[richidoo]

Born December 14, 1770, this is the 250th anniversary of the most influential composer of all time. His work marks the beginning of the modern age of music, imo. While he idolized and emulated the most modern composers of his time, Haydn and Mozart, their work was visionary but still firmly planted in the old world. His own contributions changed our perception of the potential of music to affect the human spirit and launched a thousand ships toward our modern musical era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a23945btJYw

"Ode to Freedom" = The Great Awakening

[richidoo]

https://www.nytimes.com/article/beethoven-250-birthday-classical-music.html

[richidoo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=452nsCCzIJs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQVs4MhX3xo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4788Tmz9Zo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu75OThB2sU

[Jon L]

Love Beethoven late piano sonatas and late string quartets. 
Haven't looked at other recordings lately, mainly listening to Gilels late sonatas and Lindsay late string quartets.  Any well-recorded alternatives?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-hMM6jAxsU&list=PLeTs0o_DlnIsBvEGhQaHnY0YqB-oAZaEd&index=102

[richidoo]

Yeah, that Gilels sonata is really nice! 

I like Alfred Brendel's later sonata cycle and I like the Prazak Quartet quartet cycle.

I heard Jupiter Quartet play Op 135, and Pacifica Quartet play Op 132 in concert. Both performances were much better than anything I've heard on record. I wish they would record Beethoven. Maybe it's just the difference of live music.


Caricature of Beethoven by J. P. Lyser (1825)

[JDoyle]

Listening to him on my favorite classical music station (shameless plug) WNED FM, 94.5 on air on the web and on Roon 👍

https://www.wned.org/radio/wned-classical-945/

[HAL]

Beethoven fan for sure, but I think his birthday was Dec. 14. 1770.

[richidoo]

 

[FullRangeMan]

The Ludwig piano works are bold even today, the Diabelli Variations are a transcendetal work at pair  with today best modern composers.

[rpf]

Love Beethoven late piano sonatas and late string quartets. 
Haven't looked at other recordings lately, mainly listening to Gilels late sonatas and Lindsay late string quartets.  Any well-recorded alternatives?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-hMM6jAxsU&list=PLeTs0o_DlnIsBvEGhQaHnY0YqB-oAZaEd&index=102

Both the Cypress Quartet and the Quartetto di Cremona offer far superior recordings of the string quartets in both performance and sound quality (the former was recorded at the Skywalker Ranch sound studio). The latter set is available for download from Qobuz for only ~ $15-20 (CD to high-rez quality).

In sets of the piano sonatas with good sound quality I like both Alfred Brendel's last Philips and Richard Goode's Nonesuch ones.

[Tyson]

Happy birthday Beethoven! 

I also like the Richard Goode set on Nonesuch for the Piano Sonatas.  For a modern string quartet cycle, the Artemis Quartet is very good and in excellent sound.