Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Your favorite pieces by Beethoven. :)

I would say my favorite symphony would be #7, followed closely by 3, 5, and 6. My favorite piano sonatas are Ops. 57, 106, and 111. I also really like Fidelio. But of all his works my absolute favorite is the violin concerto.

I really love the Opus 101 and 110 piano sonatas as well as the 4th piano concerto.

pianovirus, i have to admit that we're pretty much in agreement on Beethoven. i love almost everything from him... love 7th symphony 2nd mvmt especially!

What do you mean by athletic demands? Unless I remember incorrectly after playing it 50 years ago, I thought it was an undemanding work that is easier than any of the Sonatas except Op.49.

hmm, at the moment
1st and Third Piano Concertos
Sonata No.15 Op.28 "Pastorale (currently learning and loving it)

An old friend of mine who plays the piano told me many years ago that "Beethoven is best".

Perhaps he was right...

Currently..it is Piano Concerto No. 4.

Symphony#7 is my favorite too. (Thanks to a Japanese tv drama, Nodame Cantabile. I wouldn't know this piece if I didn't watch it. The first movement is the opening theme. Love the piano solo version that the main character playing by ear in the drama as well.)

TinyHands

The first and last movements are no piece of cake. I played it in grad school.

The late bagatelles. It's their intimacy that I find appealing.

Only 28 comments for Beethoven's music after several days...? No way!

(I am sorry, I usually just read other people's comments. )

For symphonies, I also like Symphony No. 9, especially its 2nd movement as well as its famous 4th.

(Beethoven could not hear his own music by the time he composed this symphony. This must have been very painful to him...)

Fur Elise.

I wonder about this all-too-commonly-played piece sometimes.

The story behind it must have been very personal, probably tragic, yet deeply amiable...

The Missa Solemnis.

This music destroys me each time I experience it. Please listen to it! Now!

It's a setting of the Mass (with a capital M) but is accessible to any willing to open his mind.

If you aren't moved by the violin solo in the Benedictus you are brain-dead. That's that.

i heard Missa Solemnis only once, live with Cleveland orchestra and chorus at a hot summer night. it captured me however, especially that stunning voice fugue in it.

Quoting me on the previous page:

One should try to catch a live performance of the 'Missa' at least once a year, preferably in a large church with generous acoustic, perhaps Gloucester Cathedral? I don't much care to hear the work in a concert hall, IMHO.

Definitely a Mass with capital 'M'. And the setting is liturgically correct...

A work I've.. so-far.. failed to come to grips with.

Brain-dead pianist.

I prefer to use the term "piano-centric."

I must sound like a broken record, but in paraphrase of the Lord of the Rings, "He's still in love with the piano."

To unabashed, impassioned naivety and adoration of the keyboard!

Double post.

Pathetique, Appassionata

Which one? The work contains two large scale fugues and many fughettas and fugatos involving the vocal forces -- most of which are indeed "stunning."

I'm a great admirer of the Missa Solemnis myself -- Beethoven himself regarded it as his greatest work -- but I find that the Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei have some small narrative flaws that nag me everytime I listen to the work. But that's just me nitpicking. As I said, my favorite Beethoven works are the late quartets, but I find some small narrative flaws in those works too! IMHO, of course, YMMV and all that jazz.

Speaking of the Appassionata, I love that modulation in the finale's development section.

i wish i could say which, but i can't remember and it probably was the last one (definitely the large scale one, or else i won't remember).

Beethoven wrote so many great works that it is hard for me to narrow my favorite compositions of his down to a small number. His symphonies 1-7 and 9 are all among my favorites. If I had to narrow them down further, I would pick 3, 5, 7, and 9.

His 32 piano sonatas are my favorite set of works written for solo piano. So much has been discussed about these sonatas on this forum already that I don’t have much to add. Here is a pointer to a recent thread on Beethoven’s piano sonatas:
http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/2/19119.html#000014


Other Beethoven favorites of mine are
Piano concerti 4 and 5
String quartets 8 (op. 59 #2, particularly the 2nd movement), 9 (op. 59 #3), 11 (op. 95)
Missa Solemnis

The late string quartets contain some incredibly sublime music. However, I find other parts of these works difficult to listen to.

Beethoven is one of the most discussed composers in this forum. If we look at how frequently a composer's last name appears in the subject title of a thread, I think that Chopin, Bach, and Beethoven finish at the top (Chopin is #1 by a significant margin).

Beethoven and Mozart are my two favorite composers. If only piano music is considered, then Chopin also rises to the top of my list.