How Beethoven Humbled His Rivals in Piano Duels скачать в хорошем качестве

How Beethoven Humbled His Rivals in Piano Duels

What really happened when Beethoven faced down Vienna’s best pianists in high-stakes improvisation battles? These are the true stories behind Beethoven’s legendary duels with rival musicians. What gave Beethoven the upper hand? It was his unmatched skill in improvisation, a powerful weapon in the salons of 18th-century Vienna. This video breaks down how Beethoven turned the art of improvisation into a strategic advantage, outplaying and outwitting his most formidable challengers. Support my channel here: buymeacoffee.com/pianocurio Timestamps: 00:00 The Piano Duel 00:57 Beethoven’s Improvisations 03:05 The Gelinek Duel 05:38 The Himmel Duel 07:36 The Steibelt Duel 13:55 What Beethoven’s Duels Reveal 14:52 Epilogue FAQ Q: Where can I hear the full recordings from this video? A: These excerpts were recorded exclusively for this video. Many of the works (particularly the music by Gelinek, Steibelt, and Woelfl) have never been commercially recorded before. Q: Who is the pianist, and what instruments were used? A: All performances are by me, using MIDI and Pianoteq’s historical instrument models (1790 Walter & 1796 Broadwood fortepianos), played on a Yamaha N1X. These are edited, technology-assisted recordings intended to demonstrate musical excerpts, not to replace full performances. Reverb added with Altiverb. Q: Why does the music sound slightly lower in pitch than what is notated? A: The instruments are tuned to A=415 Hz, an 18th-century tuning that was still common in Beethoven’s time. There was no universal standard. Modern tuning (A=440 Hz) can make 18th-century instruments sound thin. I prefer the richer tone of 415Hz on these instruments, but it's a matter of taste. Beethoven's last-owned tuning fork rings higher at around A=455Hz. His later pianos in the 1820s were much different from the 1790s ones in this video, plus his hearing loss seems to have necessitated the use of higher pitches. Sources: Beghin, Tom. Beethoven’s French Piano: A Tale of Ambition and Frustration. University of Chicago Press, 2022. Meredith, William. “The Westerby-Meredith Hypothesis.” The Beethoven Journal, 2012. Swafford, Jan. Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. Wegeler, Franz & Ferdinand Ries. Beethoven Remembered. Trans. Frederick Noonan, 1987. Image Archives: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library) — onb.ac.at Gallica, Bibliothèque nationale de France — gallica.bnf.fr