9 MINUTES OF PURE DRAMA - REACTING TO BEETHOVEN - EGMONT OVERTURE 

This IS really good. And for most composers, it would be the best thing they ever wrote. But for Beethoven, it's like the 37th best thing he wrote. That's how insanely brilliant Beethoven is. He is not just good, not merely great, but the greatest of all time.

Have you looked up the play that this overture was written for, or the historical figure that it was based on? Egmont was a Dutch general in the Spanish army who was executed for opposing the Spanish Inquisition in the Netherlands. His death was one of the events that triggered the Dutch revolt that eventually led to independence from Spain. These events are musically portrayed in the overture. From 7:48 to 8:08 of your video, you hear Egmont's execution. The heroic-sounding music that follows it represents the Dutch people rising up to fight for independence. Beethoven was an idealist and was greatly inspired by the French Revolution earlier in his life. Some of his best music portrays heroic struggle against oppression.

Here is one common theme that Beethoven conveys throughout most of his music: triumph over adversity.

Love your reactions. And yes, Beethoven is one of the greatest geniuses of humanity. He has other overtures like the Corolian or the ones that he composed for his only opera, Fidelio. I suggest you also to react to his Piano concerto 5, "The Emperor" and his "Choral Fantasy" for piano, orchestra choir and soloist opera singers. Keep the good job and enjoy Beethoven! 👍👍

Egmont is theatre play by Goethe (1788). I requested this piece a few months ago, glad you finally did it ! :)

Beethoven goes hard, never a dull moment. The man had genius, AND he worked hard at it. Currently working on learning "Pathetique" and it's a freaking blast haha

Egmont was the hero of Flanders who fought for the freedom of his people. These themes were much loved by Beethoven, and also for this and because he embodied the ideals of brotherhood and equality between peoples, he was hated by the Nazis who never represented him.

funny story: heard that piece first when me and my two best friends took mushrooms for the first time about 2h into a classical playlist that I decided would be a wise choice to listen to (and it absolutely was)...we were just silently laying flat on our backs, entranced by the music and fascinated by our floor lamp that seemlessly changed through colours which made the whole ceiling radiate in the most vibrant colours we've ever seen. The seemlessness of the transitions made every transition feel so tense because we'd always underestimate when a colour would peak and as soon as it did the tension was already building towards the next colour. It was amazing, and then the Egmont Overture started...with the first note my eyes widened to maximum capacity and it instantly stole my attention completely away from the floor lamp. As the 5th note faded out (0:59~1:00 in this video) the three of us sat up in perfect synchronicity...I look at friend A and he's looking at me while he has the same expression as I do, we both turn towards friend B who also has the same expression but looks at the TV screen and he says what we're all thinking: "What...WAS...THAT?!?" And for the whole piece our attention remained glued to the music, it was 7 years ago and this became an event that we continously remember fondly every now and then. There were a few highlights in the playlist but this was definitely the highest. I won't recommend to take shrooms unless you want to do it anyway, but IF you do you MUST try listening to classical music...the video we listened to is called "The Best of Classical Music[...]" with some composer names added after, should be easy to find as it had like 130M views the last time I listened to it. And while you're at it, a floor lamp that can seemlessly go through it's colours is also a strong recommendation I can give

I think when you react to the music maybe you should look for videos with musicians moving. I think that is more entertaining and you literally can see the music through body movements. Thank you for sharing Beethoven's music. It's so powerful!!!

Another great reaction. If you like this, you would definitely like Beethoven's 5th and 7th symphony and his violin concert performed by Herbert von Karajan preferably. The poet TS Eliot considered the 2nd movement of the 7th symphony, the Coriolan overture and the third movement of his 15th string quartet as the best of Beethoven.

Beethoven's music is certainly something out of this world. I hope you react to all of his symphonies in a near future, since I think you've only listened to the 9th so far. Al of them are splendid, especially the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th, of course.

I recommend that you react to the live presentations of these musical works, so you can see the complexity of interpreting them, having so many instruments playing in unison. Greetings from Guatemala City in Central America.

I love the climaxes.

It’s a really great piece. The recording you picked isn’t very good honestly, but I get that you need to be careful with copyright. If you want to hear a really really good version you should go for Ferenc Fricsay with the Berliner Philarmoniker

The unofficial Anthem of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

You should try Hungarian dance number 5, fun piece

Pls listen some of Shostakovich Symphonies

Hi Gidi, I find it difficult if not impossible to ¨rate¨ pieces. It depends on my mood and the time of day.

This version at 1.25 speed is the speed I'm used to listen this piece.

This piece of music is beautiful and impressive, I recommend you react to Light Cavalry or Poet and Peasant overures both by Franz Von Suppé. Greetings from Guatemala City in Central America.

Try Karajan or Leonard Bernstein for Beethoven.

is this a very slow version? because the original is faster

Great piece though not the best rendition.

This interpretation is unfortunately not a tiny bit that dramatic like Furtwänglers one in 1953.

Pls listen some of Shostakovich Symphonies