank you, Michael, for sharing your experiences with us.
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Regarding his treatment by his father: sounds to me that he was more sinned against than sinning (as per the "unpleasant, cruel' image of Beethoven).
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What a wonderful article. My wife and I enjoyed reliving a glorious fall day a decade or so ago when we took the Koln-Bonn train and spent a marvelous day in what was then the German capital.
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Can there be anything as sublime as his late string quartets?
I think not. I have seen them described as the pinnacle of Western civilization, and I cannot argue with that assessment. The depth of their humanity is epic.
Above the stage in Boston’s Symphony Hall is a cartouche with Beethoven’s name squashed onto it. Why Beethoven? He was the only composer upon whom the directors could agree.
Happy birthday, Ludwig. You have enriched my small and insignificant life beyond measure, and if one could arrange such things, I would gladly expire while listening to the 3rd and 4th movements of your Symphony No. 5.
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@D. Wagner Indeed! I think the Cavatina (opus 130) is one of the most evocative and beautiful pieces ever written. The fact that it's on Voyager traveling through space makes me feel pretty good.
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@Kidcanuck I didn’t know it was on Voyager, and reading it brought a tear to my eye. Thank you for that.
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@Kidcanuck An interesting thing to me about the Cavatina is that the ultimate 'thematic' composer did not base the Cavatina on a discernable theme. His music transcended even his own; it truly belongs in the universe!
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Have to settle for my home speakers. But, Beethoven rocks!
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Who has the time to listen to a whole symphony?
If you want to get more out of life, then make the time.
Beethoven’s music is essential nourishment for humanity.
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@Greg Not to mention the science which indicates listening to music, like Beethoven's, seems to prevent dementia onset.
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One could do no better than to read Maynard Solomon's excellent and relatively short biography of Beethoven. It is particularly revealing about the composer's early years and the problems of his later ones. I used it for decades to teach a course on Beethoven's music, mainly for Solomon's insights into the composer's psychological world.
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A very accessible book on Beethoven by Leon Plantinga called “Simply Beethoven” comes out on March 26.
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@WiltonTraveler The best book I have ever read on Beethoven was the book by J.W.N. Sullivan, Beethoven His Spiritual Development, first published in 1927. Sullivan was a mathematician and philosopher of science who was one of the first to fully grasp the implications of Einstein's theory of general relativity. This was the book which led me to Beethoven's string quartets. It is still available.
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@WiltonTraveler Jean Christophe by Romain Rolland is an epic novel inspired by the life of Beethoven
THANK YOU FOR THIS! I have been to both Bonn and Vienna numerous times, walked the Beethoven-Weg, visited the grave, etc. Now I think I will plan a return trip. There can never be too much Beethoven, or too much Vienna!!
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Handel Hayden Mozart Beethoven . . . Beethoven Liszt Dvorak Rachmaninov . . . These are just a few of my favorite themes . . .
Yet Wolfie und Ludwig Von remain my best of the best for all time!
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@BobK
Friends of Wolfie and Ludwig ... for centuries before...and centuries after...we are all one family for all the ages of the human race. Brother and Sister across all time. Know this when you hear that moment.
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@JBZ
Well Noted Indeed!
Well known whenever we hear those moments, those movements, together, all together now, with joy, all of us who know! All Together Now:
Love! Love!! Love!!! Freude! Freude!! Freude!!!
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In the midst of a political nightmare and viral angst, we receive this wonderful pilgrimage/memorial, which fills me with Joy. And also with a desire to listen to a lot of Beethoven this very day.
Many thanks to the Times for these daily reminders that life is worth living - even in the face of dictatorship and near pandemic.
My digital subscription comes due next month and almost every day you give me reason to be glad I have it. It’s like a Birthday Present to myself, though that day will be tinged with a bit of sadness as it also turns out to be the date of Beethoven’s death.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who is glad that Mr. Cooper visited Europe before this virus. And may he and the other many excellent Times Reporters, as well as I and other subscribers, remain virus free (or virus survivors) and thus Times Readers for many long years of pleasurable reading.
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I suppose there are many who wish that they could be Beethoven or Michelangelo or Hemingway or any other great artist.
The world would forever remember me and pay homage to my greatness!
But, how many would want to bear the stresses, compulsions and character disorders which so often afflicted these geniuses?
One can only hope that Beethoven received the fulfillment after death that eluded him while alive.
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@Immy It is an interesting concept to receive a fulfillment after death, and worth pondering about! However, I don't think even a brief moment that Beethoven thought he was wasting his time by producing one masterpiece after another. And that was the engine propelled him to live 57 years. The man was an amputee of both legs but a sprinting champion: I am referring to losing his hearing and completing major works simultaneously. Top that!
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@Abe
Beethoven himself said:
"I am obliged to make my living off the products of my imagination".
Indeed.
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@Immy :
not sure that "fulfillment after death" would do much for any of us.
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