The Notorious LVB: 1800

So it turns out that 2020 was the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. Yeah, I knew that. As of Yesterday! But all this Covidness pushed LVB off the headlines. It's just as well, I would have messed up the math.

Old Ludvig van is popular amongst sociopaths and gets a bad rap as a misanthrope. He would seem to be blowing people off or ignoring them when in fact he was just losing his hearing and became very self-conscious and shy. I think his strategy beats my idiotic "pretending to hear" routine where I nod and smile while someone is telling me their mom just died.

Anyway, on to the music:

First Symphony

I’ve probably listened to this more than any other piece of classical music, both because it’s side one of disc one of the first classical album I ever bought, and that I never got tired of it.

Ludvig Van makes a splash, sort of. It starts out modestly enough, Hadyn in plain sight, then picks up steam. Soon it gets all Moz-arty and finishes with the gusto that seems to say and that ain’t all!

Stately, but with a lot of melody. It isn’t until the fourth movement that you get a real dramatic opening. He’s fast, he’s slow, he’s somber, he’s sprightly, he’s quiet, he’s loud. But he’s not quite Beethoven yet.

So he hits all the marks expected of him, which someone who is about to blow up all those marks ought to do first so people don’t think he’s crazy. Too late, but whatever.

It’s a kitchen sink piece that I’d liken to The White Album, but it’s not nearly as long. It's short and to the point. A rock n roll equivalent might be - depending on your taste the first Monkees, Ramones or Modern Lovers albums, or the American version of Revolver.

And even though it may be my favorite it’s not his peak.

A-

"First Symphony"