Beethoven

There's a scene in Band of Brothers where a group of American soldiers watch German's dealing with the rubble of their village. A quartet is playing mournful music in the center of the street. One of the soldiers remarks something like "Germans sure do clean up good when they've got their Mozart." And Cpt. Nixon comes up from behind and says "Beethoven."
A Wikipedia article on the episode indicates that the quartet is playing the String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor (op 131).

I think it is significant because Beethoven, unlike Mozart, was German. This is an episode where the soldiers find a concentration camp. So it seems to me that the humanity of one German is being contrasted with the total lack of humanity in another.

Around the same time as I watched this episode, I heard a movement from a Beethoven symphony on the radio. I couldn't say which symphony but I was bowled over by the power and beauty. It turned to be the final movement of the 5th. And it made me think about a conversation i had with my father. I asked him what was the greatest piece of music ever made. He said, without hesitation, Beethoven's 5th. And I think I was rather disappointed. I'd hoped for a rock selection of course and but if it had to be classical I wanted it to be something more original. What I didn't realized then was that the 5th symphony has so much more than just the overplayed first movement.

So once again I may eventually have to agree with my Dad.

But for now I think I'll stick with Brahm's 3rd Symphony.