Adventures with Beethoven

Watch, Listen & Learn

 
 

This page provides two lists of interesting videos about Beethoven and his music:

  • Stories, Scenes, & Special Features

  • Music with Solo Artists

Video Links – Stories, Scenes, & Special Features

Beethoven Lives Upstairs: a movie about what it was like to live in the apartment below Beethoven. (51:26)
https://www.schooltube.com/media/Beethoven+Lives+upstairs/1_ho5pl7lh

“Ode to Joy” from Symphony No. 9  (Flashmob version!)  (5:40)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbJcQYVtZMo

Symphony No. 9: How the masterpiece is played and understood worldwide (8:31)
Beethoven is everywhere. His Ninth Symphony is one of the most frequently played symphonies in the world. How do orchestras and musicians on three continents approach Beethoven's masterpiece? In the Congo, the "Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste" interprets Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on instruments, some of which the musicians built themselves. In a favela in Brazil, Beethoven's music helps people get off the streets. In Japan, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony inspires real enthusiasm. Every year, a choir of 10,000 sings the "Ode to Joy", the final chorus of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzcKcgmGXyI

“Epic Piano Battles of History: Mozart vs. Beethoven” (4:55)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_gPAZ6ZzOw

Beethoven for Children
BTVHN 2020 – Beethoven-haus, Bonn
The interactive encounter with Beethoven was created for children aged 10 to 13. The website exists in five languages: German, English, French, Spanish and Chinese. Beethoven's life can be focused through various topics. Music and spoken original quotes frame Beethoven's thrillingly narrated life history. Original images of letters, sheet music and other documents are waiting to be discovered. Animated illustrations invite the user to interact, to answer multiple choice questions or to play games of didactic value.
https://www.beethoven.de/en/beethoven#for-kids

Piano Concerto no. 3, 1st Movement (17.22)
Isata Kanneh-Mason, recording of Facebook live
Isata Kanneh-Mason was due to play Beethoven Piano Concerto no.3 at the Royal Albert Hall on the 18th Apr 2020 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Moritz Gnann. The concert was cancelled due to Coronavirus. The family (Braimah, Aminata, Jeneba, Sheku) decided to do a version at home on Facebook Live (Sheku Kanneh-Mason page)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syhm27w68no

The New Yorker Festival – Yo Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax discuss the optimism in Beethoven’s work. The famed musicians reflect on the undeniable hopefulness in “Cello Sonata No. 3.”
NewYorker.com video (9:24)
https://www.newyorker.com/video/watch/the-new-yorker-festival-yo-yo-ma-and-emanuel-ax-discuss-the-optimism-in-beethovens-work 

Video Links – Music with Solo Artists

“Für Elise” - Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano (3:49)
Lang Lang performs on the Lang Lang Steinway Black Diamond Limited Edition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s71I_EWJk7I

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C# minor "Moonlight" Op. 27 No. 2 (14:25)
Valentina Lisitsa. Posted April 2019. Recorded Dec 2009
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITidiBe-0T0

Piano Sonata "Moonlight", Movement III "Presto Agitato" (6:47)
Valentina Lisitsa. Posted Jan 2010
Recording in Beethovensaal, Hannover Germany, Dec 2009. Wilhelm Kempff recorded Beethoven cycle in the very same hall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zucBfXpCA6s

Piano Concerto No. 1 (48:57)
Martha Argerich
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF7pmimzjBs

Piano Concerto No. 5 in Eb Major, Op. 73 Emperor (42:26)
Krystian Zimerman performing with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, 1989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj8w0Sm7l-M

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major op. 73 (full) Emperor (39:12)
Alina Bercu performs with Orchestra of the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar.
The Weimar students taking degrees in orchestral instruments come together in this large orchestra, to dedicate themselves to the treasures and hidden gemstones of music history, in fresh interpretations with youthful drive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TiYGxOQDYw

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 (49:47)
Hilary Hahn performing with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cg_0jepxow&t=2644s

Beethoven: 12 Variations on 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen' from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (1:05:55)
Sheku Kanneh Mason (cello) and George Li (piano) play Beethoven, Debussy, Lutosławski, Fauré, and Mendelssohn. Verbier Festival 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUfVu5COeLo

Fidelio (3:17)
Watch a preview of Seattle Opera dress rehearsal footage (complete with full orchestra & chorus) featuring Maestro Asher Fisch and the talented cast bringing Beethoven's dramatic score to life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_pmcOg8-lk

The Diabelli Variations
(0:47) Music video by Igor Levit performing Beethoven - Diabelli Variations: Tema. Vivace. (C) 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpG5-pIykTM
(48:54) Yannick Van de Velde plays Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Berlin Philharmonie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY-A5Z_RiZE

Missa Solemnis - Gloria I (7:13)
Leonard Bernstein conducting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpNiQLaX9_4

Andante favori (9:02)
Anna Dmytrenko in recital for Steinway Society - The Bay Area, Oct. 27, 2019, Hammer Theatre, San Jose, CA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4FxOHCZJjk

An die fern Geliebte
(14:05) Beethoven's Song Cycle 'To the Distant Beloved', with English subtitles, performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOk7EWYbyqk
(14:50) Erika Switzer and Tyler Duncan perform Beethoven's 'An die ferne Geliebte, Op. 98' (in German)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwanZIWLFZI