英语听力：Beethoven 贝多芬 - 12

 Immediately after the concert with Napoleon once again threatening to invade Vienna, Beethoven began another colossal¹ work with military themes.

 

For the first time, Beethoven did not play at the premiere, he was too deaf. He never finished another piano concerto². But his increasing deafness did not stop him clinging onto his role as a conductor.

 

Very often to his friends and indeed the musicians’ dismay, Beethoven insisted on conducting his own music at concerts, and we have several descriptions of what a bizarre and sometimes comical sight it was. He would crouch³ low in the podium at the soft pieces, and then he would leap up, flinging his arms around at the loud sections. There is a delightful⁴ anecdote⁵ told by Louis Schubert who was a younger composer and violinist in Vienna at the time, and he recalled how Beethoven was conducting the first performance of his own 7th Symphony.

 

And the orchestra reached a pause which was followed by a pianissimo passage and Beethoven was crouched⁶ down conducting, and he didn’t hear the pause and he got ahead of the orchestra. And they continued playing quietly. He couldn’t hear it. And he reached as he thought the louder passage, so he jumped up in his usual way, waving his arms around, but the orchestra was still playing quietly. And it’s said that a look of alarm crossed his face, and it was only when they got to the louder of it, that he heard it and realized what had happened.

 

Now that is comical, you can picture it happening, you can imitate it and get an easy laugh out of it. But isn’t it poignant⁷ that he couldn’t hear his own music so that he could conduct it?

 

1 colossal   

adj.异常的，庞大的

参考例句：

• There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
• Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。

2 concerto   

n.协奏曲

参考例句：

• The piano concerto was well rendered.钢琴协奏曲演奏得很好。
• The concert ended with a Mozart violin concerto.音乐会在莫扎特的小提琴协奏曲中结束。

3 crouch   

v.蹲伏，蜷缩，低头弯腰；n.蹲伏

参考例句：

• I crouched on the ground.我蹲在地上。
• He crouched down beside him.他在他的旁边蹲下来。

4 delightful   

adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的

参考例句：

• We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
• Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。

5 anecdote   

n.轶事，趣闻，短故事

参考例句：

• He departed from the text to tell an anecdote.他偏离课文讲起了一则轶事。
• It had never been more than a family anecdote.那不过是个家庭趣谈罢了。

6 crouched   

v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He crouched down beside her. 他在她的旁边蹲了下来。
• The lion crouched ready to pounce. 狮子蹲下身，准备猛扑。

7 poignant   

adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的

参考例句：

• His lyrics are as acerbic and poignant as they ever have been.他的歌词一如既往的犀利辛辣。
• It is especially poignant that he died on the day before his wedding.他在婚礼前一天去世了，这尤其令人悲恸。