We don't really know his exact birthday but he was baptized on the 17th and the 16th is the traditional day of his birth. In any event, I celebrate his life, his genius and his music, which I adore learning. I also mourn his poor health and loneliness. Thanks for creating the thread, Polyphonist.

I don't listen to Beethoven anymore, not after I learned he was an alien spy...

I'm going to have a piece of cake!

BTW: I have this "Dream Project" I'd love to do when I retire. (I don't have the mechanical or design skills to do it, so it's very far from reality.)

I want to make an "animatronic" Beethoven bust. It would look like a stone or plaster bust, but it would react with different facial expressions (and maybe tears!) while it "listens" to you practice or play.

That would be hilarious! My dream is to learn all 32 sonatas.

[video:youtube]iRWpny1ZWZ8[/video]

My dream is to simply listen to all 32 sonatas.

In December 1970 I viewed a major exhibit at the British Museum celebrating the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. The most moving display was a large lock of Beethoven's hair - apparently snipped off at the great man's death bed. Although it was under glass, I was able to get quite close to it and was overwhelmed by emotion. Whew !!

When Victor Borge was on the old Muppet Show during the 70s, there was a sketch where he and Beethoven's bust fell asleep whilst playing "Moonlight."

No! I think the animatronic bust will make face and spit at me when I play his Op 14 #2 from measure 80.

I'm working on a project called "250 piano pieces with Beethoven".

Here's a pic of the first score to come out!



The idea is to have 250 composers compose short works for piano, influenced by, or for Beethoven. For solo piano. By 2020 (his 250th birthday) we will have gathered 250 pieces, all published by EMF, in 10 volumes. This is vol. 1

I would like to make a dedicated thread about this, since there's so many things to talk about, but I haven't heard back from Frank about this.

Thank you Beethoven for giving us the most horrifying overplayed music yet.

Very neat idea, Nikolas! And a massive effort -- 250 composers? The best of luck to this venture. Have you hired a pianist to premiere all 250 pieces at a grand opening?

Thank you Tim.

I probably should've been a bit more specific.

This is not my idea, but I am, indeed the publisher. The idea was brought in by Bonn based pianist, Susanne Kessel, who is the organizer of all of this...

And yes, this is massive really.

So Susanne is premiering all the pieces in Bonn, most of the times, but it is quite an interesting idea to have a massive (I quite like this word) performance of all the pieces in 2020! I mean each piece is around 4 minutes long, so we're looking into a 10 hour program!

It's like playing the complete sonatas. Seems appropriate.

This is when we need +1 button here

Funny - I had a bit of insomnia last night, and started writing variations on Fur Elise in my head (some were fairly interesting, I thought). I'd completely forgotten about LvB's B-day, but my unconscious hadn't, I guess.

It would also be kind of cool to have a book with a page for each day of the year, with a composer's work on the day for his birthday.

Would it even be possible to find 365/6 composers each with a different birthday? I doubt it!

If you could find that number of composers, then you could duplicate, several times, this phenomenon:

Birthday problem none of which I really understand, by the way


Regards,

google.com's tribute to Beethoven is pretty great today.

-J

I came here exactly to say that, but it looks like you beat me. I think this is a more permanent link.

Thank you for that Op.101. So beautiful!

I will make sure to celebrate Beethoven today by playing and listening to some of his music. (If I were in a place with more pianists, I would totally love an 8-hand reading party of his symphonies! Makes me miss being in school:( You guys should organize one if you can).

Yes, that's fantastic!

I love Beethoven.

Happy birthday to one of the greatest songwriters of his era.

To the distant beloved.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmDS-PC89kY