Black Sabbath and Beethoven

I have finally decided to join the modern music world. I am loading CDs into my computer, and will load a variety of things onto an mp3 player. Most of the other family members have already done so. I am the laggard.

My musical tastes are somewhat eclectic -- ethnic/world, classical, rock, punk, country, blues, folk, alternative, some New Age, and several other genres, depending on how you define the genres.

I am going to have to set up some playlists, so I don't necessarily listen to Black Sabbath followed by Beethoven. Not that there's anything wrong with the juxtaposition if one is in the mood, of course.

I'm not sure why I finally decided to do this. I think it's because I've recently been listening to different versions of Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata (Sonata #23, Opus 57). I've listened to versions by Arthur Rubenstein, John O'Conor, Vladimir Horowitz, and Tatiana Nikolayeva. I'm probably going to search out a few more. It's been a pain to find the CDs, deal with changing them in the CD player, listening only to the tracks I had time for or was interested in, and having to be near the CD player instead of being able to listen wherever I was.

It's very interesting to listen to the different interpretations of the Appassionata. All of the pianists are both talented and skilled, way beyond what I'll ever be able to aspire to. Beethoven is a brilliant composer, and this is an amazing piece of music. The way that different people bring out different aspects of the composition is very satisfying to listen to.

I hesitate to give even a mini-review of the different pianists' versions. I am not much of a music critic. I also need to listen to them again. I haven't even had time to listen to the full sonata on each CD. I like all of the versions, for different reasons. So far, the John O'Conor version seems tame and understated compared to the others. I might well rate it higher when I listen to it again.

I will give an opinion about Black Sabbath. I almost always prefer the Black Sabbath version of a song over the later Ozzy Osbourne version. So there. Too bad I haven't yet figured out how to crank the bass up to 11 on my computer's speakers. Black Sabbath is even better when you can hear it through your bones.

My kids seem to like both Black Sabbath and Beethoven's Appassionata sonata. They listened to the Vladimir Horowitz CD with me last night. Mr. Horowitz is a fine, fine pianist, even without the bass cranked up to 11. We all enjoyed his Appassionata performance thoroughly.