I’ve always listened to classical music, mostly as a change of pace from time to time, and then preferrably what I myself would regard as “easy listening” works like violin concertos by Mozart and Vivaldi and such with the occational drift into heavier Bach pieces when being in such a mood.
A year ago I dug out a few CDs I got from my brother some twenty years ago (!), and found fine Deutsche Grammophon recordings of Beethoven symphonies. They really grew on me and since then my collection of his symphonies is complete and I’ve listened to them over and over again, where the fifth, seventh and nineth have been favourites, while I find the first and fourth to get less playing time. I’m totally sold on his symphonies.
Now I’m ready to take the next step into the world of classical music with this as a starting point. But I’m unsure which composer to try next, and would like to find symphonies (or the like) which are quite close to Beethoven.
Could you recommend a composer for me to explore next with these regards in mind, and particular works by him to try first?
Try Schubert especially the Ninth. Beethoven had a massive influence on composers in the middle 19th century, so sample them.
But there is only one Beethoven!
Brahms. Maybe Dvorak and Mahler, if you like their sound. Wagner, if you like opera.
Wagner comes closest to Beethoven in terms of always being able to throw something new at you.
Agreed. No one else, as far as I know, has ever written music that sounds quite like Beethoven’s. Still, there’s a lot of stuff out there that’s at least strongly influenced by him. You might try the symphones of…
Brahms—Brahms put off writing a symphony for the longest time, because he was intimidated by Beethoven and wasn’t sure he could come up with something worthy, but he did eventually write four of them.
Dvorak—I hear echoes of the scherzo of Beethoven’s 9th in his 9th (“New World”) symphony.
Mahler—tried to write symphonies that were bigger and more ambitious than Beethoven’s (and maybe even succeeded). Some of his symphonies followed Beethoven’s lead of using vocalists, but my favorites (5 & 1) are all-instrumental.
Just about any of the prominent post-Beethoven symphonists (Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Shostakovich, Prokofiev…) have been at least a little influenced by LvB.
The other way to go would be to explore some of Beethoven’s other, non-symphonic works. I recommend the concertos (violin & piano), the more famous piano sonatas, and the “Archduke” piano trio, for a start.
Of Beethoven, the 5 Piano Concerti and the Violin Concerto reward the listener as much as the symphonies. I also love the solo piano sonatas, the string quartets and the piano trios. With all of them, as with the symphonies, you hear a progression from a promising young classical composer to a pioneering giant of the romantic style.
‘Fidelio’ and the ‘Missa Solemnis’ are outstanding works that I haven’t seen anyone yet mention. I also highly recommend the song cycle ‘An die ferne Geliebte’.
Other composers - I’ll certainly second the Brahms and the Mahler recommendations. I’ll also throw in a mention for the Berlioz ‘Symphonie Fantastique’ as being a developmental step from Beethoven.
I like all these recommendations and would add Handel and Haydn. Are you sure you’ve heard all of Beethoven’s works, though, because I haven’t, and one of these days, I’m going to buy that entire box set.
Also, I believe a sketch of the Maestro’s was recently discovered, and musicologists are currently examining it. This is very exciting to me. I believe it was Andre Previn who once said that there’s something like 80 pages of sketches which no one has been able to decipher enough to make a coherent work, because Beethoven had this annoying habit of scratching over his notes with huge pen strokes which would obliterate something on another line.
I love threads about him. I’ve loved his works ever since my college Music Appreciation course and coul sit and converse/listen about him all day long.
So it doesn’t surprise me, Wakinyan, that he’s “grown” on you as well.
I was fortunate enough to get to visit one of his apartments in Vienna a couple of years ago, touched his piano and liked to have wet my pants. I read the Heiligenstadt
Testament every now and then and it never fails to make me choke up.
There’s also a website I go to which is also a discussion board. You may find it interesting and it is here.
Sorry for the hijack, Wakinyan, but I never miss a chance to get to talk/write about him.
Beethoven, is probably my all-time favourite composer. I’ve been obsessively listening to his piano sonatas over the past year and I never seem to get tired of them. The Tempest, Farewell and Hammerklavier sonatas are personal favourites.
Another lesser-known piece I’d recommend would be the Triple Concerto for piano, violin and cello. Musicologists typically regard this as a lesser work, I guess because the thematic development isn’t as sophisticated and many of his other works, but I find a lot to enjoy in it, regardless.
As for other composers, all of my recommendations have already been covered but I’d like to emphasize Schubert and Brahms.
Schubert was a huge LvB fanboy, was a pallbearer at LvB’s funeral and asked to be buried next to him upon his death. His Ninth and the unfinished 8th are musts. I’m also slowly working my way through Wilhelm Kempff’s recordings of the Complete Piano Sonatas, with the Sonata in A minor, D845 being a particular favourite.
Brahms is also amazing. He was a major perfectionist which is why he took so long to publish his first symphony. I think Robert Schumann gave him a bit of a complex when he crowned Brahms the successor to Beethoven. From then on, he was haunted by his need to live up to such a daunting legacy. Check out his 4 symphonies but also the violin and 2 piano concertos. Masterpieces, all of them. Also, don’t forget his Hungarian Dances which are just good rollicking fun.
As already stated, nobody is quite like Beethoven. The piano concertos and the violin concerto are your next logical step. Also listen to his Romances for violin and orchestra: F major, G major.
After that, Schubert. I think Brahms resembles Beethoven less than Schubert does, but of course still worth listening to.
Then you get into the serious Romantics, like Mahler, Tchaikowsky, Dvorak. I’ll recommend Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto #2(first movement).
Thanks for opening this thread OP, I’m in the same boat as you. I’m listening to Beethoven piano trios right now but have a copy of The Pianist soundtrack on the way from Amazon. I’m really looking forwad to re-listening to the Chopin music from the movie.
I ended up on a Beethoven Wiki page the other day* and this remark from Beethoven caught my eye:
The adagio sostenuto has made a powerful impression on many listeners; for instance, Berlioz said of it that it “is one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify”…The movement was very popular in Beethoven’s day, to the point of exasperating the composer himself, who remarked to Czerny, “Surely I’ve written better things.”
*I got to that page after watching the “Hundred Dollar Baby” episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, which uses the sonata in the credits.
Thank you all very much. I’m taking notes here; I think I’ll go for Brahms and Schubert first, and work my way down the list. Very much appreciated and I’m looking forward to explore your recommendations.
Tchaikovsky said that his fourth symphony was strongly influenced by Beethoven’s Fifth.
I was going for one composer only. I agree about Mendelssohn. As for other Beethoven stuff, I’d recommend the late string quartets. They are not orchestral, but they are the same kind of game changing music as the symphonies.
Dvořák. Take a big step, chronologically, then walk it back toward Beethoven. You’ll get a better grasp of the changes if you don’t go through them so gradually that you become like the proverbial frog in a pot.
Or, really, this is just a rationalization to promote my beloved Dvořák.
