Beethoven's symphonies, opera, concertos, sonatas, string quartets, overtures, bagatelles, tone poems, chamber music generally, and song literature, is so pervasive and his world consciousness and basic humanity construct an icon unparalleled to and past his own era. At Juilliard, I studied his oeuvre and , in those days, all singers learned the concert rep of Beethoven , Schubert , Schumann, Wolf and Grieg, whether they would be opera singers or concert singers . So much of our treasured masterpieces, vocal and instrumental, are unknown quantities to most Americans. THANK YOU WQXR FOR CELEBRATING BEETHOVEN !!! Beethoven's symphonies are the ABCs of most essential single composers' oeuvre of the symphonic literature. Who ever having heard the Waldstein well performed can ever forget its beauty and nuanced scope of emotions. Wagner and his contemporaries and their successors all recognized the epic achievement of Beethoven. I am a romantischer Wagnerian heldentenor and director of the Richard Wagner Music Drama Institute at 418A Main Street, Boonton, NJ . I have sung four solo concerts in the Isaac Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall. As part of my Ten Language Solo Debut concert at the Isaac Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall, I sang the Gott ! welch dunkel hier ! aria of Fidelio. it can be heard from the live performance on my three websites, one of which is www.WagnerOpera.com It received rave critical notices in newspapers and magazines. Rudolf Serkin and his son, Peter are among those other great interpreters of Beethoven's piano concertos and sonatas, Artur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Walter Gieseking, ignace Paderevski, Emil Gilels and Simon Barere, remarkable for their virtuosity, and immense ability to interpret from their own perspective. The Beethoven violin concerto is celebrated by its ardent interpreters Heifetz, Menuhin, Kreisler and Perlman.

Pianist STEPHEN KOVACEVICH's recordings of BEETHOVEN's bagatelles which I heard on today's broadcast are an eminent addition to one's comprehension of the scope of that master's oeuvre. Beethoven's expressive articulation through the piano, the violin family and the orchestra of the nuances of all the emotions and feelings reveals a genius unfathomable given the resources open to him at his era. JUST IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES FOR MASTERPIECES that he might write were he living in our tines ! KUDOS TO MR. KOVACEVICH and to WQXR for airing the bagatelles.