VEGANGELICA

I've been thinking tonight about Beethoven and how I feel about his music because I had the chance to play his 2nd Symphony for the first time this week and have mixed feelings about it.

I've decided that playing Beethoven's 2nd Symphony is very enjoyable, especially the 4th movement, because it has a lot of activity to keep a violinist busy. No time to think about anything else other than the music during that piece! You have to pay attention to catch all the notes, and certain brief passages are very lovely, which makes playing the movement engrossing.

However, when I listen to the piece (when I'm not playing it), I find myself getting bored. While I am intrigued that Beethoven was realizing the torture of his increasing deafness right around the time he wrote this sunny-sounding symphony in 1802, the music doesn't inspire me. I'd never want to sit through listening to others play the 4th movement, but I enjoy being part of the orchestra making the music.

This is one reason I'm not an ideal orchestra member. I like playing in the orchestra, but I don't really care about performances because if *I* were in the audience, I'd be daydreaming like mad during most of this piece to find something more interesting for me to think about:



I also tried listening to Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, since rondo likes it, but I find I don't care for it at all. Actually, I first wrote that I hate it. It sounds so tedious to me, so dry, so overdone, so directionless. All those little notes flitting about. Funny, how people's tastes can differ so much.

So, I don't think Beethoven would be on my list of 5 favorite composers, if I had such a list. I also don't like most Bach music because it seems too mechanical and emotionless to me. I'm in a "classical cynical" mood right now, I think!

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Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

Beethoven is ok. However, I myself find it amazingly frustrating that through centuries of wonderful music the entire classical genre is usually generalized to Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Chopin... occasionally Tschaikowsky(whom I adore, but still). I feel if the true depth, and variance, of the genre were exposed to the world, there'd be a lot more fans.

In my findings, Beethoven definitely has his hits, and definitely has his misses.

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Al Pacino = God

ThePhanastasio

My favorites vary greatly, depending on my frame of mind at the time, what I've been listening to...where I am...any number of things. There are times I may love Beethoven, but times he may be the last composer in the world I'd want to listen to.

To be quite honest, I've never been so much a fan of this whole piece in general, and not just the fourth movement - it doesn't really evoke any strong emotion within me. Then again, I'm really not in a Beethoven mood right now.

I'll say that my favorites (for the time being) are:

1.) Maurice Ravel
2.) Rachmaninoff
3.) Tchaikovsky
4.) Stravinsky
5.) Shostakovich

In particular, I've been listening to a lot of Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin.

A wonderful version of the third movement (Menuet) from this piece is:


The piece as a whole is wonderful, but that particular movement is superb. Easily one of my favorite compositions at present.

I'm also kind of obsessed with his 3 part piano composition, Gaspard de la nuit.

Here's the piece in its entirety, separated by movement into three separate videos:

Movement I: Scarbo


Movement II: Le Gibet


Movement III: Ondine


It's really a pretty dark, haunting piece, but I find it exceedingly beautiful.

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Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

Amazing choices, I've been finding myself enjoying quite a bit of all four recently.

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Al Pacino = God

Stephen

Any recommendations for a particular recording of this?