Concerto: a Beethoven Journey, BBC4, 23 Oct

[Stanley Stewart]

Intrigued by a 90 mins documentary, Concerto: a Beethoven Journey, in which director, Phil Grabsky, follows leading pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes's attempt to understand and interpret the composer's five piano concertos. Filmed over the course of four years, his film peels back the many myths of Beethoven's life.

19.30-21.00hrs, BBC 4, Friday, 23 October, 2015.

I've already earmarked it as a likely addition on DVD, as partner to Eroica, the drama portraying the events surrounding the composition of Sym No 3, Eroica, as the composer struggled to cope with the loss of his hearing and his almost inexhaustible passion for music. A searing Ian Hart in the title role. Recorded, BBC4, 4 Nov, 2011 - how time flies! A possible thread for matching titles?

[Stanley Stewart]

A heads-up for tonight's BBC 4 (Fri, 23 Oct) documentary feature on the Beethoven piano concertos; recorder set for the occasion. Its intended partner, Eroica, is already back on the h/d - viewed it last night and Simon Cellan Jones's direction, fully complements Nick Dear's script and JEG's soundtrack with the L'orchestre Rev. musicians completes the occasion. Is there a more spine-tingling moment than Frank Finlay's final exit line, as Joseph Haydn, "Everything is different from today"?

Coincidentally, any approach of seasonal affective disorder as the days grow short have been positively deferred by the arrival, yesterday, of a 60CD boxset, Beethoven complete masterpieces - a real treasure trove at a steal price, too. My thanks to the poster on the Bargains thread for the tip. Shelf space no problem. Renovations in August got rid of a bulky wardrobe in a bedroom making room for a 10' x 6 set of shelving AND a welcome addition of daylight.

[VodkaDilc]

They were plugging this relentlessly outside the RAH when the Andsnes Proms were on. I kept one of the leaflets, which promised a cinema release on 7th September. One of the more helpful 'leafleters' told me that it would be released soon after that on DVD. I had not expected a TV showing so soon. It should be fascinating. There are full detals on the Seventh Art website.

[ardcarp]

Good programme...ideal way to play a concerto; piano surrounded by responsive orchestra and no conductor getting in the way! But can only be done with responsive, sensitive musicians which the Mahler Chamber Orchestra are. Little vibrato and playing (I think) at A440, not the fashionable continental A442. I'd have liked more music and less chat...but then Leif had to get across the usual (O-level?) stuff about Beethoven to a general musical public.

It says a lot about little Norway that a young lad reared on an island can aspire to musical greatness.

NB Why is this under 'general arts'?

[MrGongGong]

Little vibrato and playing (I think) at A440, not the fashionable continental A442.

Continental?

You aren't suggesting that all London orchestras play at A=440?

I don't often choose Beethoven but loved this.

[Tony Halstead]

Good programme...ideal way to play a concerto; piano surrounded by responsive orchestra and no conductor getting in the way! But can only be done with responsive, sensitive musicians which the Mahler Chamber Orchestra are. Little vibrato and playing (I think) at A440, not the fashionable continental A442. I'd have liked more music and less chat...but then Leif had to get across the usual (O-level?) stuff about Beethoven to a general musical public.

It says a lot about little Norway that a young lad reared on an island can aspire to musical greatness.

NB Why is this under 'general arts'?

'LITTLE NORWAY'...? Pull the other one!
Norway is 385,178 km ( squared)
UK is 243,610 km ( squared)

Apologies for the statistics...
bringing things round to the actual musical content of tonight's programme:
well of course there's no doubt at all that Mr L O A can 'hit all the right notes' ... but sadly, 'hitting' seems to be his modus operandi!
Where was the HUMOUR that he talked about very eloquently? Also where was the rhythmical HIERARCHY?
The words 'relentless' and 'dogged' come to mind.
The best thing he could do for his future 'career development' would be to beg - borrow - or steal a nice Graf, Streicher or Broadwood early 19th century piano, PLAY IT a lot, and then listen to lots of recordings of e.g. Brautigam, Bilson, Staier, Tan, Levin, Lubin, Lubimov, van Oort, Kite, and Newman.

[Stanley Stewart]

Despite Beethoven's seriously deteriorating health, I was deeply moved by this fine documentary which focussed on his hauntingly beautiful compositions and staggered to hear about the output of major work which followed PC5 until his death at 57, in1827, yet throughout, never a trace of self-pity. Inspiring.

Ardcap, re your reservation about the placement of my posting under the General Arts, I must refer you to the title block which lists The General Arts; the content is itemised as Visual Arts, TELEVISION and Film.

[ardcarp]

'LITTLE NORWAY'...? Pull the other one!
Norway is 385,178 km ( squared)
UK is 243,610 km ( squared)

...and the population?

well of course there's no doubt at all that Mr L O A can 'hit all the right notes' ... but sadly, 'hitting' seems to be his modus operandi!
Where was the HUMOUR that he talked about very eloquently?

