Classical Convert

Awesome Beethoven Transcriptions

Guys! After all of the mentions of transcriptions in the last week, and JonJ and Yvonne commenting that there is a well established history of transcripting stuff, I got off my internet arse and discovered several very joyous things. Firstly, the clavier-wunderkind Liszt did piano transcriptions of all of Beethoven’s symphonies — this is probably exceptionally common knowledge to all the seasoned classical listeners out there, but news to me. Secondly, there is a box-set of these available on Naxos, which is itself available on eMusic (see: cheap, good quality, DRM-free MP3s). Hooray!

So far I have listened to the ones I know the best: 6, 5, 9, 7. Only once each so far, as it all just got downloaded about an hour or two ago. Aside from noticing a bunch of stuff which apparently had been completely obscured by my ears during the myriad previous symphonic listens (key changes and modulations seem way more obvious, for example), it’s striking how similar certain sections sound to the (Beethoven) piano sonatas. I don’t yet know if that’s due to Liszt deliberately orchestrating them like that, or if it’s pure Beethoven shining through… or if it’s me trying to be clever. I’ll try and keep you posted on that one. Hopefully it’s the middle one.

Tags: beethoven, liszt, piano, symphonies, transcriptions

Windows Hearts Beethoven

The latest Windows update refuses to install if it senses a lack of Beethoven’s 9th:

Thank you Microsoft for insisting that Beethoven’s MOTHER ********** NUMBER 9 NEEDS TO BE INSTALLED ON MY MOTHER ********** COMPUTER before Service MOTHER ********** Pack 3 can be successfully installed.

Your programmers are morons. Go to hell, the lot of you.

If Windows prefers Beethoven, I bet baroque old Linux likes the intricacies Bach better. What about Apple? Somebody who has form as an utmost priority I suppose… Webern? Nah, that doesn’t feel right. It has to be universally accessible as well. Any suggestions?

Tags: apple, beethoven, classical music, composers, linux, windows sp3

Thoughts From Last Nights Concert

Last night, total lunar eclipse night 2008, at a concert by the Alban Berg quartet:

Pre-concert: Are these chairs made from wood or cunningly crafted plastic? They’re too precisely curved to be wood I think but.. OW. The lamps under the soffit of the armrest are a) hot and b) grounded, and all the dry air has shoved far too much static on me for that not to hurt in two different ways at once. Oh, here we go…

During Haydn Op. 77 No. 1: Sonata form, you cheeky devil, you sonofagun - I can hear you the first time through now! You’re marchy today, too. I just saw you repeat the exposition, and now look at you all developing. 2nd movement: your start brings to mind in me Shostakovich SQ 13, and the rest of you is exceptionally lovely, I like your rising ripples. Huh, rising ripples sounds surprisingly filthy. The rest of you is sturdy and wonderful to watch as everything gets thrown back and forth but, sorry Haydn, you just didn’t quite do it for me this time.

Berg Op. 3: Uh-oh, 2nd Viennese school, my classical music mostly nemesis, but… oooo… this stuff sounds rather different when it’s being performed live, it’s suddenly far more appealing, why is that? I wonder if it’s because it’s more shocking to see that these are actual people, playing actual music, on instruments of all things! It’s not some kind of electronic device whirring and chirping away and generating all those odd sounds. It’s wood and guts. You lose that through a CD, don’t you? You almost forget that once upon a time, someone actually played the stuff you are listening to. The live effect is particularly overpowering during the really dramatic sections. Watching those players batter their instruments has an intensity that recordings just cannot match.

Beethoven Op. 132: I know you. You’re the string quartet that starts out like the Grosse Fugue. Then you have that bit in your first movement which sounds like Schubert’s Trout. The third movement is the really good one, this is spiritual stuff, and deliberately so. It’s amazing during a movement like this to watch the faces of those watching the performers. Us, the audience. So many heads turned upward and sideways and all heavy with contemplation and concentration. Eyes lightly lidded but clearly alive, active below. The fifth movement is almost a song, lyrical but certainly not saccharine. Stubborn. Resilient. And the ending kicks about ten kinds of arse.

Coda: Huh. the moon’s all red.

Tags: alban berg quartet, beethoven, berg, classical music, concert, cornell, haydn, review, string quartet

Taxation

Taxes, taxes, my room is covered in bloody taxes. At least they’re all done, if slightly incorrectly. The online tax software I was using wasn’t quite advanced enough to correctly work out when my estimated payments were and… this isn’t very interesting is it?  The short of it is that I ended up paying an underpayment penalty unnecessarily, but it would have cost more than the amount of that penalty — plus another three hours of my life — to switch to another piece of software. Eugh.

Beethoven also had to deal with all this crap, as detailed in these pages over at the Beethoven Haus, which sounds like a nice place to visit. Having had my fill of finance for the weekend I am far more interested in their store. I could do with some Beethoven brandy, for a start. I also kind of like the creepiness of the death mask bust.

Aside form the consumerism, there are all kinds of museum-cool type things on this site: pages from his notebooks, portraits, caricatures,  instruments. Start at the digital archives section and browse away.

Tags: beethoven, classical, museum, music, taxes

Visualization Via Video

Yuck, been sick these last few days with not-wanting-to-eat feelings thrusting their unpleasant paths through my abdomen. Bastards. Now it’s magically altered itself (or they … themselves, the plurality of this anthropomorphizing is not well defined) into an annoying pain of a pain in my hip. Clearly I am a wreck and destined to be crumpled into glue ever so soon. Anyway, not to skip around the topic of choice: I’ve updated the previous visualization work into video form. Check this out:

It’s at least passably interesting, isn’t it? Mostly I’m just relishing and wallowing gleefully in a minimal amount of proudness for working out how to animate a bunch of pictures with a line down the middle…