Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum The Love Ludwig van Beethoven thread

Loving Beethoven the man is not weird at all- he was fascinating as well as being the greatest musical genius the world has ever seen! I'm happy to hear he got Opus 119 published.

Beethoven left the Earth in 1827- no photos then.

I am going to listen to that later! It is truly great isn't it!

Michael you can get one paged versions for beginners on 8notes (online)- free!

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce invented the photograph in 1826, and we still have a photo from that year.

I forgot to say that this year I happened to listen to Beethoven's 1st piano concerto twice! Both times played by Martha Argerich, who seems to like it a lot and has been playing it since she was a child. First time in Ferrara conducted by Claudio Abbado, second time in Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim. It's a lovely concerto, although not so stormy and full of contrasts as other works. Now I must listen to the other 4 concertos played by Barenboim on YouTube.

I've been working on Beethoven's 2nd cadenza for the 1st movement of the 4th piano concerto for the last few weeks.Fairly pointless in a way because I'll never be able to play the whole concerto, but I do love that cadenza.I'll have to slow it down a bit from normal though because it gets tricky where both hands are playing arpeggios.

I'm a lover of Beethoven. Not only his piano music, but I really enjoy listening to the symphonies and the chamber music.

Throuhout the years I have played (or at least attempted to play) several of his sonatas. The last few years, however, I have put them aside, but now I'm seriously considering to re-learn at least one of them. My problem now is to choose. There are so many nice ones among the most difficult sonatas, but I think I'll have to be realistic and pick one of the less challenging ones.

Maybe I'm weird, but if I had sufficient ability and capacity I would have played the late Op.101.

In the realistic group I have Op.14/2, Op.22, Op,10/3 and with some doubt Op.2/3 and Op.31/2. I have tentatively looked at Op.22, but haven't made up my mind yet. If I ever get started......

That's nice sinophilia! I listen to Beethoven nearly all day and night!

Even if you can play that it is something timmyab!

Go for it Ganddalf!

Opus 22 is BIG and it's a blast to play but...

The real difficulties of the piece are all on the first page and if you get that done the rest is very manageable. The opening figure needs a very loose wrist and controlled fingers and the rising continuation in M3 needs flexibility with it.

Then there's M16-20. Compare M9-13 in the Moonlight Presto. The wrist rotates easily around the index finger but to get the thumb and index finger together you have to learn to rotate with the ring finger as the central axis or coordinate the thumb and index together, which is hard because the thumb doesn't actually play in the same direction. If you were pitting the thumb against any other two fingers it would be a simple tremolo.

The difficulty I have is that the opening figure can't be played slowly so it dictates the speed of the rest of the piece in practise and M16-20 can't be played fast without a long time working on the passage before hand. I find this a lot with Beethoven - even though I can play it from memory it has to be practised for a few weeks first. This doesn't happen with anything I've done from Chopin or Liszt. I think this may be why Beethoven is considered not to be 'pianistic'.

But hey, get page one done and the rest is a matter of time!

Well I don't know what pianistic means but Beethoven sounds harder!

I have the impossible ( for now ) urge of playing op 110... I can read through the first movement quite well, the "minor" issue is that I can't take it emotionally... I have a lot of memories linked to this sonata and it's quite involving... :-\.. I'll start Woo80 as soon as I'm done with the Brahms piece, as preparation for the latest sonatas.... From playing this and that around, I have to admit that working on Bach, Beethoven and Brahms is enough for a lifetime of musical joy.

Great thread I'm a big Beethoven Fan. I wanted to do the Jonathan Biss Class, but my (OLD) computer gets hung up on videos... another time.

One of the first pieces my teacher assigned when I restarted this year was the Op.49. no 1. I was thrilled it was a Sonata :), albeit one of the "easy ones. I know some folks think it's rather uninteresting but I enjoyed it.

I enjoy listening to his symphonies (The 9th is my all time favorite work-i'm Never tired of it). I also like the chamber works as well as the piano repertoire. I still have a lot of learn and appreciate though.. for me it takes MANY listenings of works to really enjoy/appreciate.. I think a sense of the familiar enhances my appreciation.

