Hello. I'm new here.

[Scherchen]

Hi.
I recently saw the Amadeus movie and got a bit into classical music. Now, Beethoven follows of course.

[Scherchen]

BTW: My granddad is Hermann Scherchen if anyone knows this name.

[Scherchen]

Noone knows him?

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by Scherchen:
Noone knows him?

Yes, I used to have some Bach and Beethoven conducted by him. Very fine.

[Poseidan73]

Welcome!

[Suzie]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Scherchen:
[B]Hi.
I recently saw the Amadeus movie and got a bit into classical music. Now, Beethoven follows of course.

Hello, Scherchen. I love that movie. But of course it's Beethoven that really gives the world something to talk about

[spaceray]

I hated Amadeus,it was ridiculous Hollywood claptrap and actually turned me off Mozart completely for years,but I 've picked up on him again recently and am listening to his chamber music,very beautiful music.

Mozart was not a fool and I thought the movie did him a diservice.

[Suzie]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by spaceray:
[B]I hated Amadeus,it was ridiculous Hollywood claptrap and actually turned me off Mozart completely for years,but I 've picked up on him again recently and am listening to his chamber music,very beautiful music.

Mozart was not a fool and I thought the movie did him a diservice.

Much the way I hate 'Immortal Beloved" I'm sure. What crap. I was embarrassed that anyone would see it and think they knew something of the master.

But my emotional tie to Mozart isn't nearly that of B so I wasn't as distressed by the inaccuracies. I thought the movie was well made and very funny, at least the first half. The film motivated me to read several biographies of Mozart. A couple of months ago, I read part of a book(it was huge)of his letters and it was fascinating.
S

[Joy]

I never go to a Hollywood movie expecting to see the true story. Even when it's based on a biography story it always seems to side line the truth. You have to take everything it has to offer with a grain of salt and then read boks on the subject to get the real story.

------------------
'Truth and beauty joined'

[Steppenwolf]

I have to disagree with the negative comments expressed about Amadeus. It is in fact one of my favourite movies, and was one of the original incentives for me to get into classical music.
Before condemning it as too Hollywood remember that it is just a film version of a stage play by Peter Shaffer (I think that's how you spell his name? ... I don't have time at the moment to look it up) As a work of drama it is brilliant, and explores all sorts of interesting, thought-provoking ideas and themes.
Nor do I object to the portrayal of Mozart. I certainly don't think he is portrayed as an idiot as such. His musical genius is emphasised strongly. It's more subtle than that - he is portrayed as child-like, which is quite different to idiocy (understood as low intelligence). I doubt whether the historical Mozart was exactly like that (although we know he enjoyed telling dirty jokes from his letters), but the idea that a genius can exhibit a sort of child-like frivolity/innocence is not implausible, in my opinion, nor insulting. There is an old saying that there is a fine line between genius and insanity, and while that is not true all of the time I think it is certainly often true that there is a strong link between genius and eccentricity.
Amadeus could have portrayed Mozart as a pious saint, with gravitas and nobility who said not a word out of place, but that would, I think, have been far less interesting and not necessarily any more historically accurate. Amadeus offers a very thought provoking exploration of the complexities of genius, and the complexities and paradoxes of human nature generally.
The playwrite of Amadeus once said in an interview that he thought Mozart himself, alone, justified the whole of human evolution. I don't think someone who thinks something like that would set out to insult him.

[spaceray]

I bet your right about all this ,I will read the play.I'm enjoying a lot of Mozart's chamber works right now and reading Alfred Einstein's book ,perhaps I'll give the movie another try as well.

[spaceray]

Here's a quote from Mozart"When I am...completely myself,entirely alone...or during the night when I cannot sleep,it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly.Whence and how these come I know not nor can I force them...nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively,but I hear them gleich alles zusammen(all at the same time together.)