This Week
in Music
Ludwig Van Beethoven
This Week In Music is a new personal project that I’ve been longing to release since last year. Yes it is another new/old curated playlist every week with possibly some interesting trivia.
This Week In Music: Ludwig Van Beethoven
From moving souls, grand intros to dramatic, Beethoven’s music has everything. The Piano Concerto No.3 In C Minor as Beethoven knew would be bigger than it’s two predecessors and withheld it from immediate publication.
In his own words, "Musical policy necessitates keeping the best concertos to oneself for a while."
If No.3 was different from its predecessors, it was nothing compared with the gap between that and No.4, considered by many to be the greatest of the five. To begin a concerto with a hushed statement from the piano was a bold and novel idea, while the slow movement is a philosophical dialogue between piano and orchestra – one of the most beautiful movements in the concerto literature.
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Ludwig Van Beethoven
This week might sound familiar. The Moonlight Sonata and 7th symphony has been extensively used across various movies and TV shows. If you're a Westworld fan, watch out for the 7th Symphony. I would highly recommend Beethoven's bio pic - Immortal Beloved. Here's the Moonlight Sonata clip from the movie. The genius Gary Oldman plays a brilliant Ludwig.
The Moonlight sonata was titled by poet Ludwig Rellstab who, in 1832, had this inspiration on a moon lit night on the banks of the Lucerna River. Some biographers make the connection between the unshared love the composer held for Giulietta Guicciardi and the sonorities of the first part. Even more so, this sonata was dedicated to Giulietta, the musical theme of the first part being borrowed from a German ballad as Wyzewa observed. In one of Beethoven’s manuscripts there are several notes from Mozart’s Don Juan, notes that follow the killing of the Commander by Don Juan, and lower, this passage is rendered in C sharp minor in absolute resemblance to the first part of the sonata in C sharp minor. Analyzing and comparing, one could realize that it cannot be the case of a romantic moon lit night, but rather of a solemn funeral hymn.
The 7th Symphony's second movement is perhaps the most expressive of the secondary parts of his symphonies. While in the first part the A major sonorities conferred greatness and sumptuousness, the theme in Part II, in A minor, brings a whole new atmosphere, thus emphasizing the contrast between the two.
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Ludwig Van Beethoven
A long break and irregular scheduled and here we are with the third installment of Beethoven's genius work. This week with less description and more music to immerse yourself into.
Sonata No. 3 in A Major for Cello and Piano, Op. 69:
I. Allegro ma non tanto
Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-Flat Major, Op. 31
No. 3 "The Hunt": I. Allegro
Concerto No. 4 in G Major for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 58
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 "Choral": II. Molto vivace
