LVB
I listened to at least one of Beethoven’s nine symphonies every day while washing windows during the summer of 2009 (Bernstein, Vienna Philharmonic), and I grew so attached to and was so fascinated by this body of work that I actually got the opening cello line from my favorite of the nine tattooed on my upper bicep. I’ve always felt the most in common with LVB out of all other composers I’ve studied. While our circumstances are not similar (a la Ives, even though this is a stretch), the masochistic, sweaty process by which LVB churned out his masterpieces feels very familiar to me, both in the way I compose and prepare to conduct. There is an athleticism to the way he weaves the instrument groups of the orchestra together; even at its most delicate the strands are fluidly tensile, and at its most robust, the sound consumes the listener as a tidal wave does a city block; there is movement and athleticism to the way it dominates, not just crushing force. The listener is forced to forfeit himself to the mesmerizing, perfectly powerful nature of its strength.
