Beethoven A to Z

T is for thunderstorm - the thunderstorm in Ludwig's 6^th symphony - the thunderstorm that took place when dear Ludwig left this world.

LOVE and ADORE Ludwig and his music!

U is for unfinished - as in Ludwig's 6^th piano concerto.

LOVE and ADORE Ludwig and his music!

V is for Volkslied aus Kleinrussland, the theme for the variations opus 107 no.3



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2009 09:37PM by JB.

I'd like to attempt the "W", but access to my sources (the attic) is restricted at the moment. Anybody going to beat me to it?

W is for wedding - the wedding that Ludwig never had....

LOVE and ADORE Ludwig and his music!

Oh. LOL, Philip and Joyful I guess I get X. Ummmmm! X is for X marks the spot, where the german whiskey sits!

Y= Youth, so terribly marred by Johann van Beethoven's obsession to make Ludwig a prodigy.

Z is for zenith. I wonder when Ludwig was at the zenith of his creative powers. When he wrote the 5^th symphony? The 7^th symphony? Or maybe the late string quartets. Or maybe none of these.

LOVE and ADORE Ludwig and his music!

A is for apartment - Ludwig's apartment. I would love to travel to Vienna and see some (many) of Ludwig's various apartments. I understand that he moved frequently. Moving is a hassle. Maybe it wasn't such a big deal for him.

LOVE and ADORE Ludwig and his music!

B is for baptism - the Christian sacrament administered to Ludwig when he was a tiny baby.

LOVE and ADORE Ludwig and his music!

C For the Coffee beans that Beethoven used to like counting out, for the right strength of coffee he liked,

Juan Wrote:
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> C For the Coffee beans that Beethoven used to
> like counting out, for the right strength of
> coffee he liked,
-------------------------------------------------------

Wasn't it 67 beans, or something like that? Was coffee expensive in those days?

Philip Wrote:
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> Juan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > C For the Coffee beans that Beethoven used to
> > like counting out, for the right strength of
> > coffee he liked,
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> Wasn't it 67 beans, or something like that? Was
> coffee expensive in those days?


I believe it was 60 beans. I am sure that coffee was an expensive luxury in Beethoven's time, and remains so into the 21st century.


''As coffee and coffeehouses became an integral part of social culture, coffee became the only drink in the world to have spawned a whole related culture.
Ever since the first coffeehouse opened in Istanbul in 1554, coffee has had a tremendous impact on art and culture. Countless artists, students and teachers have come together in coffeehouses to read books, perform plays and hold lively discussions. This situation is not confined to Istanbul; throughout the world, coffeehouses serve as meeting points for intellectuals and coffee has long been the favourite drink of artists. For many years, coffee has been the chosen beverage of artists; for artists and thinkers such as Alexandre Dumas, André Gide, Molière, Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, Voltaire, Ludwig van Beethoven and Immanuel Kant, coffee was much more than a drink: it was a lifestyle''.

Didn't Bach compose a Coffee Cantata?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2010 07:17AM by Juan.

I'm not not really sure, but I LOVE coffee!!

LOVE and ADORE Ludwig and his music!

J.S. Bach: "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht..." Kantate Nr 211 (1732) "Kaffee-Kantate" One of Bach's "lighter" works, the other being "Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet" Kantate Nr 212 (1742), the so=called "Peasant Cantata", in dialect even! As many already know, the most important cultural institutions in Vienna, Austria, are opera, concerts and coffee houses, in which many an important piece of literature as well as of music was written. Coffee drinking there is practically religious in nature. When you enter a Viennese coffee house, you are given a menu listing all the various types of coffee drink you can order.

Or, as is my adage (especially early in the morning): without Coffee no live !

D is for Baron Wilhelm von DROSDICK, from 1817 Therese Malfatti's husband

"F" could be used for FRIED, Oskar (1871-1941), who, I believe, conducted the first complete electrical recording (in Berlin) of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. - (Couldn't agree more about the early morning coffee, JB.)

And Oskar Fried was the first conductor as well who recorded (in 1926) the first complete recording of any Mahler symphony as well (No.2, the Resurrection symphony).

But haven't you skipped the E, Frits


E therefore is for Elector sonatas, the three pianosonatas WoO 47 dedicated to the Archbishop-elector of Cologne.

(And F is for Frits, Belgian Beethovenophile who contributes regularly with own entries and comments brilliantly on others' , so we now can continue with G)

You are too kind, JB. I didn't know about the Mahler Second recording by Fried. Incidentally, rumour has it that when Hitler wanted to use a recording of Beethoven's Ninth on the occasion of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin (for which Leni Riefenstahl developed innovative cinematographic techniques), the only one then available, to his displeasure, was the one by non-Aryan Oskar Fried.

G is for General - in one of the books I read about Ludwig, right before his funeral, someone said that the General of the musicians had passed away. Yes, how true. Ludwig was a five-star music General.

LOVE and ADORE Ludwig and his music!