DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (June 1, 2020)

There is a Romantic notion of Beethoven as an internally driven, enraged, and mad genius. This illusion often obscures the real man who has a profound sense of responsibility to all mankind. Beethoven set folk songs from many nations, and took them into his heart, even when he set them in German. Here is his setting of the Ukrainian folksong Schöne Minka.

His variations on the song maintain its ethnic identity, while integrating it into a much larger world.