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Google Doodle today is pretty epic, celebrating Beethoven

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Love it.

Also, surprised I can still (somewhat) read sheet music, so I didn't even have to click on the sound button to hear it! :D
 
Llyranor said:
I used to feel that way, but appreciate it a lot more in the context of the full movement in the context of the full symphony. It's all about the strings counterpoint rather the choral melody, anyway!

It's not the music's fault that it's played in food commercials and whatever else.
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Totally. The theme itself is purposefully simple, but it's what Beethoven does with it that's great. It's Beethoven, he more often than not takes the most banal ideas and motifs and builds on them to create massive structures. It's no different here, where Beethoven's use of variation on the theme is nothing short of brilliant. The theme is more than just baby's first piano tune, it's an inspired turkish march (continuity! Same rhythm, different guise), it's a solo quartet, it's a propulsive double fugue (whose subjects are a variation of the Joy theme and the turkish march, which is a variation itself), it's a triumphant celebration in 6/8, it, along with the "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!" theme, comprises the great double fugue. And that's not to mention the seeds planted thoughout the symphony (1 2 3). That said, I do find the Joy theme to be beautiful in its simplicity, and seeing the theme in its first set of variations gradually add sinews, muscles and skin to it's simple skeletal frame will always be wonderful. I don't think I'll ever tire of hearing the entrance of the bassoon in the first variation. But let's be real, he's a dirty thief.

There a few commentators that suggest that the last movement isn't an entirely successful peak for the first three movements, but I think their perception is colored by the text and what they would consider Beethoven's naive utopian vision. But it's no more than just a "what if?" - Beethoven knew this, it's a celebration, there are few better so treat it as such. Eh, Bernstein said it best. Listen to it divorced from the text if you're one of those people, Beethoven's indomitable spirit and sincerity is still clearly apparent.

Fun fact, the schreckensfanfare opening of the 4th movement is a D minor chord played against a B-flat major chord. Those two keys have been at the center of the struggle for the entire symphony up to this point, but here they're presented as a singularity, and out of that explosion comes a new world born from both the darkness and the light.

Why would you do that? said:
Moonlight Sonata, on the other hand... I think that's my favorite. The not often heard third movement of Moonlight Sonata is even better than the 1st, IMO.
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My favorite performance.

claviertekky said:
Yeah. Might as well.

My favorite of the five piano concertos.

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58

That first movement cadenza is so troll. Look at this innocent melody, and then it becomes Beethoven's to the end.
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My
wo
man. I'm not a pianist so I can't vouch for the difficulty of it, but that's supposedly the easier of the two cadenzas he wrote for this concerto. I can't remember the exact quote, but I remember reading Alfred Brendel say that Beethoven wrote a cadenza for everyone else, and then a monstrous one for himself. I don't know which I prefer; I feel the regularly played one is a better distillation of the movement as a whole, but the other one is more mysterious, especially with those trills.

I do love me some piano concerto 1. It's just really fun to listen to.

claviertekky said:
Key changes without cadences? Blasphemy!
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The greatest key changes in music.. Slight hyperbole, but given the context of what it means apropos the entire movement up to that point, it's got to be up there.
 
Hearing Fur Elise was pretty sweet, make me wish that I didn't give up on playing the Violin.

Young me was stupid. ¬_¬;
 
Everyone should read "Beethoven Anguish and Triumph". Its fascinating to read about Beethoven trying to leave his mark in the wake of Haydn and Mozart.His piano duels(He was known as a performer first) and all of that are so exciting to read about.
 
That was so good. I was doing great until Moonlight Sonata. :( Took me several tries to get that one right.

Ode to Joy always brings mist to my eyes. Symphony No. 9 is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written.
 
This is my favorite one they've done so far. The people that head all these awesome Google homepage activities are the best. brb listening to Beethoven. Ode to Joy is calling.

Also, that Horse is a dick. Just look at it's face each go.
 
Fantastic doodle really fun also! Listening to 9th symphony 4th movement is always a joy. I love listening to a real orchestra just like how games are using it these years because it's sound so damn cool.
 
That was pretty cool. Google is master at this stuff.

And apparently according to my friend, they have a special one on your birthday. Shame I never actually use Google.com since browsers have it built-into the address bar somewhere since like ~13 years ago.
 
claviertekky said:
Composer of the hardest violin concerto ever. A test of intonation. Technique goes to another composer for obvious reasons...
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As a retired concertmaster violinist, I can say that labeling any violin concerto as the most difficult is completely subjective. There is no general consensus.

For me personally, these concertos are the most difficult to master:


Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major


It's not just the technical difficulty that set them apart, but the combination of playing at such a high level while still maintaining enough musicality to give a rendition that's faithful to the spirit of the original works. Striking a balance between those two factors has proven to be the most difficult challenge I've encountered as a musician.
 
brainchild said:
As a retired concertmaster violinist, I can say that labeling any violin concerto as the most difficult is completely subjective. There is no general consensus.
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Concertmaster of which orchestra? Sorry for asking.

Not a violinist, but as someone who knows quite a few musicians, I hear a lot.

I've heard Beethoven's violin concerto is a work that completely exposes a violinist to many scales, thus intonation. Performers of that work complain that they feel naked on stage. To play in tune for a rather long period of time can be tedious and requires 200% or more concentration. So easy to play out of tune.

Paginini I think goes to difficulty in violin technique as I equate Paginini to Liszt for violins, but I didn't want to derail this thread talking about other composers.
 
claviertekky said:
Concertmaster of which orchestra? Sorry for asking.

Not a violinist, but as someone who knows quite a few musicians, I hear a lot.

I've heard Beethoven's violin concerto is a work that completely exposes a violinist to many scales, thus intonation. Performers of that work complain that they feel naked on stage. To play in tune for a rather long period of time can be tedious and requires 200% or more concentration. So easy to play out of tune.

Paginini I think goes to difficulty in violin technique as I equate Paginini to Liszt for violins, but I didn't want to derail this thread talking about other composers.
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I'm now an alumnus for GTCYS. Started at Philharmonic and worked my way up to Symphony. Very pivotal period in my career as a violinist.

Anyway, I agree that Beethoven's concerto is difficult due to the scales and arpeggios. Not because they're difficult to execute, but because it's hard to be expressive with them while playing cleanly, and yes, having good intonation is important.

However, playing Paganini is an entirely different beast. Intonation is even more difficult to maintain, as you often have harmonics with double stops, glissandos of varying dynamics, and notes that jump from one end of the fingerboard to the other in less than half a second. I've heard many people play Paganini, but few people play his works with good intonation. Itzhak Perlman is the only violinist alive that I know of who has flawless intonation when it comes to playing Paganini.

But yeah, I don't want to make it seem like I'm downplaying Beethoven (he's one of my favorite composers), but I thought I'd offer my perspective since you mentioned how difficult his concerto is, which to be fair, is a sentiment shared by many violinists.
 
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