Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner It's Beethoven's birthday today...

It was technically yesterday, actually. I'm surprised nobody's remembered.

To start us off:

Oh, I remembered. I had a colorful Powerpoint presentation up to greet my high school students. There was even a picture of a Beethoven score and a birthday cake. They were not impressed but at least most of them knew he was a composer.

Excellent choice! That 2nd movement gets me every time.

There is no record of Beethoven's birth, only his baptism. December 16 is the best guess for his birthday given the custom of the time.

Read this book, it's FANTASTIC!

http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Anguish-Triumph-Jan-Swafford/dp/061805474X

Ah. I read Swafford's book about Brahms and it was wonderful. Thanks for the recommendation.

Happy Belated Birthday!

I'll look into it, though the review in the recent issue of Gramophone didn't exactly expedite a visit to my local INDEPENDENT bookstore.

Currently I'm reading Matthew Guerrieri's book 'The First Four Notes- Beethoven's Fifth and the Human Imagination'.

It's interesting, though a bit intellectually impenetrable at times. But worth it for Guerrieri's insightful observations on the Concord Sonata of Ives, and a re-examination of the writings of Heinrich Schenker. (Quite different from what I understood at uni.)