It is a recognised fact that the greatest composers were likewise the greatest virtuosos; but did they play like the pianists of the present day, who run up and down the keyboard with passages studied beforehand? Pooh! pooh! pooh! Don't tell me! A real virtuoso, when extemporising, plays pieces which hold together and possess a form. Were the ideas in them fixed instantly on paper, they would be taken for pieces written at leisure. That is what I call playing the piano; everything else is a bad joke.
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About Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a 18th-century German composer. Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. One of the most revered figures in the history of Western music, his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire and span the transition from the Classical to the Romantic era. Read more on Wikipedia →