Iguess the Fifth Symphony is the work that makes listeners sit up and begin to explore the music of Beethoven. Its opening dot-dot-dot-dash motif was used by the Allies as a Victory emblem for broadcasts to occupied Europe. Perhaps if you studied the violin you might have come across the String Quartet Op.95, and would-be pianists the 'Appassionata' (Piano Conata Op.57). All three with the composer striving in minor keys... But wind the key back to the 1930s when the pianist Artur Schnabel and the revered Busch String Quartet [pic on facing page] were giving concerts, and audiences considered the music Beethoven composed late in life 'difficult'.
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