Speaker 1: You realize if you go see a symphony play Beethoven's fifth,
Speaker 1: you're watching a Beethoven cover band. Right, it's one more thing.
Speaker 2: I'm one more thing.
Speaker 1: I've always liked that show, I know. But before we
Speaker 1: get to Beethoven, Katie, you mentioned you watched the Menendez
Speaker 1: brother series. Is that anything.
Speaker 2: I have not finished it yet. I've gotten through the
Speaker 2: first three episodes. Is it pretty good? It's yeah, it's
Speaker 2: really good. It it starts to get really sexual though.
Speaker 1: Well that's so, I don't remember what we knew at
Speaker 1: the time and what we just found out recently. But
Speaker 1: the reason that evil Giscone in la is talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, looking at this new evidence, and some of
Speaker 1: the original lawyers think the Menendez brothers should get out,
Speaker 1: and Gascone I think said today that they could be
Speaker 1: out in time for the holidays. It's I need to
Speaker 1: take a look at this series. I mean, it was,
Speaker 1: you know, is a story that got lot of America's attention.
Speaker 1: I mean, the horrible idea of you know, your kids
Speaker 1: killing you like that in such a violent way, right,
Speaker 1: But now the new information is there was so much
Speaker 1: horrible sex abuse coming from.
Speaker 2: Dad, Yeah, coming from dad and there were a couple
Speaker 2: of scenes that I've seen so far where the brothers
Speaker 2: get really graphic and are explaining what exactly happened to
Speaker 2: them on multiple occasions.
Speaker 1: Wow, And that'd be something if they get out after
Speaker 1: decades of being in prison and we decide, eh.
Speaker 2: Hey, if the kids aren't around it, I would say,
Speaker 2: big time watch it.
Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, And I know a number of people who've
Speaker 1: gotten pulled into it and really enjoyed it. Okay. So
Speaker 1: over the weekend I got into Beethoven pretty heavy. This
Speaker 1: book that I had started reading a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: I got back into an audio form about Beethoven's Ninth.
Speaker 1: The name of the book is the Ninth, and it's
Speaker 1: about what a lot of critics consider the greatest symphony
Speaker 1: ever written. Whether that is true or not, I don't
Speaker 1: know from Beethoven. And it's about the life and times,
Speaker 1: and it's really just about what it was, what it's
Speaker 1: like in the world in eighteen twenty four, and what
Speaker 1: Beethoven was like and Vienna was like in all this
Speaker 1: different sort of stuff. But here's one part that I
Speaker 1: wanted to pass along that I thought was pretty entertaining.
Speaker 1: This is a made up conversation by the author, but
Speaker 1: it's made up, but it's pieced together ideas from various
Speaker 1: accounts that other people I mean, so it's pieced together
Speaker 1: from real stuff, other people saying this is the way
Speaker 1: Beethoven talked, and he just put together these different fragments
Speaker 1: into what could have been one thing that would be
Speaker 1: pretty close to accurate.
Speaker 3: And then coming up after that what has become my
Speaker 3: favorite show business story of all time involving Ludvig Vaughn.
Speaker 1: Fantastic and the fact that he was deaf is really interesting.
Speaker 1: That he composed so many of these great symphonies deaf
Speaker 1: is just mind boggling. And it talks in the book
Speaker 1: about how when the first episode of the Ninth I mean,
Speaker 1: he's up there on stage, somebody else is conducting it
Speaker 1: because he can't hear, and he's there on stage kind
Speaker 1: of watching things, and he has no idea how it's
Speaker 1: going because he can't hear, and he doesn't know if
Speaker 1: it's being played well. And then he didn't know at
Speaker 1: the end if people liked it or not. And the
Speaker 1: person with him made him turn around so we could
Speaker 1: see that people were clapping because other as he didn't
Speaker 1: have any idea, isn't that wild?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Anyway, here's Beethoven and it includes the term Astrians. So
Speaker 1: he's in Austria, Vienna, Austria where they perform it for
Speaker 1: the first time, and he wrote it and he has
Speaker 1: no respect for the people of Austria, and he calls
Speaker 1: him astrians as in like a holes. It's a play
Speaker 1: on words, you know, right, well, it's a good one.
Speaker 1: And his friend Schindler, who's also a composer. But of
Speaker 1: no note, Really, where's that ass Schindler. I can't find
Speaker 1: my black frock coat. Maybe he knows where it is.
Speaker 1: It seems I'm doomed to be surrounded by cretans and thieves,
Speaker 1: unworthy of breathing the same air that I breathe. I'm hungry,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to eat anything now. My nerves
Speaker 1: are in such a state or I won't be able
Speaker 1: to control my bowels during the performance.
Speaker 3: I've had days like that.
Speaker 1: This damned concert. If it only it brings in enough
Speaker 1: money to keep my head above water for the next
Speaker 1: few months. I can't bear this constant, eternal scrounging for money.
Speaker 1: I who have given so much to people I shouldn't
Speaker 1: have let myself be persuaded to give this symphony's performance here.
Speaker 1: These horrible astrians are we Reverend Admires and Disciples or
Speaker 1: whatever it was these shitheads wrote about me. He can't
Speaker 1: trust any of them. Someone probably remembered that all my
Speaker 1: other symphonies were performed here, and that's why they convinced me.
Speaker 1: And he goes on and on like that. He's always
Speaker 1: constantly worried about shitting himself. He hates he hates everybody
Speaker 1: in the audience. He thinks they're so beneath him that
Speaker 1: they don't even deserve to have his music. He's constantly
Speaker 1: are yes, he's constantly broke and angry about that, and
Speaker 1: he's mean to everybody. Oh, and he lives in filth.
