I cannot remember a time when I did not love Ludwig van Beethoven. He seems to have been part of my musical life as far back as my memories go. I cannot recall the first time I heard him or became aware of his music, I didn't have one of those Road to Damascus moments which sometimes happen when you discover something that is going to be important to you (I did have one of these when I first heard Mahler's Second symphony but that is another story). I just know I could not manage without my daily dose, he was the first composer I downloaded onto my Ipod when I was commuting, the first composer who I stocked up on after my divorce and if I had to choose just one composer that I could listen to for the rest of my life, then it would be Ludwig van. Sorry Richard W, wonderful though your music is, it is not enough to totally feed the soul.
Beethoven's 6th Symphony, the Pastoral, was my very first favourite that I can recall. I remember being taken to see Disney's Fantasia and, after the Sorcerer's Apprentice featuring Mickey Mouse, this was the one that captured my interest. It has been called sickly sweet and mildly nauseating with all those pretty cupids, cherubs and coy female centaurs in smartie colours and, while I admit that by today's sophisticated Pixar standards, it all looks a bit twee, it can still delight.
I used to go to the Prom concerts each year from the age of 13 onwards and this is where my musical education took place and where I learned to love the entire Beethoven canon. I also heard works that I had never listened to in my life, where I listened to Janacek, Shostakovitch, Mahler and Bruckner. I always stood in the arena although where Bruckner was concerned, I usually ended up sitting on the floor after the first movement. Friday night was always Beethoven night, an overture, a concerto and a symphony after the interval. At one of these Friday concerts I remember hearing a performance of the Fifth piano concerto, the Emperor, given by Stephen Bishop and conducted by Colin Davis, the equal of which I have yet to hear. This has remained my favorite of his piano works ever since.
Beethoven only wrote one opera and laboured mightily over it, polishing and polishing and correcting and
changing as he wanted it to be perfect. Not sure he was every totally
satisfied with it, but for me, alongside Mozart's Magic Flute, this is
the opera that defines the durability and strength of true love. It is
full of the most sublime music, the quartet in Act 1, the prisoner's
chorus 'O blessed light' at seeing the sun for the first time in years,
Florestan's aria of despair at the start of Act 2, the heart stopping
off stage trumpet call as Leonora is freeing her husband who has been
incarcerated in a dungeon for years, and we realise he is going to be
safe, the glorious moment in the last scene where she is given the key
to free her husband from his shackles and the music they sing at that
moment. Simply wonderful. Those of you out there who love this opera
will know what I am trying to say.
I am not going to write about every single piece Ludwig ever wrote. I don't know them all and do not have the musical knowledge to analyse anyway and I don't want you keeling over with fatigue, but the final work I simply must mention is the Missa Solemnis. I think this is the greatest choral work ever written, yes more than Bach's Mass in B Minor, the Dream of Gerontius, Mozart Requiem, even greater than those. I had found it a difficult piece to get to grips with and did not do so until in my choir days we sang it. Took us nine months to learn it and get it right. The first sopranos, of which I was one, seem to sing above the stave all the time and to start with it nearly killed us with our conductor telling us that we sounded like Minnie Mouse. He was right, those squeaky little voices coming out of our throats. By the time we came to perform, no problem, it was well sung in and we were trilling away like nightingales.
Main problem with this pieces is not so much learning the notes, tunes, whatever but dealing with the changes in tempi which are fiendish. You are just getting into the swing of it, when you suddenly you come to a grinding halt and then you are off again. Nightmare. There was one long awaited entry in the Agnus Dei when there was an orchestral gap before the choir was due to come in and we had to count like fury to get our entrance right. If you glanced around during this time you could see the look of furious concentration on every singer's face and lips moving soundlessly as we counted. I never got it right. Not once, my entrance was always a split second after everyone els. very annoying. Then there is the Benedictus with a violin solo to make you weep, but enough. I had better not start on the Choral symphony and the fact that as I am getting older I am loving the string quartets and discovering the violin sonatas else we shall be here all night.
One final thought. First time I sang Missa Solemnis I discovered I was pregnant with my first child. When I sang it again some 18 months later I discovered I was pregnant with my second child.
I have never sung it since....
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