The pieces sampled on these discs are among the most popular of the thousands of masterpieces of music composed by man since the dawn of the creative spirit. This is what makes them all "classic". It is not the style, emotion, or set of instruments that determines the "classic" piece, but an immortal quality, inspired and created with the utmost care and perfection. In the words of Salieri "Displace one note and there would be diminishment, misplace one phrase and the structure would fall."
Unfortunately, the producers of this compilation album re-releasing snippets of previous recordings did displace not only phrases but entire episodes of music. In the film Amadeus, when the emperor told Mozart to "cut a few notes" from one of his operas, the enraged composer exclaimed "But it is perfect as it is! I cannot cut what is perfect!" It looks like the evil emperor won the battle. Being buried in a pauper's grave was not enough of a disgrace; even today, hundreds of years later, the public mocks his ingenious work by "cutting" whole episodes.
Beethoven was notorious for his incredible temper. If a musician performed even slightly incorrectly, off in rhythm or in pitch, he was known to throw heavy statues across the room, smashing them against the wall. It is hard for me to imagine what the immortal spirit of that great man, with all its incredible other-worldly power must be doing right now it Heaven, since the producers of this album did more than merely perform at an unsatisfactory tempo; they removed entire episodes of his music. Would you watch only 1/3 of a movie without seeing the rest? Would that 1/3 make any sense? Would you read only 1/3 of a novel and claim to have understood it or glanced at a third of a painting and said, "That's all I need to see." If wanting to read the last pages of the book, see the rest of the picture and the remainder of the film makes me and other critics of this album "snobs", then I am happy to be a snob.
Kind regards to the spirit of Beethoven.
Peter AlanSnob
