By diving into the Olympic-sized swimming pool of Beethoven, I think I am trying to begin to demystify one of the Biggies. I am devoting all this week to various recordings of Beethoven. I have many good Deutsche Grammophon recordings on deck and would be happy to take suggestions. This is in no way to say that I think a week will be sufficient, but I think listening to only Beethoven for some period of time, a week or longer, will have its own rewards.
It was odd for me to listen to the 5th Symphony today. Since it is such a loaded and often referenced piece of music, I just tried to listen and give it the same attention as everything else. As a Visual Arts person, I think of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. I see the image often at MOMA, and even more often its reproduction. Without getting into an entire Walter Benjamin conversation, the more often we see and in this case hear something, its meaning can change. Whether this extra exposure enhances or detracts, well that’s for you to decide. But hearing the first booming notes of the 5th Symphony shakes my mental Etch-A-Sketch and sets me back to a blank canvas. It is still a wakeup call, and a command to attention no matter how many times I have heard it.
As I wade a bit deeper into the pool, we will see what else Beethoven has up his sleeves.
