Is Beethoven addictive?

[Peter]

I wonder if B's Dec 22nd 1808 concert (Symphonies Nos.5&6,parts of Mass in C,Piano concerto No.4,Choral fantasia,'Ah Perfido')
might be considered as an over-dose by today's standards! Anyone suffering can contribute the going Hollwywood rate of £20,000 per week for such addictions to the Beethoven Reference Site Fund !

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'Man know thyself'

[PDG]

Originally posted by Peter:

I wonder if B's Dec 22nd 1808 concert (Symphonies Nos.5&6,parts of Mass in C,Piano concerto No.4,Choral fantasia,'Ah Perfido')
might be considered as an over-dose by today's standards!

Maybe, but oh.....to have been there.....

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Peter (PDG)

[PDG]

[quote]Originally posted by Suzie:
[b]

Originally posted by Michael:
To say that Beethoven is addictive is sheer and utter nonsense! I am a Beethoven fan and yet, on Tuesday last, I managed to last three hours without listening to him.
Michael
You are in total denial, Michael!
Suz

Michael`s not in denial, Suzie, but he is close to the Liffey!

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Peter (PDG)

[Michael]

Originally posted by PDG:
Michael`s not in denial, Suzie, but he is close to the Liffey!

Any more puns like that and I'll throw myself in the Liffey!
(I am now attempting the roll eyes face for the first time, folks - it may not work)


Michael

[Michael]

Wow! It works!

[Roehre]

I visited it 20 years ago and I remember having to wait an hour or so for it to open in the afternoon as well!

It has much changed the last couple of years, reacting to the fact that Bonn is not the Federal capital of Germany anymore, and that subsidies have been cut dramatically. The out sourcing of all publications to Clarus Publishers (thereby in the process producing a negligible number of the Bonner Beethoven Studien 3, now even 2nd hands not to get hold on...), and the introduction of all kind of Beethoven merchandise in the renovated shop, are an exponent of this development as well.

But: is Beethoven addictive?
There are some composers of whom I listened to a big part (or nearly all) of their output, and which caused some kind of withdrawal symptoms as I stopped.

Beethoven was definitely one of them, as was Schumann, Brahms, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Bartok, Berg, Webern, Puccini, Messiaen, Bloch, Vaughan Williams, Martinu, Shostakovich. Composers whose works were not addictive (for me at least) are Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Handel, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Prokofjev, Britten, Walton.

Why?
Haven't a clue.

[AeolianHarp]

Beethoven addictive?

Yes indeed he is- I am beyond help really and revelling in it.

[Michael]

I was halfway down this thread before I realised it was twelve years old!
Well, I can honestly say that my addiction (started at Easter in 1968) is worse than ever, thankfully!
Even when this forum started in 2001, I could never visualise a day when all the music -and any information you could possibly want about Beethoven - would be available at the touch of a mouse.

[Chris]

Wow, I posted in this thread when I was only a few days out of my teens!

[AeolianHarp]

I was halfway down this thread before I realised it was twelve years old!
Well, I can honestly say that my addiction (started at Easter in 1968) is worse than ever, thankfully!
Even when this forum started in 2001, I could never visualise a day when all the music -and any information you could possibly want about Beethoven - would be available at the touch of a mouse.

I thought as I am new on here I'd like to see the archives and resurrect some old threads- new blood and all that.

Michael your addiction started just 3 months before I was born! I think we can safely say you are past curing now. I expect ypu must have quiet an interesting collection- LPs too I presume? I have some LPS, just need to get a record player!

Same here re the internet/computer stuff- I can still remember first encountering the internet and being bemused by it all. None of us could have imagined how integral it would become. It does tend to make the addiction easy to feed doesn't it!

Perhaps I ought to say more on my own addiction- I have liked B for a few years, but really it was only a few sonatas I knew, but as I keep hearing him on a classical radio station, and you know how he grows on you...
And I did a course on his sonatas and heard the Hammerklavier and BAM!!!
I think you get the picture...

[AeolianHarp]

Wow, I posted in this thread when I was only a few days out of my teens!

And here you still are Chris- still Beethoven mad I hope!

[Michael]

I thought as I am new on here I'd like to see the archives and resurrect some old threads- new blood and all that.

Michael your addiction started just 3 months before I was born! I think we can safely say you are past curing now. I expect ypu must have quiet an interesting collection- LPs too I presume? I have some LPS, just need to get a record player!

