The thought occurred to me that the reason the
three-Beethovens-in-a-row syndrome took hold in the first place is
because of the placement of this man upon some mythic pedestal, not just
heroic, but supreme, untouched--you get the picture.
The
same people who put him up there are shocked at the thought that there
is humor in his music, especially in his symphonies. Beethoven, even at
his most serious, was never completely removed from the spirit of irony
that underlies so much musical humor.
I recently heard a performance of the Grosse Fuge
string quartet. It couldn't have been a good performance because it
was sanctimonious in the extreme. Sanctimonious and serious are very
different things.
