Which is your favourite Beethoven piece to mindlessly listen to?

[Lucy]

For me it would have to be the second movement of the fifth piano concerto ... I love it ... it's one of those pieces you can play at home yet still hear the orchestra part in your head. As if you have a symphony orchestra hidden somewhere inside the piano.

[Sorrano]

There's nothing better for me than to awaken to the sound of a Beethoven work. But rather than reduce me to mindlessness it more sharpens my mind and draws my attention to it, forcing me to sharpen my faculties to a more conscious state.

[Cocchini]

The TEMPEST, last movement!!

[Andrea]

The Allegro, ma non troppo from the Sonata #23 in F minor, "Appassionata". I love it when Schroeder plays it!

[Chaszz]

Les Adieux, Piano Sonata #26. The 1st and 2nd movements each have individual exotic characters I find nowhere else in music. The 2nd movement andante has something I find only in Beethoven that is very hard to try to describe. It has a sadness, but also an awesome majesty to it, as if one is walking in a large special cave or chamber. When I hear one of Beethoven's slow movements such as this, I wonder anew whether he is waking emotions within me that I did not know I possessed, or communicating his own emorions so powerfully. I think it is the latter, because I don't think I could ever possess such emotions on my own.

[Poseidan73]

Off-hand, i'd say the third movement of Opus 132.

[lysander]

Choral Fantasia!
Re-charges me before going to work in the morning. I love it!

Friede, Friede ist errungen,

Jubelt laut der Menshheit Chor.

Nehmt denn hin, ihr lieben Freunde,

froh die Gaben shconer Kunst.

Wenn sich Geist und Kraft vereinen,

winkt uns ewgen Friendens Gunst.


I am at one with Beethoven when I listen to
this. It is indiscribable.

[Suzie]

Please don't laugh at me.[/B][/QUOTE]

I'm not laughing, but I can't 'space out' or fall asleep to Beethoven. I can't work to Beethoven either. He gets my full attention. I'm always listening for something I may not have noticed before or I'm poised for the exhilaration. I did come close to falling asleep listening to op. 132 once due to the late hour and the wine. It wont happen again, I promise.
Suz

[Suzie]

It has a sadness, but also an awesome majesty to it, as if one is walking in a large special cave or chamber. When I hear one of Beethoven's slow movements such as this, I wonder anew whether he is waking emotions within me that I did not know I possessed, or communicating his own emorions so powerfully. I think it is the latter, because I don't think I could ever possess such emotions on my own. [/B][/QUOTE]

YES!

[Suzie]

Can one listen mindlessly to Handel, I wonder?
S

[lysander]

I do not think that one can listen 'mindlessly'.
AS a serious lover of Beethoven, I find his music otherworldy, exquisitely beautiful,
emotional, rapt, arresting, demands my attention, from the heart to the heart, he is communicating such unearthly beauty, inner peace and joy, he connects with my soul. I experience him, I understand him.
I love him.

I do enjoy listening to other composers such as Haydn, Handel, Mozart and quite like Schubert, they are all great in their own right. But it is Beethoven that reaches and captures my soul to the very core. He is the God of Music.

[Peter]

Originally posted by lysander:


I do not think that one can listen 'mindlessly'.
.

I agree - listen mindlessly means you are not really listening at all, which is unfortunately what most people do.

------------------
'Man know thyself'

[John Rasmussen]

All right, so to whom can you listen mindlessly?

There are a few composers to whom I have to listen somewhat mindlessly or I get irritated at their content, or rather their lack thereof. The foremost of these are Johann Strauss Jr. and Sr. Another is Rossini (sorry, Rossini fans!), although he wrote some classic oboe melodies. Even Richard Strauss' later music gets little real attention from me. But Beethoven gets my full attention, along with J.S and C.P.E. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Brahms, Mahler, Varese, and Shostakovich, among others.

[Sorrano]

Originally posted by John Rasmussen:
All right, so to whom can you listen mindlessly?

There are a few composers to whom I have to listen somewhat mindlessly or I get irritated at their content, or rather their lack thereof. The foremost of these are Johann Strauss Jr. and Sr. Another is Rossini (sorry, Rossini fans!), although he wrote some classic oboe melodies. Even Richard Strauss' later music gets little real attention from me. But Beethoven gets my full attention, along with J.S and C.P.E. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Brahms, Mahler, Varese, and Shostakovich, among others.

Have you not heard the Rossini Stabat Mater? I think this is his best work. And does Offenbach fit in the listenable or mindless camps?

[Joy]

Originally posted by John Rasmussen:
[B]All right, so to whom can you listen mindlessly?

B]

I don't really know if you can listen mindlessly to anyone. There are some composers I am able to just have on the radio in the background while I do my 'chores' and I don't have to sit down and really listen I suppose. However, Beethoven has to have my full attention as he demands it!

Joy