I had a large LP collection until the CD arrived. I couldn't believe it when I was able to hear the piano sonatas without any background noise. The early discs were poor enough but they got better and gradually I was able to replace most of my vinyl favourites with CD versions. I never missed vinyl after that!

I bought the DGG complete edition on CD when it came out in 1997 - it cost me five hundred pounds - and nearly my marriage. .In the past few years, much cheaper - but very good - complete editions have been available.

I didn't actually start counting until a few years ago and I discovered that I had about 500 CDs of Beethoven's works by now.
Yes - I think I must be incurable.

[AeolianHarp]

I had a large LP collection until the CD arrived. I couldn't believe it when I was able to hear the piano sonatas without any background noise. The early discs were poor enough but they got better and gradually I was able to replace most of my vinyl favourites with CD versions. I never missed vinyl after that!

You won't believe what I have got! A 1930 gramophone ( no horn) and 78s! I have a 78 of Brahms- of course loads of crackles but it is charming. I like old records for the vintage charm, but yes Beethoven is best on the highest quality sound. Would be nice to find a way old 78 of something of his though.

I bought the DGG complete edition on CD when it came out in 1997 - it cost me five hundred pounds - and nearly my marriage. .In the past few years, much cheaper - but very good - complete editions have been available.

DGG? I hope the missus has heard enough of his music to know he is worth it!

I didn't actually start counting until a few years ago and I discovered that I had about 500 CDs of Beethoven's works by now.
Yes - I think I must be incurable.

500 wow! I have 7 and the boxed set of piano sonatas played by Daniel Barenboim ( given to me by a friend) and mp3s on my portable HD and some Amazon ones on Cloud.

Sounds like you have all of Beethoven's works on CD then! I'm hearing new music by him daily on the Beethoven Only station- I love it Michael, as I am hearing some amazing works and often music played on all contemporary instruments which I prefer. Sometimes they even play sonatas played on Beethoven's own Broadwood which is incredible to hear- something he touched and played!!!


Have you got favourites? Mine have to be the piano sonatas, followed by the symphonies and piano concertos.

I'm listening to sonata in Fminor as I type this- his first one- doesn't it show such promise! Only 26 and on fire he was!!!- the energy of the Rondo is exhilarating! I bet it blew people's socks off- unlike anything else heard in sonatas at the time. Already distinctly Beethoven.

Yes, you are incurable and so am I! I cannot get enough of him so I can't!
As Mozart noted he is still giving us things to talk about!
Can there be anyone like Beethoven? No! His music is the most exciting, profound, passionate, moving and beautiful of all time.

[Michael]

I wasn't trying to set a world record but I suddenly realised I had a great many CDs and I decided to stop buying any more.
You sound like you really have been bitten by the Beethoven bug. I can't say which section of his works are my favourites. One week it might be the sonatas, another the concertos and so on.

I suppose if I were forced to choose only one area of his compositions, it would have to be the string quartets. The funny thing was that I absolutely hated them when I first came across them, but I assumed (correctly) that Beethoven knew better than me, so I kept on playing them and I now consider them the core of his work. Like the sonatas, they span the early, middle and late periods of his work.

I love Mozart, Haydn and Bach and a good few others but the big B is the king!
(Elvis isn't bad either. )

[AeolianHarp]

I wasn't trying to set a world record but I suddenly realised I had a great many CDs and I decided to stop buying any more.

Running out of space to store them were you?

You sound like you really have been bitten by the Beethoven bug.

He casts a spell.... Noone can equal him!

I can't say which section of his works are my favourites. One week it might be the sonatas, another the concertos and so on.

Plenty to choose from and to suit all moods! I heard something on the Beethoven radio- a string quartet I think it was and it was so gentle and relaxing- I should have noted which one it was.

I suppose if I were forced to choose only one area of his compositions, it would have to be the string quartets. The funny thing was that I absolutely hated them when I first came across them, but I assumed (correctly) that Beethoven knew better than me, so I kept on playing them and I now consider them the core of his work. Like the sonatas, they span the early, middle and late periods of his work.

I am getting to know them...and yes of course he does!

I love Mozart, Haydn and Bach and a good few others but the big B is the king!
(Elvis isn't bad either. )

I like Mozart and Haydn too- also Chopin, Schubert, the Schumanns, Debussy and others (usually a particular work).
Elvis is better than pop music of today that's for sure, though pop is a genre that I am not much fond of- after listening to so much classical music it seems so simple and boring, with the exception of Sigur Ros from Iceland, but then they are not strictly pop music and hard to classify.