Anyway, the music they performed to was a killer-serious sounding piano concerto (late Beethoven? Chopin?) with – get this – a disco track added. It was really cool, and hard to get out of my head. And the fun thing is that the disco track somehow emphasized the classical stuff, so that the piano part is thoroughly stuck in my brain this morning – in fact, it’s an earworm – but without the disco background.

BTW, Beethoven isn’t necessarily supposed to be heavy-handed. That impression is from the dominance of recordings by conductors like Herbert Von Karajan, who made everything sound big, impressive and somewhat ponderous. If you listen to Beethoven’s chamber music (early-to middle-period string quartets, or the violin sonatas) you get a much more playful impression of the guy. Nobody can spend all their time being stern and tormented – unless they’re too mentally ill to compose!