What has Beethoven meant on your life?

[Symphonic Addict]

Why do you love, like, can't live without his music? What does attract to you? How are you drawn by his musical genius? How are you celebrating this day? If so, if not.

Feel free to express yourself.

[Karl Henning]

I knew that Beethoven was Schroeder's idol long before I actually knew any of his music. My first personal introduction to Beethoven was in Junior High, we played a band transcription of the finale of the Fifth Symphony.  Loved it.  The first of the symphonies that I came to know in its entirety was the Pastorale, which was one of the LPs a friend of mine put on while we played ping pong in the summer of '76.  That may have been all I knew of Beethoven before college.  I went to college to study music, so Beethoven was perforce a cornerstone of the tuition.  My enjoyment of and admiration for the music is all of a piece with my pursuit of composition.

[Mirror Image]

As I wrote in the 'Listening' thread, I don't have issues with Beethoven's music and enjoy (even love) many of his works, but he's not a composer I listen to very often for one reason or another. One of the reasons could be that my classical listening didn't actually start with any composers from this particular period. I was much more interested in the Late-Romantic and Modern Eras. But it does seem as I'm getting older, I'm appreciating the earlier masters more and more. Like, for example, I'm actually warming up to Brahms, which is kind of unusual since I've always seemed to be firmly in the Wagner/Liszt/Bruckner camp. I guess I'll come around to listening to Beethoven more, but probably not anytime soon as I have so many other composers that I'm interested in and would rather listen to.

[Artem]

I saw an image of Beethoven first before I heard his music. The concert hall in my musical academy had a very big portrait with notes flying out of his head. I am curious about his music, but I often end up feeling indifferent. Maybe, I just hadn't found the right performers of it for me.

[Jo498]

Why do you love, like, can't live without his music? What does attract to you? How are you drawn by his musical genius? How are you celebrating this day? If so, if not.

Beethoven has been my favorite composer since I first heard some of his music at ca. 15 years old. It was not the music that brought me to classical (that were some of the usual suspects of popular Grieg, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky) and I even got a bit of Haydn and Mozart before Beethoven but once Beethoven entered, he totally dominated my listening for a couple of years. (Despite this I kept exploring other well known composers in that time, there was just so much for a newbie and this was before youtube, free streaming etc., so it was comparably slow going. In that time I had often read descriptions of pieces (not only Beethoven) in guide books or other literature and formed some vague idea before I ever listened to them.)
I also read almost anything I could get my hands on (which again was a strange mix, including two romanticized novels, one with the young Beethoven in Bonn struggling and one probably involving the Immortal Beloved). I am not sure but doubt that genres like chamber music and piano solo would have opened up so easily for me if it had not been for Beethoven. I knew that I eventually wanted to listen to and own all of his major works which led automatically to music beyond large scale orchestral works.
I also admired and still admire the personality. I cannot think of any other historical or living person I came as close to idolizing.

[Todd]

What Beethoven has meant to me: thousands of hours of entertainment.  I will likely enjoy thousands more.

[71 dB]

Beethoven never was a really important composer for me, but he is somewhat important. Particularly I value his late String Quartets and the Sixth Symphony. I also enjoy his chamber music and Annie Fischer made me warm up to his Piano Sonatas. I struggle with his orchestral music (except the sixth symphony) because for me there is a mismatch between his music style and orchestration (similar problem I have with Sibelius). I might enjoy Beethoven's orchestral works more if they were orchestrated by Berlioz. As it is Beethoven's music sounds to me a bit rude, it's like a drunken person on the street shouting at you. Luckily these problems don't exist with the chamber music and piano sonatas. I consider Beethoven a great composer, but his overall status in the classical music community is a bit over the top in my opinion. Beethoven feels a brand that sells because it's a well-known brand. 

[Maestro267]

Beethoven's was the first complete symphony cycle I purchased, in fact my first major classical purchase full stop. I was already familiar with the finale of No. 6 from a disc of summer-themed music, so to hear the rest of this, the first explicitly-programmatic symphony ever, was wonderful. He remains the beginning of my musical taste. I've tried earlier music and it doesn't do it for me. From here on out is where music got interesting.

[Brian]

Like Todd, I'm not romantic enough to look for a deeper "meaning" - Beethoven hasn't really changed me or taught me or saved me. But gosh is he good to listen to and think about.

I grew up in a Karajan '63 household; my father had the original 80s CD release and I listened to it near-constantly when my age was a one followed by another digit. My first classical purchase was a cheapo cassette tape called "Immortal Beethoven" (or maybe The Immortal) with artists like Anton Nanut, the Ljubljana Symphony, and Sylvia Capova. It was all individual movement bleeding chunks mixed together. My favorites on there were the scherzo to the 9th and the first movement of the Emperor Concerto. (some of the chunks were very large indeed.)

Ever since I started a listening log in 2010, Beethoven has been #1 each year. It's not because I make a special effort. It's just that he's home base for me. Also, it's hard to listen to just one sonata at a sitting.

