I'm not always in the mood for Beethoven. His music sometimes seems overbearing, too intense. This is not one of those times. In listening to the 9th Symphony, it occurs to me that the music is downright sexual. Listen to the crescendos, to the "conversation" among the instruments, the highs and lows, the decidedly intense rise at 19:02, the subsequent tempering. It's akin to a young lover woeing a young woman, bringing her a daisy, her rejecting him coquetishly, he pursuing her with poetry, or a gift of a book, an invitation. It's beautiful -- and quite powerful. Listen, especially, to 59:30 for what I would consider the climax in this piece of music! Goose bumps! True Ode to Joy! At 59:50 and at 1:00:05 is a section of harmony that is simply exquisite (...vas di mode...). I'd love to have someone in the music world explain that one to me: I'm in thrall at those points.
It is quite impossible to pick one or two sections in such a resplendent piece of music. To think that Beethoven was stone deaf when he composed it is remarkable in itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3QtlrqKoTc&feature=related
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