louiselux | Eroica

The Eroica symphony was astounding. It's so-- big. Listening on record gives you no idea of the impact when it's performed live. The Funeral March was huge, just epic, with that wonderful part, which a friend first pointed out to me a long time ago: the part where the music builds and build and builds seemingly forever until it crests over the top and then fades back to an exhausted whisper. Really, it's practically like Beethoven's having an orgasm right there in the room with you, in your ear, only it's an orgasm magically transmitted over 300 years. That sounds a bit yukky as I read it back, but never mind, it's true enough. Eroica is as fresh and amazing as when he first wrote it, and and you can feel the force of his personality behind the music. He was almost deaf when he wrote it too. In fact, when they first heard it, apparently audiences found it hard to understand: it was too big, too grand a scale, and they weren't used to hearing such powerfully emotive music. It must've shocked them, and must've felt vaguely unpleasant and naughty, to be staggering from concert halls emotionally drained.

Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach would've hated it.