It's interesting to think about Beethoven. He didn't really have a melodic gift, but he had an expressive one, so even though his goals in most pieces were kind of academic or experimental or logical or argumentative, they also work on the more emotional level. It's hard to think of anyone since who consistently achieved both those things equally.

I have all nine symphonies, the fourth and fifth piano concertos, a couple overtures, and about 15 sonatas completely memorized so I can play them in my head like a mental radio. There have been some fun days on vacation where, like, if we're doing a 10 mile hike, I'll think, time to pop on all the symphonies, and "listen" to them in a row in solitude. I can manipulate them like a no-effort conductor, too; in past years they've been pretty HIP-ish fast paced, but this year for some reason the mental performances are getting as slow as Barenboim on Teldec. Wonder what's up with that.

[ritter]

Beethoven has given me many hours of pleasant and fulfilling listening for many years. He's not one of my favourite composers (in terms that I do not listen to him that often) , but there's many works of his I thouroughly enjoy and admire (the symphonies--No. 3 and No. 7 in particular--, the piano concerti, some piano sonatas, some SQs, An die ferne Geliebte). There is one work of his (awkward as that work may be) that I really love, and that's Fidelio (plus the Leonore III overture).

So definitely life would be much poorer without LvB (even if we often take him for granted).

[Florestan]

Beethoven was my very first favorite composer (I was 14 or 15 at the time) and I absolutely adored all his music. Gradually, though, especially in the last few years my musical aesthetic shifted so far away from his to the point that I rarely ever listen to his music and when I do it's almost always chamber music, piano sonatas or lesser known works, My favorite Beethoven symphony used to be the 7th; today I turn off the radio before the speaker finishes announcing it and I can only listen to the 4th, 6th and 8th. Eroica seems to me turgid, the Fifth tedious and the Ninth a mishmash of vulgarity and holier-than-thou seriousness; all three are hugely overrated imho. I still love the concertos, all of them. The chamber music and the piano sonatas, though, exhibit much less of the problems I have with his symphonic output and if need for Beethoven be (as for instance today) it's to them that I turn. That being said, I have never listened to all the piano sonatas nor to all the string quartets.

I consider Beethoven a great composer, but his overall status in the classical music community is a bit over the top in my opinion.

Agreed. He was put on a pedestal and used as a hammer against anyone who did not conform to the criteriia established on the basis of his own work. He can't be held responsible for this, though.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

He was put on a pedestal and used as a hammer against anyone who did not conform to the criteriia established on the basis of his own work. He can't be held responsible for this, though.

Yes, I agree. Similarly, the common cliches about him as some sort of avatar of freedom, herald of the new order, embracer of all humanity (etc.), which are based on a mere handful of pieces and a few statements he made, are pretty tiresome.

That said, I still listen to him quite often. But usually it's not one of the more popular pieces. Of the symphonies, I probably listen to 4 and 8 the most. Of the quartets, I think the Razumovskys (Op. 59) are the top of the heap, better than the Lates even. I still don't know the piano sonatas beyond the better-known ones.

[Brian]

Of the symphonies, I probably listen to 4 and 8 the most. Of the quartets, I think the Razumovskys (Op. 59) are the top of the heap, better than the Lates even. I still don't know the piano sonatas beyond the better-known ones.

Agreed here, my sweet spot for quartets is Opp. 59-74 (followed by Op. 18 No. 6 and Op. 127) and 8 is sneakily up there in my top three most played symphonies.

[Karl Henning]

Yes, I agree. Similarly, the common cliches about him as some sort of avatar of freedom, herald of the new order, embracer of all humanity (etc.), which are based on a mere handful of pieces and a few statements he made, are pretty tiresome.

The good news is, whatever the propaganda, the work holds up.

In spite, too of the to-be-expected oversaturation of this commemorative year.

[Jo498]

The good news is, whatever the propaganda, the work holds up.

Exactly. It's not that someone or some collective could have decided to put Hummel or Spohr or Cherubini or Rossini on a similar pedestal and it would have worked like with Beethoven. There are probably some cases when composers were put on similar pedestals for a few decades but didn't last. Like Shakespeare and a few others Beethoven's work lasted and thus justified all the laurels.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Whenever I am told that Beethoven is overrated, my reply is that I'll continue to overrate him.

[Karl Henning]

Whenever I am told that Beethoven is overrated, my reply is that I'll continue to overrate him.

Eminently reasonable.

[Mirror Image]

From the talks of it, it sounds like all I need to rip to my computer are the symphonies and string quartets. But, seriously, I'll probably end putting on a lot more.

[Jo498]

Whenever I am told that Beethoven is overrated, my reply is that I'll continue to overrate him.

I have the suspicion you used this line before with Mozart.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Agreed here, my sweet spot for quartets is Opp. 59-74

Ever notice that Op. 59/1 reflects the increased scale and bold, outgoing nature of the immediately preceding symphony (The Eroica, Op. 55), whereas Op. 59/3 foreshadows the more compact, playful nature (including its misleading introduction) of the immediately following symphony (No. 4, Op. 60)?