In the bedroom with Beethoven

In the bedroom with Beethoven

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norman lebrecht

June 15, 2017

We are indebted to the soprano Katherine Cooper for an introduction to this unexpectedly challenging series.

Since there is no repertoire specified on the cover, we assume it must be Infidelio.

Do not miss, in the same series, Making Out to Mozart.

With a magic flute, presumably.

 

Comments

  • Alexander says:

    you’ve got a score 😉

  • Michael Smith says:

    Also available: Shacking Up to Chopin.

    I’m not making this up.

  • La verita says:

    This last desperate gasp for business was tried in the late 1990’s, when Polygram, Warner, & BMG/RCA were all in competition to see which company could stoop lower – with couples of all persuasions disrobing on their CD covers. The tactic killed off the 2 latter labels, whereas Polygram managed to keep it going for a while.

  • boringfileclerk says:

    Classical music by it’s very nature is a sensual art. I see nothing wrong with this. It will bring in a new audience.

  • Ungeheuer says:

    In poor taste, no need to say. Next she/they will advertise hard core lesbian porno to the tune of Der Rosenkavakier. Or something like that.

  • Peter says:

    When is
    “Wanking to Wagner”
    being released again?

  • Alexander Davidson says:

    In the words of Dr Niles Crane, ‘Maybe later we’ll try out my Wagner for Lovers CD’.

    • Sue says:

      That show as just brilliant, wasn’t it!!!

      • Alexander Davidson says:

        I’m still re-watching it! Quite a few musical jokes in there…

        “Tickets to the Mongolian Music Festival? That’s four solid hours of throat singing!” (Followed by many more jokes about Mongolian throat singing.)

        “And with a simple bow of thanks to the muse Calliope, let us begin.”

        Frasier: So the engine is just like the timpani: the way it drives the orchestra forward.
        Niles: The conductor drives the orchestra, not the timpani.
        Frasier: Niles, the conductor guides the orchestra. He’s more like the steering wheel. The actual driving forward … the driving forward is actually executed by the percussion section.
        Niles: Seems like someone needs to take a class in orchestra rather than automobiles.

        Kelsey Grammer singing ‘Three little maids from school are we’ in falsetto has sadly not yet made an appearance on YouTube.

        • Daphne Badger says:

          Frasier and Niles enter, returning from the opera. They are wearing
          tuxedoes and singing an aria – badly. Eddie dashes off to the bedrooms.

          Frasier: That was the most riveting production of Wagner I have seen
          this season.
          Niles: I still have goose bumps from when Klingsor summoned Kundry
          with a terrible cry and ordered her to seduce Parsifal: “Ha!
          Er ist schoen der Knabe!”
          Martin: Well, I had a pretty good night too….

          • Sue says:

            Witty, funny, sophisticated and often ith lashings of black humour. A rare piece of television is “Frasier”.

            Last night I watched (again) “About Schmidt” and I loved the laconic humour, the satirical dig at certain aspects of American life – (Randal is “easy on the eye” according to his mum Kathy Bates!!!) and the magnificent gags (the ‘mini wini’ and Randal’s ‘accomplishments’). Alexander Payne and Jack Nicholson take a bow please.

            Great writers LIVE!!!!!

  • Geoff R says:

    My introduction to real music was many years ago when a certain Mr. Richard Attenborough had a late night program on BBC playing mostly the pieces that are covered (or uncovered) by these lps and CDs. But he finished up one night with the last movement of Sibelius 2nd Symphony. That was at least 60 years ago. It’s all history since then. Still love all Sibelius plus all them other guys who wrote real music. Any other brilliant ideas that will introduce today’s youff to real music?

    • Alexander Davidson says:

      Cinema is a great way of introducing people to a lot of things, so it’s always good when a film soundtrack uses some great pieces of music from the existing repertoire rather than relying on a new soundtrack. All of Woody Allen’s films have incredible soundtracks, from the Gloria from Hans Leo Hassler’s Missa Secunda in Hannah and Her Sisters through to Bartók’s 4th string quartet in Melinda and Melinda, and, of course, the ubiquitous jazz. The voice of Caruso is heard throughout Match Point. Satie orch. Debussy Gymnopédie No. 3 is used to haunting effect in Another Woman. The whole of Sweet and Lowdown is a kind of hommage to Django Reinhardt. Anybody who watched all of Allen’s films would also acquire a pretty good exposure to sound great music, both classical and jazz.

      • Sue says:

        Not to mention the magnificent Bobby Short in Cafe Carlysle (sorry, spelling) in “Hannah”. Allen has SUPERB musical taste and the music often makes his films way better than they are. And, of course, the gorgeous Jerome Kern and George Gershwin. Who can forget Carrie Fisher singing Kern’s “I’m Old Fashioned” in “Hannah”???!!!!

        I absolutely love it.

  • herrera says:

    Below are the tracks to Beethoven Bedroom Bliss.

    First, my observations:
    – the album is 52:02 minutes long, which calls for a bit of stamina (better pop that blue pill)
    – it has 5 different tracks, which calls for variety (better study up on the kama sutra)
    – foreplay begins with, predictably, the Moonlight Sonata, played by Horowitz, and climaxes on, predictably, Ode to Joy, conducted by Fritz Reiner (better pace yourself, because when the Chicago Symphony starts playing fff and you are nowhere near bringing your partner to orgasm, Fritz Reiner waits for no one)

    1. Piano Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2 “Moonlight/Mondschein”: Adagio sostenuto
    de Vladimir Horowitz – 6:34

    2. Piano Sonata No. 23, Op. 57 “Appassionata” in F Minor: Andante con moto
    de Sviatoslav Richter – 5:57

    3. Piano Sonata No. 23, Op. 57 “Appassionata” in F Minor: Allegro ma non troppo
    de Sviatoslav Richter – 7:02

    4. Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58: Andante con moto
    de Gerhard Oppitz – 4:46

    5. Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58: Rondo: Vivace
    de Gerhard Oppitz – 9:43

    6. Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67: IV. Allegro
    de Fritz Reiner – 8:00

    7. Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 “Choral”: Finale: “Ode to Joy”
    de Fritz Reiner – 11:20

    • Pianofortissimo says:

      Thank you for this information. Now I can understand why there is a ‘parental advisory – explicit content’ warning in the cover.

      🙂

  • Steinway Fanatic says:

    Here’s a New York Times article from 1993 about record companies sexing-up their compact disc releases: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/02/arts/classical-music-sex-and-the-singles-symphony.html

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