I’m working on a lengthy project today, and decided to set my iTunes to play all the Beethoven Symphonies. About 5.6 hours of pure genius.
Just as the last movement of the Ninth started it got really dark outside, and a huge storm hit. And a few minutes from the end of the symphony, the power went out. It’s back on now, but . . . wow.
Freaky! But it should have happened during the Sixth.
Beethoven’s been my favorite classical composer ever since I heard Ode to Joy and Moonlight Sonata’s 3rd movement
I can’t think of Beethoven without thinking of the “Ode To Joy” scene near the end of “Immortal Beloved.” Powerful movie! Also, of course, Fantasia.
Mozart has the classic purity of light and the red ocean; Beethoven the romantic grandeur which belongs to the storms of air and sea, and while the soul of Mozart seems to dwell on the ethereal peaks of Olympus, that of Beethoven climbs shuddering the storm-beaten sides of a Sinai. Blessed be they both! Each represents a moment of the ideal life, each does us good. Our love is due to both.
Henri-Frédéric Amiel
also - Immortal Beloved - one of my favorite movies.
It’s showering here now. Maybe if I play the WIlliam Tell Overture* it’ll rain really hard and then clear up before sunset.
*yeah, I know Beethoven didn’t write that.
Did you shake your fist at the storm? I would have.
Around 1960, one of the network news programs used the second movement of the 9th as its theme music. On one occasion as we were watching, there was a peal of thunder at the exact point of the first entry of the timpani in the initial bars.
That third movement of Moonlight is one of my Desert Island wave files. Preferably Glenn Gould’s performance, but Brendel would suffice.
.