During the war the call sign of the BBC European service was the opening bars of Beethoven's 5th - or three dots and a dash, Morse code for V. The irony of using a German composer seemed lost on them.
There are certainly worse composers to admire! My grandfather was obsessed with Beethoven, he never played anything else. Of course that whole era - the 1930s through to the 70s or so - was dominated by classical. Then the baroque revival took off and classical has got rather pushed onto a back foot. There is naturally a lot of snobbery involved.
Snobbery indeed, especially when you consider that, in his time, Beethoven was so radical and avant-garde that he took a lot of people by surprise. Yesterday's radical is today's eternal standard of composition.
Fidelio is playing in Houston in October and if I can pull strings to go....yeah. I've seen it twice now, both by smaller companies, and would love to see it on stage with a major company. If you haven't seen it, make sure you do, even if it's the only opera you ever go see.
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Fidelio is playing in Houston in October and if I can pull strings to go....yeah. I've seen it twice now, both by smaller companies, and would love to see it on stage with a major company. If you haven't seen it, make sure you do, even if it's the only opera you ever go see.
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