Wow! Two postings from me in one day (let's hope I'm not
establishing a precedent).

I said:

>>What a bummer!  Ludwig didn't die from syphilis and had all the fun that
>>implies.  All he did was drink wine to get his buzz and died early because
>>he insisted on drinking it from his favourite lead cup.  We could have
>>had 15 or 20 Beethoven symphonies (instead of 9 and one uncompleted one),
>>but he had to go and drink from a poisonous vessel.

and Deryk Barker responded with this food-for-thought question (does that
go with red or white wine, Deryk?):

>Nice thought, but do you really think that if he hadn't been going deaf
>the symphonies from 2-9 or the late sonatas or quartets would have been
>remotely the same?

It is truly mind-boggling to think of how much greater these pieces could
have been if Beethoven was not going deaf.  Speaking for myself, I do
not have the capacity to handle any more of the genius LVB showed when
he could hear the music he was composing only inside his head.

Bill Cutler