The Beethoven teaser

[Peter]

The fact that I'm retired and it's raining helps!

No. 3 can't possibly be this (although she has gone on some epic journeys lately):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/cele...try-album.html

(Just joking!)



.

Very good Michael, but I'd have phrased the question 'an absolutely fabulous Odyssey!'

[Quijote]

No. 2 : An heroic impression made in just two days, but alas not reciprocated.
Might that be the two days B spent in Teplitz during which he wrote the famous IB letter?

[Quijote]

No. 3 : Joanna goes on an epic trip. If "Joanna" is Cockney for "piano", then I suppose that could be the Diabelli Variations.

[Quijote]

Or again, if "Joanna" stands for "piano", could the epic trip be his Broadwood being sent from London (or wherever it was made in the UK) to Vienna?

[Quijote]

Or his Erard from France (presumably Paris)?

[Peter]

Or again, if "Joanna" stands for "piano", could the epic trip be his Broadwood being sent from London (or wherever it was made in the UK) to Vienna?

Yes this one's correct! Joanna is cockney rhyming slang for piano and the Broadwood piano sent to Beethoven from London had an incredible voyage by sea to Trieste and then over the Alps to Vienna. Not surprisingly it needed work doing on its arrival and Beethoven turned to Nanette Streicher for this.

[Peter]

No. 2 : An heroic impression made in just two days, but alas not reciprocated.
Might that be the two days B spent in Teplitz during which he wrote the famous IB letter?

No - a clue for you, there is no connection with the IB. In any case B was in T for more than 2 days and I'm not sure that the letters could be described as 'heroic'!

[Michael]

Yes this one's correct! Joanna is cockney rhyming slang for piano and the Broadwood piano sent to Beethoven from London had an incredible voyage by sea to Trieste and then over the Alps to Vienna. Not surprisingly it needed work doing on its arrival and Beethoven turned to Nanette Streicher for this.

Nice one! I don't think that Beethoven would be pleased to know that his beloved Broadwood was nicknamed after his unbeloved sister-in-law.

[Chris]

That's who I was thinking of at first, but I couldn't figure out what epic journey she might have taken. There was her arrest, but that didn't really seem "epic". Little did I know it was actually some slang I have never heard of!

[Michael]

I had heard that slang term before but I never connected it here. I was wondering, though, about the missing "h" in Joanna and I thought it was one of Peter's anagrams. Very good clue but only for the British Isles!

[Peter]

I had heard that slang term before but I never connected it here. I was wondering, though, about the missing "h" in Joanna and I thought it was one of Peter's anagrams. Very good clue but only for the British Isles!

Philip lives in France!

No.2 seems to be causing a problem so I'll offer another clue - there is a French connection here as well!

[Michael]

The movie "The French Connection" was about a drugs bust.
So - following that train of thought - could it be a bust of Napoleon?

(One of my earlier ridiculous answers turned out to be right. Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.)

I think the answer lies with Napoleon - a painting or the 3rd symphony.

[Peter]

The movie "The French Connection" was about a drugs bust.
So - following that train of thought - could it be a bust of Napoleon?

(One of my earlier ridiculous answers turned out to be right. Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.)

I think the answer lies with Napoleon - a painting or the 3rd symphony.

Sorry Michael - not a painting, bust, Napoleon or the 3rd symphony!

[Peter]

No.2 is admittedly rather tough so a further clue - the answer lies with another composer's work.

[Quijote]

Les Deux Journées (The Two Days) is an opera in three acts by Luigi Cherubini. Beethoven was impressed by Cherubini, but this was not reciprocated.