Starts at 0:50.
Still my favourite composer of all time, despite which I couldn’t have told you today was his birthday if you hadn’t said so - thanks!
For me the opening of that recording is a touch heavy-handed (no doubt the performance direction in the music calls for this, and quite possibly reflects the composer’s hearing loss, but even so) - compare this recording by (in my view) the all-time master of Beethoven’s piano works, Barenboim:
Hamerklavier Sonata, slow movement, 'nuff said.
While were at it, why not have a Beethoven greatest hits list ? Here’s mine (absolute favourites in bold).
- Piano sonatas n°4, 8 (Pathétique), 13 (Quasi una fantasia), 14 (Moonlight), 15 (Pastoral), 17 (Tempest), 23 (Appassionata), 24 (à Thérèse), 25, 26 (Les Adieux), 28, 29 (Hammerklavier), 30, 31 and 32
- Piano concertos n°4 and 5
- String quartets n°14, 15, 16 and Grosse Fuge
- Symphonies n°5, 6 and 7
- Cello sonatas n° 3 and 5
- Piano trio n°5 (Ghost)
and the Archduke Trio, and the Kreuzer Sonata.
The Waldstein piano sonata (21). Here’s one of the most beautiful segues in music:
I take the day off every year to celebrate.
Don’t get me started on “we don’t know if he was really born on the 16”, he celebrated his birthday on the 16th, and said it was the 16th. Good enough for me.
Those were the two pieces that, to me, were most conspicuously absent from @Moonrise’s list.
Plus I don’t think the 8th symphony gets nearly enough love.
My local classical station did a Beethoven day yesterday and played one of my all-time Greatest hits, the Violin Concerto. Apparently he wrote only the 1 because it wasn’t a success until its revival after his death.
And another for the Greatest Hits list, the Romance 2 in F Major, Op. 50:
Beethoven - Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 in F major, Op. 50 (Kurt Masur & Renaud Capuçon) - YouTube
This reminds me that Beethoven intended to write a cello concerto for Romberg, a famous virtuoso of the time but the latter declined, saying that he preferred playing his own compositions !
Understandably peeved by the rejection, Berthoven shelved his plan, much to the chagrin of cellists everywhere…
My 2 all-time favourites remain piano sonatas 8 and 14. In particular, I think these 2 chord sequences are among the greatest in all music (both videos cued to the bar or two I mean):
Regarding the Waldstein Sonata, I totally agree that the segue mentioned by @K364 is beautiful (the whole of the slow movement is wonderfully mysterious). The problem is that the first movement gets on my nerves. So, it is one of his greatest sonatas for sure, but not one of my favourites.
As for the 8th Symphony, it is indeed an excellent work… which happens to be stuck between two absolute masterpieces, hence its relative (and unfair) neglect.