Speaker 1: His apartment is just full of filth, old food, and
Speaker 1: dirty clothes, and it's just It was an interesting look
Speaker 1: at Beethoven, since I only really knew him as the
Speaker 1: you know, the marble bust sitting on a piano.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I've read a fair amount about Beethoven
Speaker 3: through the years. I am a great fan of his music.
Speaker 3: Jack asked me, Oh, I'll finish the thought before we
Speaker 3: go off on that tangent. But yes, he is a towering,
Speaker 3: creative genius. I've known a few, no, not as towering,
Speaker 3: but creative geniuses, and they're all weird as hell. It
Speaker 3: just comes with the turf. So the idea that he
Speaker 3: was an angry.
Speaker 1: Bitter, superior, shitting.
Speaker 3: Son of a bitch is not that surprising. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: what's it like to have a brain that could compose?
Speaker 3: I mean people talk about the symphonies or the quartets.
Speaker 3: My favorite Beetholl I love the symphonies, but is probably
Speaker 3: the piano trios that have piano, violin and cello. They're exquisite.
Speaker 3: You asked me during the show, what's a good place
Speaker 3: to start with Beethoven? I love the sixth Symphony, which
Speaker 3: we talked about Depastoralo, the pastoral Symphony. It's brilliant and
Speaker 3: full of all sorts of hummable melodies. But the piano
Speaker 3: trios are just amazing.
Speaker 1: Anyway, So he's headed off to the concert the first
Speaker 1: performance of the ninth and if.
Speaker 3: You want to know the ultimate recording, it's an Ashkenazi
Speaker 3: farroh and is it yo yo man cello. It might
Speaker 3: be anyway, it's wonderful, look for it.
Speaker 1: So they're headed over to the theater for the performance,
Speaker 1: and is a nephew who he adopted as his own son.
Speaker 1: Karl is with him, and Carl, you keep an eye
Speaker 1: on the people taking the money. They're all fiebes. Well,
Speaker 1: let's go play for these beggars, slaves and clods. I
Speaker 1: soar above them as my music source, above my contemporaries.
Speaker 1: We exist on different planes. And then he says, is
Speaker 1: he's headed out the door for the crowd, lack for confidence.
Speaker 1: As he's hitting out the door for the crowd that
Speaker 1: he hates, he quotes somebody against stupidity. Even the gods
Speaker 1: fight in vain. All right, let's go wow, wow, hey,
Speaker 1: hey he did.
Speaker 3: That's one of your freedom loving quoted that there they
Speaker 3: right there, against stupidity, even the gods fight in vain.
Speaker 3: So true.
Speaker 1: That's hilarious.
Speaker 3: Vladimir Ashkenazi, It'sak Pelman and Lynn Harrell. It's the ultimate
Speaker 3: piano trios. Anyway, that's a hilarious thing to say and
Speaker 3: so true.
Speaker 1: It's funny though, because classical music just in general is
Speaker 1: seen as so well classy. Yeah, cerebral, cerebral, classy, dignified,
Speaker 1: pinky in the air, you know that sort of thing
Speaker 1: he's called people's shitheads and and astrians, and you're all
Speaker 1: a bunch of beggars and idiots. I guess I'll go
Speaker 1: play my music. But why am I so poor? This sucks?
Speaker 3: You don't appreciate me. I don't have the time nor
Speaker 3: interest actually track this down. But what's the origin of
Speaker 3: the phrase love the art, not the artist. What's the
Speaker 3: you know, vintage of it could have been when somebody
Speaker 3: ran into Baitthoven, right, they're like, hey, the fifth is amazing,
Speaker 3: but god, what a prick dude, it's completely nuts.
Speaker 1: Or yeah, people going to visit him and he's laying
Speaker 1: there on his couch and there's like crusts of bread
Speaker 1: around and old soup rotting in a bowl and he's filling.
Speaker 3: Oh and then he gets like visiting my son in college.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Then, and he's fifty three at this point,
Speaker 1: so he's like, you know, fully into a life. He's
Speaker 1: toward the end of his life. Actually, he gets up
Speaker 1: off the couch. There's a bunch of people there to
Speaker 1: talk to him about the symphony. Later that day, he
Speaker 1: gets up off the couch and gets undressed to change
Speaker 1: into the clothes he's gonna wear completely naked just while
Speaker 1: he's talking to them.
Speaker 3: And shits himself. Oh that's the worst part. Oh okay.
Speaker 3: So here's my favorite, my new favorite show business story
Speaker 3: involving Beethoven. So it's eighteen nineteen. He's approached by this
Speaker 3: music publisher who wanted to work with him, but Beethoven
Speaker 3: didn't like him, and he was suspicious of him. But
Speaker 3: I'll just read you the sentence. Eighteen nineteen. Beethoven was
Speaker 3: first approached by the publisher Morriet Schleschinger, who won the
Speaker 3: suspicious composer around while visiting him by procuring for him
Speaker 3: a plate of roast veal. So he just show us
Speaker 3: up and says, I know you don't like me, but
Speaker 3: here's some veal. Beethoven's like, yeah, you're not so bad.
Speaker 1: What Wow? I should myself. I should myself. I should myself.
Speaker 1: Huch byself, I should myself, I should myself.
Speaker 3: You myself?
Speaker 1: He should his helth he should himself?
Speaker 3: Oh boy, unfortunate. Well do next time we discussed Amadeus
Speaker 3: how he was a genius.
Speaker 2: Bud of bedwetter.
Speaker 3: Mots are whatever.
Speaker 1: Whatever.
Speaker 3: Alright, Well, I guess that's it. Name a hit