Bill Cutler wrote:

>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.

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?

Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]>