All of his symphonies are amazing. The fourth would be my preference of those two, but with a full orchestra, any of them would floor me. Where'd you see 'em?
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in Wisconsin. It was during Germanfest, so there was a week-long Beethoven marathon going on. I also saw Stravinsky's Rite of Spring there, although his work is a little bizarre. There really is nothing more incredible than seeing a room break out into full opera during the 9th's Finale.
Perhaps Ryden is depicting the strange and distorted realms of the unconcious, rather than some ho-hum greek ideals of perfection.
What about the unconscious? You can't even realize what it means to be unconscious, since you...well, your not conscious. It is not beautiful, it is trivial. What message or moral can the unconscious dictate to someone? Greek ideals seem logical to me because perfection is something worth striving for, not the dysgenic.
It is beautiful, and I don't think altered states of perception are trivial at all. Even the Greeks participated in the eleusian mysteries which involved ingesting a psychoactive substance similar to LSD. Striving for perfection will always leave you wanting, since such a thing does not exist. Connection with the mysterious and fantastic worlds available to one under an altered state is how religion was practiced for tens of thousands of years. I don't know really what Ryden's thoughts are on the matter, but I connect with these images in a way that leave renaissance painting rather flat and uninteresting. The difference could be that the substances that allow one access to these states are now more common than ever. We are returning, like it or not, to our pagan roots. At least the Greeks were more interesting than their European copycats.