New member - hello

[karate-boy]

Hi,
This is my first post to this group so hello.
I play rock guitar but have been a Beethoven lover for many years and never dreamed that a website would be devoted to the great man. If only he knew that so many people would cherish his music and his name would be immortal. Do you think he knew?

I particularly enjoy the 9th symphony and the first movement. I have bever heard such raucous power in a piece of music - boy, I think he was trying to get something off his chest ! It still sometimes reduces me to tears such is the emotion in that piece. My girlfriend had never heard Beethoven music before and always thought of people who liked him as boring. She is a new convert.

Anyway, my question. I am familar with the symphonies and many of his pieces for piano. I would like to explore some other avenues. Can someone recommend some pieces that can ease me into his other works? I don't want to be confused hence the question.

Thankyou and regards,
Stephen

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by karate-boy:
Hi,
This is my first post to this group so hello.
I play rock guitar but have been a Beethoven lover for many years and never dreamed that a website would be devoted to the great man. If only he knew that so many people would cherish his music and his name would be immortal. Do you think he knew?

I particularly enjoy the 9th symphony and the first movement. I have bever heard such raucous power in a piece of music - boy, I think he was trying to get something off his chest ! It still sometimes reduces me to tears such is the emotion in that piece. My girlfriend had never heard Beethoven music before and always thought of people who liked him as boring. She is a new convert.

Anyway, my question. I am familar with the symphonies and many of his pieces for piano. I would like to explore some other avenues. Can someone recommend some pieces that can ease me into his other works? I don't want to be confused hence the question.

Thankyou and regards,
Stephen

Stephen,
Welcome then, you will be a nice addition to our little group of fanatics! I think I can speak for many of us who totally agree with your opinion of the 9th, beyond words!
As for your other request, this is a hard one to answer as no one knows what another will like, but I have a friend who is also a guitarist, and in trying to turn him on to classical in general I hit upon some mind-boggling violin music that caught him hook, line and sinker. That happened to be Paganini & Bazzini, but since you already like B and want to explore him further, I would suggest the 10 violin sonatas, particularly #9 (in A major, Op 47 "The Kreutzer Sonata"). As a string player you will be in a unique position to evaluate the demands placed on the player by this work, and I suspect that you will be hard-pressed not to really love it.
Enjoy, and come back soon,
Regards,
Gurn

[Marta]

Originally posted by karate-boy:
Hi,
This is my first post to this group so hello.
I play rock guitar but have been a Beethoven lover for many years and never dreamed that a website would be devoted to the great man. If only he knew that so many people would cherish his music and his name would be immortal. Do you think he knew?

I particularly enjoy the 9th symphony and the first movement. I have bever heard such raucous power in a piece of music - boy, I think he was trying to get something off his chest ! It still sometimes reduces me to tears such is the emotion in that piece. My girlfriend had never heard Beethoven music before and always thought of people who liked him as boring. She is a new convert.

Anyway, my question. I am familar with the symphonies and many of his pieces for piano. I would like to explore some other avenues. Can someone recommend some pieces that can ease me into his other works? I don't want to be confused hence the question.

Thankyou and regards,
Stephen

Hi Stephen.

Welcome!!

Beethoven's music covers many different genres, and is hard to recommend just a few, but perhaps I will say listen to the 4 and 5 Piano concertos and the Violin Concerto.
Also as an introduction to his chamber music, besides the work recommended by Gurn, I will mention the 'Archiduke' Piano trio.

All Beethoven's music is magnifecent, enjoy the discovery...


Marta

[Andrea]

Willkommen Stephen.

The musical world of Beethoven; where does one begin?

I would suggest you try some of his overtures, especially the one for Goethe's Trauerspiel "Egmont", Op. 84. That's always been one of my favorites; it reaches into the depths of one's soul, or at least mine.

[This message has been edited by Andrea (edited May 24, 2003).]

[lysander]

Stephen, I know what you mean about how you react to the heaven storming 9th Symphony.
There is this incredible urgency about the music and all his music generally as though he just has to impart this phenomenal vision to mankind that stands as on a darkling plain, whereas Matthew Arnold says, we are surrounded by the ignorant
armies of the night.
I think it has something to do with Beethoven being a kind of muse or medium for a new world that was struggling to be born and which Beethoven eagerly looked forward to and that accounts in part for the fantastic forward drive and impetus of his music.
But in his later Sonatas there is a more mixed message of course as he begins to appreciate more fully the terrible depth and suffering of the human soul, brought about in part by the disappointment with the French revolution and his own deafness.


You might also like to listen to the Choral Fantasia, the string quartets and the piano trios.
I also love Egmont overture and his violin concerto op. 61.



[This message has been edited by lysander (edited May 24, 2003).]