logo

English
                 

Life Beethoven’s 250th Birthday

2020.12.27 11:14

이병붕*63 Views:218

Beethoven’s 250th Birthday

We finally(?) celebrated Beethoven’s 250th 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 9th 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 200th 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 200th 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

No. Subject Date Author Last Update Views
Notice How to write your comments onto a webpage [2] 2016.07.06 운영자 2016.11.20 17768
Notice How to Upload Pictures in webpages 2016.07.06 운영자 2018.10.19 31851
Notice How to use Rich Text Editor [3] 2016.06.28 운영자 2018.10.19 5494
Notice How to Write a Webpage 2016.06.28 운영자 2020.12.23 43427
440 The Godfather at its 50th Anniversay [1] 2022.07.10 운영자 2022.07.10 79
439 Elon Musk, the world's richest person, is homeless [1] 2022.04.18 운영자 2022.04.18 96
438 Is Silence Golden? [2] 2021.10.06 온기철*71 2021.10.07 61
437 Old Celebs Who You Didn’t Realize Are Still Alive and Well [1] 2021.07.22 운영자 2021.07.22 1040
436 Oh, Zhengzhou, poor Zhengzhou [7] 2021.07.22 이병붕*63 2021.11.01 85
435 My story of the MODERN [4] 2021.07.22 정관호*63 2022.07.21 74
434 故 이태석 신부가 뿌린 사랑 '부활'하다 [6] file 2021.06.17 손기용*61 2021.06.20 215
433 공모전 대상 작품: 이루지 못한 사랑 [4] 2021.05.16 이병붕*63 2021.05.16 88
432 God gave this land!?  [12] 2021.05.11 이병붕*63 2021.05.13 8406
431 What John Denver Means to Some Asians [4] 2021.05.08 운영자 2021.05.09 5993
430 3천원이 가져다 준 행복 [7] 2021.05.04 이병붕*63 2021.05.06 87
429 Another moving story [4] 2021.03.20 이병붕*63 2021.03.21 90
428 Korean DACA [1] 2021.03.18 이병붕*63 2021.03.18 108
427 Video, 한국에 미친 외국여자들 !! [6] 2021.02.17 운영자 2021.02.18 123
426 감격스러운 모성애 - 어느 어미 개.이야기 [2] 2021.01.28 운영자 2021.01.29 60
425 속터진 만두 [3] file 2021.01.01 운영자 2021.01.02 94
» Beethoven’s 250th Birthday [2] 2020.12.27 이병붕*63 2020.12.27 218
423 아버지의 크리스마스 선물 [2] 2020.12.17 이병붕*63 2020.12.17 125
422 I wept! [3] 2020.12.02 이병붕*63 2020.12.02 133
421 My Savior from COVID, Il Commissario Montalbano [1] 2020.10.25 이병붕*63 2020.10.25 69