December 18, 2008

Happy Belated Birthday Beethoven

December 16th is usually regarded as the birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), composer of 9 great symphonies (the ninth, of course, being the greatest), the Appassionata and Moonlight sonatas (among many many others).

The birthday passed a few days ago unnoticed on this blog - to my utter and complete shame and embarrassment.

For that I apologize, for even badly played Beethoven is worth many times good soup. Here, listen to some good Beethoven. Lenny conducting the Egmont:


Some famous quotations about Beethoven.
  • He was a Titan wrestling with the Gods.
  • There are and always will be thousands of princes, but there is only one Beethoven.
  • Everything will pass, and the world will perish but the Ninth Symphony will remain.
Yea, yea, I know. He's a dead white guy. But he was an amazing dead white guy.