The Foote Files: Symphony #1 In C Major, Opus 21, By Beethoven
(CBS 11) - I have had a love affair with classical music since 1965 when I started taking piano lessons in Dallas as a kid.
From 1965-1972, I had anywhere between one and two lessons per week and came close to being a concert pianist. Apart from being educated about classical music, it helped me get my first radio job at KWBU-FM/Waco in 1972 which was owned by Baylor University. They needed an evening personality who knew classical music and they hired me for weekdays 10:00 p.m. to midnight!
The German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) has been one of my favorite classical composers of all time. Today, we are featuring his Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 (the term "Op." is abbreviated for the Latin word "Opus" or "work," so basically work #21). Beethoven composed this symphony at a very early age (25) between 1795-1800.
There are four movements to this work and runs close to 30 minutes. For those who are knowledgeable about classical music , you can hear the influence on Mr. Beethoven from composers such as Joseph Haydn (his teacher) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was dedicated to Baron Gottfried van Swieten and published in 1801. The symphony was written for strings, percussion, brass and woodwind.
I hope you will enjoy this classical work as much as I have for so many years.
You can hear this on WRR-FM/Dallas, WQXR-FM/New York and Sirius XM 76 Symphony Hall.