I came away with a rather different view of LOA's artistic integrity. There was some lovely lyrical playing. I didn't agree entirely with him about the 'humour' (in the sense of Papa Haydn's humour). 'Esprit' might have been a better word.

a nice Graf, Streicher or Broadwood early 19th century piano

It's good to hear these from time to time, but LOA is not (and does not pretend to be) a Hiippster.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

'
Norway is 385,178 km ( squared)
UK is 243,610 km ( squared)

One for Pedants' Paradise, I think. There's a huge difference between 385,178 square kilometres and 385,178 kilometres squared.

[Tony Halstead]

One for Pedants' Paradise, I think. There's a huge difference between 385,178 square kilometres and 385,178 kilometres squared.

Point taken. I am an arithmetical numpty.

[Stanley Stewart]

Gotcha! A bit jumpy about HD gremlins and did an overnight transfer to DVD of Eroica and Concerto as ideal cheek-by-jowl partners. The space factor on a 240mins setting even allowed for a further 60 mins of programming. Checking the HD listing, I noticed the recent addition of Simon Armitage and Philip Larkin documentaries on consecutive days but, finally, opted for Who Do You Think You Are/Frances de la Tour? timed at 59 mins. I've always admired her stylish sense of high camp and, in particular, recall her dotty Helena in Peter Brook's truly magical production of MND at the RSC, Aldwych Th, in the early 70s. Later in the same decade, she was shattering in Duet for One, at the theatre above the pub in Shepherd Bush, W12. Is it still functioning? Ostensibly based on the life of Jacqueline du Pre in Tom Kempinski's raw, punchy play, the production enjoyed a long run transfer to the Duke of Yorks Th. How well she has mastered the craft of sensing the right pitch for close-up or wider shots and how elegantly she presents herself in many delightful settings throughout the documentary. Altogether, 3 classic programmes for regular viewing.

[vinteuil]

... the theatre above the pub in Shepherd Bush, W12. Is it still functioning? .

... very much so : it has moved round the corner into the old Shepherd's Bush Library in the Uxbridge Road, (much more comfortable seating!) - and is, I gather, going from strength to strength.

I really ought to go there - it is a few hundred yards from where I live. But I don't 'get' theatre...

https://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/about-us/

[Stanley Stewart]

Many thanks, vinteuil! Yes,do try and cross the threshold and sample the intense experience of intimate theatre - and it is really 'live' at its best. I also recall working at the old nearby Lime Grove studios in the 1960s with its presence of many ghosts from the past and Ned Sherrin/Millicent Martin/David Frost, That Was the Week That Was, in the present - and the knock-down prices at the nearby SB fruit market before returning to my pad at leafy Holland Park, No 12. or 88 bus if my memory is accurate. Happy days.

[Roehre]

Very nice program indeed.
A pity that Andsnes doesn't seem to look at surrounding works, especially in the one movement he skips: the finale of the 4th concerto, which has got strong links with especially the Prisoners' chorus of Leonore/Fidelio (as the opening chords of the slow mvt also relate to Fidelio/Leonore: the dungeon scene).
Of course he could have shown the even stronger relationship between the dreamy opening of that concerto and the stormy one of the fifth symphony - or the beginning of the violin concerto: all stemming from one sketched motive of that well known four note motive which begins the Fifth.

[Adsnes could have made a much more tragic point of Beethoven's deafness stopping him composing piano concertos.
Beethoven started (at least) two others after the "Emperor" (1809). One in F (1812), evolving into the 8th symphony {and the reason why there are 2 symphonies in F}. And one in D (1815), which was halted halfway the full score of the 1st movement, as Beethoven realised that he wouldn't be able to perform it and that his "heroic style" had become old-fashioned if not obsolete]

One point of more serious criticism: the earliest dates screened re the 2nd and 3rd concertos are straightforwardly wrong.
The 2nd concerto as it is played is the 1798 version, which not only has got a completely new and newly composed rondo as finale, but cannot have been conceived in this way before 1793, as the composer was 22. Not in his teens therefore (as suggested: begun 1786).
The "comparison" of opus 37 with Mozart's c-minor KV491 only makes sense Beethoven knowing this concerto as he started sketching his opus 37 in 1799, completing it not later than late 1800 (or 1803 as older literature suggests). Though it is not impossible he did NOT know the Mozart piece, strong evidence suggests he started the work shortly after attending a concert where the Mozart concerto was performed in 1799. The screened dates of 1796-1799 cannot be correct.

Just a matter of checking the 2014 published 2nd edition of the Kinsky-Halm Catalogue of Beethoven's Works as well as Leon Plantinga's The Beethoven concertos (1999)

[Stanley Stewart]

Fortuitously, I see that the December (sic) issue of the BBC MM, on sale from 21 Oct, has a Guide to the Beethoven Symphonies and the cover CD includes the Beethoven Overtures, BBC Scottish SO/Donald Runnicles - I heard a fine Mahler 10 from these forces on A on 3, last Wednesday, which encouraged me to retrieve their riveting Mahler 3 DVD, Proms 2010, from the shelves.