Beethoven and the Zipper

[Michael]

I won't even try to explain:

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...426-1duzs.html

[Peter]

Remarkable story Michael and actually of course one of many amazing wartime musician stories - I've mentioned her here before but the pianist Alice Sommer-Herz is another incredible survivor who played Chopin studies in Theresienstadt and still practices daily at 107. Before the war, Schnabel was so impressed, he considered there was nothing he could teach her!

[Joy]

Michael, you are our official 'find that odd/strange/amazing story' guy here on the forum! Very interesting story!

[Michael]

Michael, you are our official 'find that odd/strange/amazing story' guy here on the forum! Very interesting story!

Joy, just click on Google News and type in "Beethoven". Trust me, there's something weird every day.

[Michael]

And there's something weird today already. Rather than starting another thread, I'll paste this news link in here. This guy seems to have got the famous Beethoven/Goethe story totally wrong:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011...-terry-gilliam

I'll just isolate the offending paragraph here:

"Perhaps Goethe's curse was issued because of That Thing he had with Beethoven. When Goethe met Beethoven, the former bowed like a courtier; the latter didn't even remove his hat. You can see how that slight would get on your wick if you were Germany's greatest writer, how it would lead you to issue a teutonic fatwa against all new upstart composers to stop them mangling your meisterwerk."

The actual story is that a royal party was passing by. Goethe bowed and got out of the way, Beethoven jammed his hat down on his head and refused to give way.


.

[Peter]

And there's something weird today already. Rather than starting another thread, I'll paste this news link in here. This guy seems to have got the famous Beethoven/Goethe story totally wrong:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011...-terry-gilliam

I'll just isolate the offending paragraph here:

"Perhaps Goethe's curse was issued because of That Thing he had with Beethoven. When Goethe met Beethoven, the former bowed like a courtier; the latter didn't even remove his hat. You can see how that slight would get on your wick if you were Germany's greatest writer, how it would lead you to issue a teutonic fatwa against all new upstart composers to stop them mangling your meisterwerk."

The actual story is that a royal party was passing by. Goethe bowed and got out of the way, Beethoven jammed his hat down on his head and refused to give way.


.

Just shows how the passage of time distorts the facts, maybe even the story we have isn't what happened at all either!

[Michael]

Just shows how the passage of time distorts the facts, maybe even the story we have isn't what happened at all either!

Absolutely. Reading Barry Cooper's book has made it clear to me how many of the Beethoven anecdotes are undocumented. For example, there is no authentic record anywhere of his having met Mozart.
So maybe the Guardian got it right.

[Peter]

Absolutely. Reading Barry Cooper's book has made it clear to me how many of the Beethoven anecdotes are undocumented. For example, there is no authentic record anywhere of his having met Mozart.
So maybe the Guardian got it right.

Although there is no record of the Mozart meeting I personally think it likely they did meet as that was Beethoven's original purpose for going to Vienna and even though his visit was brief, contact with Mozart would have been my no.1 priority!

[Joy]

And there's something weird today already. Rather than starting another thread, I'll paste this news link in here. This guy seems to have got the famous Beethoven/Goethe story totally wrong:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011...-terry-gilliam

I'll just isolate the offending paragraph here:

"Perhaps Goethe's curse was issued because of That Thing he had with Beethoven. When Goethe met Beethoven, the former bowed like a courtier; the latter didn't even remove his hat. You can see how that slight would get on your wick if you were Germany's greatest writer, how it would lead you to issue a teutonic fatwa against all new upstart composers to stop them mangling your meisterwerk."

The actual story is that a royal party was passing by. Goethe bowed and got out of the way, Beethoven jammed his hat down on his head and refused to give way.


.

You mean you can't believe everything you read on the internet either!

[Joy]

Joy, just click on Google News and type in "Beethoven". Trust me, there's something weird every day.

Yikes, I see what you mean! Lots of Beethoven stuff!

[Sorrano]

This is a bit off topic, but it's a bit off in and of itself. How bit a bit of Mozart?

http://www.blameitonthevoices.com/20...-concerto.html

[Michael]

Very nice ..... and she played well, too.

(This thread is very useful for off-the-wall stuff.)

[Michael]

This stage production looks interesting. I have heard a lot about the film (or video) but have never seen it.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/enter...835/story.html

[Joy]

This stage production looks interesting. I have heard a lot about the film (or video) but have never seen it.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/enter...835/story.html

Funny you should mention this play as I have just received my booklet from the Phoenix Symphony telling me about the 2011-2012 season and this is going to be at the symphony hall next May, 2012. It was there years ago and I've already seen it and it was very good indeed.

[Sorrano]

Here is a link to some old recordings; I just listened to the Enrico Caruso recording:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technolog...ervice/238749/