I know nothing that is greater than the Appassionata; I would like to listen to it every day. It is marvellous, superhuman music. I always think with pride – perhaps it is naïve of me – what marvellous things humans can do. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin to Maxim Gorky Read The Tempest. Ludwig van Beethoven, when … Continue reading Echoes of Fate: Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata
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The Friday Symposium: Bach and The Martini
Leave it to academia to turn something wonderful into something dreadful. When most people hear the world "symposium" today, they think of a bunch of talking heads sitting on a podium massaging their own egos. In the Ancient World, however, a symposium was decidedly more fun--after all, the word symposium is derived from the Greek … Continue reading The Friday Symposium: Bach and The Martini
Beethoven Goes Boom: In Celebration of the Memory of a Great Man
You either die a hero of you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. The Dark Knight Beethoven’s Symphonies are major events in music history. And that really began in 1803 with his Third, the Eroica. Settle in, this is going to be a long one. To understand what Beethoven was doing in … Continue reading Beethoven Goes Boom: In Celebration of the Memory of a Great Man
Interlude: Pierre Rode
During his time in Vienna, Ludwig van Beethoven traded on the "van" in his name, which the local Vienesse mistook as a signifier of an aristocratic family. The German aristocracy commonly used "von" in their names, while "van" was used by exclusively by commoners. But there was nothing aristocratic about Beethoven. Coming of age in … Continue reading Interlude: Pierre Rode
The Strange Tale of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata
As a (former) violinist, I cannot leave this period without paying homage to one of the great violin sonatas ever composed, Beethoven’s Kreutzer. In this piece, written more or less contemporaneously with his Third Symphony, Beethoven begins to emerge as a new artist altogether. I’ve often described him as music’s first punk—smashing the same chord … Continue reading The Strange Tale of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata
A Gertus History of Music 