Bizet on Beethoven

[robert newman]

'I am German by conviction, heart and soul, but I sometimes get lost in artistic 'houses of ill fame'. And I confess to you under my breath, I find infinite pleasure there. I love Italian music as one loves a courtesan.... Like you, I put Beethoven at the head of the greatest and most excellent. The Choral Symphony is for me the culminating point of our art. Dante, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Homer, Beethoven, Moses ! Neither Mozart with his heavenly form, nor Weber with his powerful and colossal originality, nor Meyerbeer with his mighty dramatic genius, can in my opinion dispute the palm with the Titan, that Prometheus of Music'

(George Bizet - March 1867)

[Frank H]

Bizet died at a comparatively young age. Had he lived on, might he have become one of a "Big Three" of French composers, alongside Debussy and Berlioz?

Although Wagner, and others, rather sneered at "Carmen", many authorities (such as Howard Goodall) point out what a very original work it is.

Frank

[This message has been edited by Frank H (edited 02-24-2006).]