Beethoven Variations on "Rule Britannia"

[spiderlime]

delightful!

[TheSaidawium]

@kpunkt Then if Beethoven would live in modern days, I think he would be in any one of rock bands, breaking all the unwritten rules with a view to express his feelings in music, and I think he was the first to add choral in symphony.

[Luklebean123]

love the 'Bassetts Allsorts' on the piano :)

[TheSaidawium]

Never heard symphony played in Piano without any other instrument. Anyone who play symphony only with Piano must be a fool and does not know anything about classical music. But never see the Original music sheet, if Beethoven wrote this symphony for piano, I might be wrong,please inform if it was written for Orchestra or Piano.

[kpunkt]

@TheSaidawium This is an original work by Beethoven for piano solo. But it does not have an opus-number.

[TheCourtwick]

A cynical person may wonder at the Bassettes Liquirish Allsorts- To remind you which notes are black and so forth. Very well played and rarely performed which is a pity. Bravo.

[petie32]

Beethoven used the same technique for the Hammerklavier 1st movement; this was the prototype. Listen to both and you'll see what I mean.

[Gilmaris]

The Bassets Allsorts is a nice touch :)

[galleone]

Brüder in this case characterizes a special friendship, more than just being friends i suppose.

[laendi12]

the hulk is playing here =)

[heartsjunsu]

im doing the 5th variation for my grade8 exam as study. my god. your playing is so much more faster than mine. how i wish i could play like you. hehe ^^

[cirosuperiore]

Too bad I do not see any professional well-known performer (no disrespect to Mr. kpunkt) perform this or the god save the king variations. I understand Beethoven regretted writing these two pieces he thought they were cheap. I disagree I think they sound great...Beethoven said he wrote them to show appreciation for the British defeat of napoleon but in reality he needed the money the brits were willing to pay him.

[cirosuperiore]

great job ...

[EdwardWhelanPiano]

Beethoven the alchemist - He can take a rubbish tune and turn it into gold!

[freeqwerqwer]

Your piano sounds too tiny. Get a piano repairman to improve the tone.

[spiderlime]

wonderful. it's evident that beethoven approached this work lovingly and reverentially. an orchestration would be wonderful

[swanningaround]

landuck. Rule Britannia is not your "average tune". It is actually quite a good tune.

[Rusalka10]

I really like this piece and your interpretation! And there is a nice fitted detail in your video: The can of Liquorice allsorts (in Finland we call it an English liquorice). :)

[givebeesachance]

FFFFFFF Why did you point that out, now I'm going to be sick watching this video.

[1PostPoMoMaN1]

O che magnifico!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nyxeros86]

Fantastico! No conocía esta obra. Creo que está muy bien interpretada, sí señor, muy coherente.

[ianduckworth]

Beethoven did write things for money, vulgar stuff though it is. He was attracted to 'average' tunes that took to variation form such as the set of 'diabelli' variations, the original melody for which Beethoven considered 'trash.' But it didn't stop him writing a late great piano piece on the theme.

[beethomozart]

Beethoven composed these 7 variations woo 79 as well as woo 78, perhaps as a means to thak british people who gave a warm recognition to many of his works,you may distinguish the beethovenian thematic very authentic despite being variations on a previous known theme,long live ludwig van

[AulicExclusiva]

The original tune is played with such matter-of-fact, butter-won't-melt-in-my-mouth,­ objective blandness, that one wanders why Beethoven was moved to write variations on it at all. Was this a potboiler? Does this little piece need some coaxing with gusto?

[donboia]

Bravo! Very good!

[wodji]

True! Great playing, it would take me ages to perfect that piece, but try not to be so gentle in your playing.

[kpunkt]

It's not *my* gentleness - it's Beethoven's gentleness! :-) Look at the score, all these p-signs.. they mean... soft :-)

[ummjw]

Hahahahaha, what would Beethoven know???

But Rule Britannia is an aggresive song.

[kpunkt]

This is an interesting point! You have to understand Beethoven's irony, which is present in many of his works. Beethoven knew how to deal with aggression ;-)

[karazh]

@kpunkt haha very nice ;) totaly agree with everything!

