COVER N.131 - GERMANY.

Postmark: Florstadt 1 28.06.22
Posted on the 28th June; received on the  4th July 2022
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Ludwig van Beethoven. What could be said that hasn't been yet? The man, the tragedy, the geniality, the irrevocable place in the pantheon of Man's finest achievements,..

As I type, Youtube offers me in the background, as a soothing counterpoint to the syncopated click clack of the keyboard, the supreme joy of Ludwig's sixth, directed by the also supernatural Bernstein.

I chose it because as far as I remember, the first movement of the sixth symphony was my first introduction to Beethoven (well, the 4th movement of the 9th, doesn't count, right?)  as the magnificent sounds meant to  "awake cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country" - as Ludwig himself wrote in the original score as an indication of the purpose  of all the beauty spread over the dense pentagram lines - floated in my living room where the old turntable played a Readers Digest long play vinyl record with an introduction to classical music...

I was probably 13 or 14 years old, and I was starting to discover that classical music was not only a pretext for old people dressed in rather unconformable and exceedingly formal attire to go to a concert hall to hear long boring  pieces played by boring musicians.  Unsuspectedly, those lyric and pastoral - yes there is no better word to describe them - first bars were carving in my brain cells a need for discovery that would lead me, in time, to being one of those older people that would happily go to concert halls to hear those long "boring" pieces, although I managed to skip the formal attire part.

In time, I would even have the immense pleasure of adding my voice to  a bunch of others much better than mine to praise "Joy, beautiful spark of  Divinity, Daughter of Elysium..." something that the 13 years old kid that once out of curiosity placed  a Readers Digest record on a turntable at home would have never dreamed of.... (yes, that's me, and quite a bunch of others in the choir....)

Thank you so much for the beautiful Beethoven cover,  Peter  , I really appreciated it!

Beethoven lived between 1770 and 1827. One cannot help but wonder how many more sublime pieces would have been written if.... but  we, Humanity, are so lucky to have all he left that asking for more would be pure gluttony, and this, we all know, is a deadly sin...:-)

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the  author of what has become the European Union hymn, several postal administrations (not only European) have issued commemorative stamp emissions (and I'm pleased to acknowledge that Portugal also joined the chorus).

On 02JAN2020 Deutsche Post issued its homage to Beethoven in the form of a single 0,80 € stamp, also issued in souvenir sheet form, both of which can be seen on the cover.

 

the 0.10€ stamp comes from the "flowers" series initiated in 2005. It was issued on 08JUN2017 and it depicts a Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis).