There was one thing Beethoven didn't do. When one of his string quartets was played, you can believe the second violin wasn't improvising.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.
Most Beethoven symphonies require 80 or more instruments, and the late romantics even more.
It was really amazing. I mean, he'd never mentioned that he played in the symphony, like serious violin playing, not fiddle playing. And he just blew us away.
You don't go out and play Beethoven's 'Opus 111' without having rethought about it every time you play.
In his late quartets, Beethoven introduces an element that shouldn't be there, that should be left for meditation, though I love them. I can see that through them came Wagner and Mahler and Schoenberg and Berg. And then came Tracey Emin. And I can see it all as one downward path.
Playing the Beethoven symphonies, for example, is a consummate experience for a musician because Beethoven speaks so directly to who we are as people.
When you hear Bach or Mozart, you hear perfection. Remember that Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were great improvisers. I can hear that in their music.
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.
Beethoven, Wagner, Bach, and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration.
Beethoven's music tends to move from chaos to order, as if order were an imperative of human existence.
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