Happy Birthday Beethoven!

Beethoven is one of my favorite composers.  I'm no expert on music or anything like that, but for my money the man wrote some of the greatest symphonies, concertos, and piano music ever written.

Did you know you share a birthday with German Football Mats Hummels?

Favorite Symphony?  The sixth, the pastoral.  You know, the one in Fantasia where the Pegasuses (Pegasi?) fly through all those pink fluffy clouds.  It is unique among Beethoven's work for reasons that I really can't put into words, though Wikipedia tells me that it is unusual because it is programmatic, depicting with each of the five movements the following plot:

1.  The composer arrives in the country

2.  There is a scene by a brook.  Of what Beethoven doesn't say....I like to think maybe this is where the composer, tired from his journey, sits down on a rock and eats a sandwich.

3. A gathering of country folk.  Thanks to Fantasia, I always imagine them making wine, or at least drinking it in rather large quantities.

4.  A storm!

5.  The storm is over.  A bunch of shepherds show up, and sing a song of thanks for being safe from the storm.

Fluff and bother.  I'm not really sure what I think of when I listen to the song...I think it actually tends to remind me of the rolling hills in the western part of Virginia, that I can never seem to stop yearning for deep down inside. Every now and again I think I see a hill here in the distance, only to find that is a pile of slag for some construction site for yet another Whole Foods in Hampton Roads.

But yes.  Beethoven. Filled with holy madness, with range Zeppelinesque, being able to turn from sturm and drang to unspeakable beauty in the blink of an eye, his music has enriched the lives of so many and I am glad for it.

Below is a link to one of my favorite performances of my favorite Piano Concerto, the fourth, with Helene Grimaud at the Proms in 2001.  Even if you don't have a lot of time, listen to the first few minutes.  It will brighten your day with the sort of existential melancholy that only Beethoven can manage to make sweet.

 

 
Note:  There is actually only one Whole Foods in Hampton Roads.  One opened up in Virginia Beach maybe a year ago and there is another one under construction on the corner of Jefferson and Oyster Point.  I find it ironic that they had to cut about 1/3 of the woods that was in that little corner of town to build it, given how much Whole Foods apparently values the environment.  I am sure they offset it by planting additional trees somewhere else (I at least hope they did).  Even so, all I know is it going to make traffic at the already very congested intersection worse, and that means it is going to be even harder to get to the Plaza Azteca on Jefferson Ave.  That isn't my favorite Plaza Azteca (I think the one in Hampton is better...followed by the one in Yorktown) but if you have errands to run near the mall, well, it's really the best choice.