…and here's what I get for O1-pro, honestly I don't think this is $200 worth of pelican

Have you tried O3-mini or O1-Pro yet? Here is what I get for O3-mini:

"yeah you're welcome you load of ingrates!"

Actually I should say that for his string quartets I found the Robert Greenberg lectures super useful: www.audible.com/pd/The-Strin...

The piano sonatas one was also cool but I felt like I was more able to grok them without assistance

Another chunk of his I hadn't repertoire I hadn't listened to much out was his cello sonatas, cello is such a gorgeous instrument, here's yo yo ma doing op 69 www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9pi...

Or if you want to see the birth of modernism here's op 135 no 2 Vivace, he does a lyric thrumming theme out of a Haydn andante then suddenly **record scratch** and then crazy atonality www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Ep...

He was never a big quartet guy but at the end of his life he only did quartets and produced some of the greatest music in history. I'd say they're probably not the best place to start if you're new to the genre but if you want a taste try op 130 mvt 2 presto: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOB4...

I think our modern ears are less attuned to string quartets so it took me a lot of listens to appreciate his quartets, I think Razumovsky op 59 no. 1 might be the best place to start, the opening sounds to me like Frodo heading off on his adventure www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG89...

His last public performance was playing the piano concerto #4 in 1808. Movement 2 is thought to depict Orpheus (piano) taming the furies (orchestra) at the gates of hell.

I think I love this piece more than any of his symphonies. The piano concertos are so underrated, no 5 is also incredible

…parts of that one sound to me like two pianos being smashed together.

One thing I haven't mentioned was that in addition to being a composer, he was considered one of the greatest piano players of his day . Some of his pieces like the Hammerklavier were considered simply unplayable at the time.

I always knew about Pathetique and Moonlight mvt 3, but Waldstein is such a headbanger. The opening theme 1 is hammering 5th notes so basically a 90s grunge sound, then a wild virtuosic bridge breaking into slow stately harmony like church bells, and it keeps going… www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quvq...

People love the hero's funeral movement in Symphony #3, but he sketched out the idea in his op 26 mvt 3. Is this the first time someone made a piano do a military drum roll followed by a cannon shot? And yet it's not even my favorite movement in that sonata www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo9l...