Being Beethoven, BBC Four TV

[Nick Armstrong]

Halfway through the first episode of this three-part documentary https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kqq2

So far, the absence of a ‘presenter’ is a significant bonus (I feared one or more of the Usual Suspects from R3), just experts like Boris Giltberg and Martin Haselböck commenting and playing (plus a biographer or two).

Giltberg is especially compelling, and what prompted this post is his highlighting of a four-note motif in the piano quartet written when LvB was just 14, as “announcing” the mature composer to come.... and am I losing it, or are those four notes not also Shostakovich’s DSCH motif...?



I had no idea....

[LMcD]

Halfway through the first episode of this three-part documentary https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kqq2

So far, the absence of a ‘presenter’ is a significant bonus (I feared one or more of the Usual Suspects from R3), just experts like Boris Giltberg and Martin Haselböck commenting and playing (plus a biographer or two).

Giltberg is especially compelling, and what prompted this post is his highlighting of a four-note motif in the piano quartet written when LvB was just 14, as “announcing” the mature composer to come.... and am I losing it, or are those four notes not also Shostakovich’s DSCH motif...?



I had no idea....

I shall definitely be watching episodes 2 and 3. I thought Ivan Fischer was awesomely impressive, and agree that the absence of a high-profile presenter was definitely a bonus.

[Nick Armstrong]

Ivan Fischer

Yes, beg his pardon, forgot about him. Also Mark Padmore in wonderful voice....

[LMcD]

Yes, beg his pardon, forgot about him. Also Mark Padmore in wonderful voice....

My turn to beg pardon, as I didn't recognize Mark Padmore!

[ardcarp]

I thought this was BBC4 at its best. I thought Episode 1 was terrific. Ditto the tenor whoever it was! Agreed also that the lack of a cavorting presenter was a big bonus. Has this been shown before or is it the first outing of this series?

[LMcD]

I thought this was BBC4 at its best. I thought Episode 1 was terrific. Ditto the tenor whoever it was! Agreed also that the lack of a cavorting presenter was a big bonus. Has this been shown before or is it the first outing of this series?

It's that rarity, a NEW series on BBC4!
See#4 re the tenor, whom I failed to recognize.

[Flay]

I thought this was BBC4 at its best.

Indubitably.

But 'ang on, ardcarp, you can't have it both ways! They talked over the music, music was faded in and out, and the pieces played were incomplete.

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?21932-Today-s-Sunday-Worship-oh-dear&p=799764#post799764

Gotcha!

[LMcD]

Indubitably.

But 'ang on, ardcarp, you can't have it both ways! They talked over the music, music was faded in and out, and the pieces played were incomplete.

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?21932-Today-s-Sunday-Worship-oh-dear&p=799764#post799764

Gotcha!

I think the content of the series - well, at least so far - accurately reflects the title. It's a fascinating attempt to describe what 'Being Beethoven' must have been like. It was a smart move to begin with the incident relating to that performance of the Choral Symphony, as the viewer is intrigued to keep watching in order to discover all that led up to it.

[Serial_Apologist]

Most of my knowlege of Beethoven's music starts with the First Symphony, so it was good to have such a rich and detailed lead-up, looking at the young Beethoven, his relationship with the music of Mozart and, somewhat fraughtly one learned, his teacher Haydn - and, as others have indicated, pointers for the future. One comment which has stuck with me was: there is the music of before Beethoven and music that comes after him. A generalisation that future episodes will hopefully illuminate, but I'd never thought about him in that way.

[eighthobstruction]

....only saw the ending will catch up soon with beginning....but rather beautiful the way the expert flinched and teared up when talking of Beethovens heavy struggle....200 years later....

[Nick Armstrong]

....only saw the ending will catch up soon with beginning....but rather beautiful the way the expert flinched and teared up when talking of Beethovens heavy struggle....200 years later....

Yesss.... iirc, he (Jan Swafford) choked as well over similar subject-matter when contributing to COTW

[Serial_Apologist]

Slightly OT, but it might be interesting to learn of other composers who lost their hearing, and how, assuming they did, they coped. Fauré was one such - his being a chronic case of tinnitus; but it wouild seem that Beethoven's started similarly (as did mine) - namely a loss in the ability to hear upper registers coupled with a tendency for certain loud passages in lower registers to "jangle" painfully. On the programme Evelyn Glennie was interesting in this respect, having been deaf since the age of eight - I'd always wrongly assumed her to have been deaf from birth; one assumes the deaf person (or some deaf people) retain a memory of sounds sufficiently long-term to be able to hear in the mind how they will sound when translated from one's score.

[LMcD]

Yesss.... iirc, he (Jan Swafford) choked as well over similar subject-matter when contributing to COTW

I think the choice of experts has been inspired (so far, and I've no reason to think that won't apply to episodes 2 and 3).

[Nick Armstrong]

I think the choice of experts has been inspired (so far, and I've no reason to think that won't apply to episodes 2 and 3).

Yes... The only one who added little but generalised subjective waffle was Ms Nwanoku (a BBC cultural favourite) - her superfluous contribution was somewhat cruelly exposed when Evelyn Glennie came on immediately after to give a gripping account of what it’s like to be a deaf musician...

[ardcarp]

But 'ang on, ardcarp, you can't have it both ways!

It's a fair cop.....