Beethoven Lives Upstairs

Making a recording about Beethoven was daunting, thrilling, and strangely important to "get it right". I remember thinking, "How can you get across this greatest of all classical composers?" While watching my children making -- cards, I realized: "Letters! That's the perfect way to give the listener a personal, lyrical view a famous person...without having him lose his class!" Three days and 1,600 edits later, we had recorded the heart-breaking voice of one very patient 9-year-old (Nathanial Moreau). Two of my favorite moments came when we laid "The Moonlight Sonata" behind Christoph's quiet realization that, "Mr. Beethoven works so hard, because he believes that music can change the world." And when technicians kept dropping into the studio to hear again, "To think he had heard this in his HEAD!" during the Ode to Joy. Yes, Beethoven did change music forever.