Beethoven's thumb nosed attitude towards royalty and the aristocratic class makes him the first rock n roller!
These days I don't listen to the symphonies very often, but I still love the great piano sonatas, and I'm trying to get familiar with the late string quartets.
By the way LG, if I haven't mentioned it before, you should read these...
They total I think around 1200 pages in all 3 volumes, but it's wonderful stuff...written as a sort of biographical-novel, fictionalising Beethoven's life but doing so based on the most intense research of his life and times, so there is very little in the books that one could prove never actually happened, and a lot of it is based on documented proof. Essential reading for any Beethoven fan, and all available from Amazon at a snip.
^^There are a host of rock/pop songs that have borrowed from the old great composer's, but I never realized KISS used that bit from one of Ludwig's best known piano sonatas.
Nicely done MP, also ties into your "Fixation" with KISS.
Took me a while to find this thread and I am very glad this thread exists.
Beethoven is one of my fave classical composers along with Mozart and Bach. I first knew about Beethoven when I was reading poetry in high school (2006 ish) where his name cropped up. I went to my local library looking for books on him. Luckily, I found massive amount of his work (CDs) in my local library and started to listen to his compositions (rather than reading the books). I think it took few pounds to borrow them for couple of weeks.
As would most of the people do, I started with his Symphonies which were great. In particular, I found the Ninth Symphony AMAZING! Masterpiece!
Back in 2008/09, The Guardian (newspaper) ran a series of introductory booklets and free downloads on classical composers which exposed me to Mozart and Bach.
I always try to listen to Beethoven/Bach/Mozart whenever I have time. I find them very soothing and an welcome break from the hectic life!
Here is my favorite Beethoven piano sonata, "Moonlight Sonata".
^^Nice to see you appreciate some of the legendary composers Zephead.
Moonlight is indeed a great sonata, but if I had to recommend One CD any new fan of Beethoven's as far as piano sonatas are concerned it would be the "Appassionata, Les Adieux and Waldstein"...they are easy to find on one CD.
Something to add to your extensive Beethoven collection, LG. It just dropped about a week ago. I won't pretend to know a lot about this stuff, but it's by the West Eastern Divan Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim. It's a symphony of young people from various Arab nations and Israel, etc. You might like it. Apparently it's some huge project and they finally released what is, from what I can see, a 5-disc collection.
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