I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Playing the Beethoven symphonies, for example, is a consummate experience for a musician because Beethoven speaks so directly to who we are as people.
Composers in the old days used to keep strictly to the base of the theme, as their real subject. Beethoven varies the melody, harmony and rhythms so beautifully.
You don't go out and play Beethoven's 'Opus 111' without having rethought about it every time you play.
I sort of enjoy being able to hear what other composers are doing and how they might score something differently than me. I enjoy that part.
Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.
I'm a Beethoven freak. I listen to him all the time.
It is always interesting and sometimes even important to have intimate knowledge of a composer's life, but it is not essential in order to understand the composer's works.
I think a great piece, whenever it was written, gets under our skin, makes us feel something. That's what Beethoven was trying to do.
I don't use composers. I research music the way I research the photographs or the facts in my scripts.
I cannot listen to Beethoven or Mahler or Chopin or Bach when I write because those composers require you stop what you are doing and listen.