Since the pandemic hit, most of us are just trying to make it from one day to the next. A small few of us are making it easier for everyone, through music, through the fight for social justice, and sometimes the intersection of the two. Ezinma (pronounced eh-zee-mah) is a classically trained violinist who became a sensation when she started posting videos of her classical covers of trap hits. She then toured with Beyoncé and has also collaborated with Stevie Wonder and Mac Miller. Reporting by Nan Pincus While I’ve enjoyed her instrumental interpretations of electronic music, her new song, and accompanying music video that dropped on August 28th, “Beethoven Pleads The Fifth” on Decca Records (Universal) was more exciting to me as the reverse: a beats-backed interpretation of a classical standard, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Few pieces are as iconic in the classical canon as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Its quarter rest, four eighth-notes, one half-note motif is iconic, and as 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birthday, the classical world has been producing Beethoven albums this year with fervor. The Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and famed musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Daniel Barnenboim are just a few […]
