A Belated Happy 250th Birthday, Beethoven

On either the 15th or 16th of December, 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the greatest classical composers of all time, was born.  I listened the other evening on my phone to New York's classical music station WQXR as they were appropriately devoting their programming to his life and legacy during this celebration of his 250th birthday.  Beethoven's gradual loss of hearing, culminating in deafness, has always floored me: how could anyone like this compose something as complex and beautiful as his Ninth Symphony, along with the other late works of his career?  I've always loved that symphony, especially its second movement...which used to be played during the closing credits of the Huntley/Brinkley national news report on NBC during the 1960s when I was growing up.  I love listening to classical music, but at the same time usually feel a bit intimidated: I have no special musical training other then a brief period a few years ago when I took beginning piano.  There's a highly technical side of it all that completely escapes me...what I'm left with as a lay listener is the way the instruments interact during the particular piece's flow to impart feeling. Sometimes it's easy to "get" a classical work, as was the case with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Bach's 140th Cantata, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, and Debussy's Nocturnes...other times it's harder, as has been the case for me with some of the symphonies of Mozart, Haydn, and Mahler...and even some of Beethoven's.  In any event, I usually have my car radio on Gainesville's classical music station on 102.7...if you're in town why not give it a listen?