Beethoven’s 250^th Birthday

We finally(?) celebrated Beethoven’s 250^th Birthday through this month of December!

WETA, lone and the last classical radio station after WGMS succumbed in 2007 despite our desperate campaign for its salvage, spends a full month of December for the celebration every year with no exception. They played more of Beethoven’s music including the 9^th Symphony three times for this year and spared less time for the Christmas carols in comparison to other years.

But we feel this year is a bit different from other years, reminding me of the 200^th Birthday celebration, soon after we got to Richmond, Va in December 1968 to start a new American life.

When Time-Life announced a new series of vinyl LP albums as 10 volumes/sets to celebrate Beethoven’s 200^th Birthday in 1970- it was less than two years after we came to the States! -, we jumped to register to buy its whole series paying an unaffordable (?) amount with no hesitation as a meager fellow with such a small salary (annual 8800.00 USD).

However, we didn’t have a stereo LP player to listen to since I came to Richmond to MCV for a two-year fellowship as an official trip SNU arranged through the State Department and was supposed to go back to Korea after the fellowship.

So, I bought a hand-carrying stereo radio at Tokyo Airport as the only entertainment equipment to listen to the music while in Richmond till I go back home in Seoul where I did have a full set of stereo equipment already with a large collection of classical music albums.

But I never knew my destiny would be changed soon, and bought the whole series of the album, planning to carry it back home to Seoul as a trophy of American life, which still sits in my study room next to my desk together with the rest of collection of the stereo LP album reaching close to 3,000 vinyl discs, to represent my generation before the era of CD.

I heard all these Time-Life LP albums are now available on CD but I still feel/insist to remain as the last generation of stereo LP and I was so sad and depressed when my favorite record store, Tower Record in downtown closed - the store manager called me ahead to let me buy a dozen of old album sets including a major part of Wagner series, Der Ring des Nibelungen, though I never learned how to enjoy fully! -.

So this December gave such a different feeling to us, wondering how many times more we would be able to listen to enjoy/celebrate Beethoven's Birthday.

Happy Beethoven’s Birthday!

BB Lee