Some of pieces that are on my bucket list.

*Pathetique Sonata
*Variations on a Russian Dance-(I enjoy Alfred Brendel's recordings of the variations).
*Variations on God Save the King

oh..i'm a big fan of Gary Oldman so I love Immortal Beloved... another Fav film from his is The Professional---where, incidentally, his character listens to Beethoven as he goes on violent rampages.

As did Alex (Malcolm McDowall) in A Clockwork Orange.

The soundtrack of this movie might have been my first exposure to Beethoven some of which was performed on a synthesizer. This spurred my older brother to go and buy a complete box set of the symphonies which he treated like gold. So in our house it was not uncommon to hear Abba followed by Beethoven.

The Coursera class was really good. I had no idea just how revolutionary he was. I like how he is so capricious with form and it's comforting that he remains within the boundaries, at least to my ears. I consider his music 'classical' but then I've had the following centuries that have moulded my listening and I am no music scholar.

I started back at piano almost a year ago after several decades off. It has been very emotional to have to begin again. The Bagatelles have offered a wonderful re-entry point and technique is slowly coming back. Arthritis does slow me a bit and reaches sometimes not so easy but I'm loosening up. Next year I will peek cautiously at some of the sonatas. Sight reading is one thing, playing them another!

I have lots of recordings, Brendl, barrenboim, gould, and some others. I just have itunes play them randomly. It's a joy. I love the symphonies and the concertos. Anything with a piano in it. But I shall 'break out' and listen to some of his violin , and string quartet works as well!

As for the movies, must look at Immortal Beloved but Copying Beethoven was a mixed bag of reaction for me. I'm afraid the american accents threw me and credibility was challenged. I want to go read the biography referenced in coursera to get things straight in my head. Did she really conduct the 9th for him like that!

Anyway, it's all good stuff and I am so much more appreciative of his music having gained a little more understanding of both the music and of the society.

It is funny how our tastes and viewpoints can change over time.

Prior to starting my piano journey three or four years ago, my history with Beethhoven was probably limited to a few hearings of the 5th and 9th symphonies as a youngster in "music appreciation" class, a couple trips to the symphony every decade or so, occasional NPR encounters while driving, and whatever piece it is that got played in all those Bugs Bunny cartoons.

When I started piano I was listening to a lot of Chopin, so of course that is what I liked and wanted to eventually learn to play. Beethoven was loud banging versus the melodic Mr. C.

Thank goodness the piano and my teacher have led to exploring all kinds of music and composers in much greater depth than I ever would have imagined. And I can only guess how much more I have yet to comprehend. But one thing I can say for sure....and that is LvB is now one of my all time favorites. Sonata no.23 Op.57, "Appassionata" is currently the piece I tell my teacher I would be a happy man to have played just once before I take the big dirt nap. (Sorry Frederic C., I still want to play your Nocturnes too.) That time....playing not napping.....is probably a decade away, if ever, but there's a ton of great music between here and there, some of it by LvB himself, so I'm not really in a rush either. There's just so much great music to be played. Might as well enjoy it.

Great posts folks- I hope you all do well in your studies of Beethoven! I am listening to Moonlight by candlelight- yes I can erad and type by it- and it is raining outside; earlier there was thunder- very atmospheric. My hair is standing on end and I have goosebumps. Moonlight is best listened to at night with a slightly spooky atmosphere...

He knocked their socks off! Have you seen the docu drama with Paul Rhys- he is a charismatic exciting Beethoven ( well I think Beethoven was like that...)- plenty of scenes of him playing piano and people's mouths falling open!




I am glad the Bagatelles are taking you on a new piano journey!







The female copyist was fictional.The character herself was interesting but the scenes of her correcting his "mistakes" and conducting were daft. I thought Ed Harris wasn't bad as Beethoven- he did capture the eccentricities of his later years and was very funny and moving at times.

Here is the Paul Rhys one ( it is in 3 parts):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YueD9vB51hk


When you have seen all 3 portrayals I'd be interested to see who you found the most authentic, realistic Beethoven!