.I'm never tired of it for a single moment. The music remains endlessly satisfying, interesting and moving and has remained so for almost two centuries and to all kinds of people. In other words, this music is not only infinitely durable, but perhaps the closest music has ever come to universality. And that dubious cliché about music being the universal language almost comes true with Beethoven. No composer has ever lived who speaks so directly to so many people, to young and old, educated and ignorant, amateur and professional, sophisticated, naive... and to all these people of all classes, nationalities and racial backgrounds this music speaks a universality of thought, of human brotherhood, freedom and love. In this Ninth Symphony for example, where Beethoven has set Schiller's Ode to Joy in the Finale, the music goes so far beyond the poem, it gives far greater dimension and vital energy and artistic sparks to these quaint, old lines of Schiller: "Alle Menschen werden Brüder" - "All men become brothers", "Seid umschlungen, Millionen" - "Be embraced, millions", "Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?" - "Oh world, do you sense the Creator?". In other words, this music succeeds even with those people for whom organized religion fails, because it conveys a spirit of godhead and sublimity in the freest and least doctrinal way. That was typical of Beethoven. It has purity and directness of communication which never becomes banal. It's accessible without being ordinary. This is the magic that no amount of talk can explain. But perhaps, there was in Beethoven, the man, a child inside that never grew up, that to the end of his life remained a creature of grace and innocence and trust, even in his moments of greatest despair. And that innocent spirit speaks to us of hope and future and immortality. And it's for that reason that we love his music now more than ever before. In this time of world agony and hopelessness and helplessness, we love his music and we need it. As despairing as we may be, we cannot listen to this Ninth Symphony without emerging from it changed, enriched, encouraged. And to the man who could give the world so precious a gift as this, no honour can be too great and no celebration joyful enough. It's almost like celebrating the birthday of music itself.
Leonard Bernstein
Perfectly put and perfectly true.
http://www.last.fm/group/Beethoven%27s+Ninth+Symphony
Leonard Bernstein
Perfectly put and perfectly true.
http://www.last.fm/group/Beethoven%27s+Ninth+Symphony
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