[zinutile]

Beethoven would probably know a lot more than you and me. It is a plague in pianists, and instrumentists in general to add too much personality in their interpretation. If the composer took the extra care of putting notations on the score about dynamics and tempo, there's a good reason. Ignoring it makes any musicien a bad one.

[jingwu42]

piano

[asnet99]

who is playing?

[AlphaSierra5]

Don't be so so gentle. Be stronger, more authoritative

[Razsak]

Fantastic playing but I can't say I'm too keen on the piece. I don't feel the variations retain enough of the original material. I can see why Beethoven didn't publish it. Not that it's that bad. :)

[Razsak]

Actually on second listen it's really grown on me.

[thecolouramanda]

for some reason, LCM has Beethoven as the 2nd study for both the grade 7 and 8 tests...wHY?!?! the grade 7 one, i hated it but this should be nice. love the ending!

[ColinMeloy91]

AMAZING playing. Keep it up. THUMBS UP!!! =)

[GoFeri]

I wish my ex girlfriend could play like this. Maybe we would still be together.

[CrimsonPhantom88]

You broke up with somebody because they couldn't play the piano well enough?

[KENinTN1]

A.W.S.O.M.E !!! Thanks for sharing this beautiful music.

[makkertje]

Is Kermit playing? Green ....

[Williepe]

Wonderful! I played and replayed this trying to discover your fingering on the ascending sixteenths of the third bar of the theme. No luck - too fast!

[kpunkt]

Propably it's too fast for the 9 fps of the video :-) My fingering is: the chord with 1+2+4, then 5 3 4 5 (5 over 3!)

[raroschumann]

Sind Sie professioneller Pianist ?

[kpunkt]

Bezieht sich die Frage auf den Fingersatz - oder ist das nur eine allgemeine Frage? ;-))

(ich bin Klavierlehrer)

[raroschumann]

Das war allgemein gefragt, ich wollte einfach mal wissen, jetzt ist es gut, viel Glück

[newguy90]

Wow, I remember when this and a video of fans at a football match were for the longest the only examples of Rule Britannia on Youtube. Now do a search and you get several pages worth of hits.

That was a great performance. I only wish I had kept as diligent with my own piano studies.

[purpledragoncat]

...& I love Licorice Allsorts too!!! :-)

[purpledragoncat]

Absolutely fantastic. My God I wish I could play like you

[danUK920]

fantastic

[cfeeney2]

Does anyone have a posting on "God Save the King" variations, WoO. 78? These were composed in the same year, and I think they are a set. WoO. 78 and 79.

[Deadlytrick]

r u green?

[kpunkt]

in which sense? ;-)

[DavidTL]

Rule Britannia was composed by Thomas A. Arne.

[Graldensblud]

Arne did the original, yes. Beethoven did "variations on".

[Graldensblud]

Beethoven did Rule, Brittania! because the Germans and British were allies. Vs Napoleon. Google "War of the Sixth Coalition"

[kpunkt]

Beethoven wanted freedom - freedom for all, not only for the Germans and the Britains. "Alle Menschen werden Brüder" (curiously he forgot the women... lol)

[SamHawkens]

His original text was: "Bettler werden Fürstenbrüder". And I prefer this first version.

However, you're right: Beethoven was nothing I would call a patriot. Mozart was a patriot ("Teutschland, mein geliebtes Vaterland") but Beethoven wasn't.

[England12321]

Britons = British People

or you could say British people haha

its never Britains..

but good video

[gspaulsson]

In German, Mensch means human being and Mann means adult male person

[kpunkt]

Yes, thats right, but how can women become brothers (Brüder)...? ;-)

[tifius]

Rinse out! =D love that song :) britons never never never will be slaves!

[kage1190]

whoaaaaa well done. well done. hey, wanna be a pal and send me a copy of the music? =D =P

[kpunkt]

I'm sorry but I don't have a copyright free version of this piece. But I'm sure, you will find the music in a music library or in a music shop.

[kage1190]

thanks =)

[hooverdamman]

Excellent, I don't mean to be rude but I love this piece because it has an element of humour to it, maybe its the shift to high notes, anyway, very good.

[kpunkt]

Yes, I think, this piece is very ironic - as many other pieces of Beethoven. I'm glad, you liked my playing :-)

[rulebritannia1]

very good