I've adored Karajan's versions on disc for a few years, but this is my first live hearing of it. And I mean "bombarded" in the most spine-tingling, goose-fleshy way because, as played tonight by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, the Eroica is by turns grandiose and expansive. It is epic in scope and dramatic in emotional impact and it is easy to see how Beethoven was a great early influence on Richard Wagner.
The Orchestra tonight were playing for their lives, swaying this way and that and lending the music a passionate physicality I miss from hearing the music on disc. And Kurt Masur was the conducting equivalent of Charlie Chaplin.
"Music should strike fire from the heart of man," Beethoven said. And from the limbs and the loins, I would add.
Other links today:
+ The $28K sandwich that grew no mold: How the Virgin Mary's grilled cheese stayed mold-free for 10 years.
+ Why are humans so obsessed with fiction?
+ Nancy Drew - icon of girl power or a well-scrubbed goody-two-shoes? Either way, she turns 75 next year.
+ China's supersize mall has 230 escalators and covers 6 million square feet, making it the biggest in the world. "This mall will change your life" goes the advertising and yet, on a recent Friday afternoon, only 20 shoppers were counted in one hour.
+ 7-Up cake or hot dog fried rice, anyone?
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