I have discovered that it is a tremendous help to me to see various performances, have their movements explained to me and knowing what was going on in the composer’s life at the time. This is more helpful to me than just listening to his works, although I know I may not be able to find films of all of performances.
In keeping with that, I have been watching DVD’s (on “Sounds Magificent”) of symphony No.5 in C Minor and Symphony No. 7 In A Major with Andre Previn and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; The Eroica (“Keeping Score”) with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony and *“A Life With Beethoven” * (The Violin Sonatas “Spring” and “Kreutzer”) as performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lamberg Orkis on piano.
I am also reading everything I can get my hands on to glean what I can about the master’s personal life: his difficulties with payment, health, rough personality (could he have had Alzheimer’s?) and of course his deafness.
For instance, he seemed to never be satisfied with any piano forte delivered to him and they could not withstand his powerful playing which led to the strings breaking and someone standing close by to jerk them out as they broke, so as to not disturb the continuity.
This post is a request for any other Beethoven afficionados to recommend any other DVD’s I might have missed, including any and all performances.
Thanks
Quasi
PS: Excuse the punctuation/spelling mistakes, please. Not one of my better days.
Leonard Bernstein used to do televised “Young People’s Concerts” (available on DVD). Before that, he did some musical programs for the program “Omnibus” (also available on DVD). The one on Beethoven’s 5th is on YouTube. Part 1: Bernstein on Beethoven part 1 - YouTube
He also did Norton Lectures at Harvard (also available on DVD). One program was on Beethoven’s 6th.
I always found all of Bernstein’s programs very informative, whatever the composer or subject, and I recommend all of them highly.
These are audio only, but Dr. Robert Greenberg has multiple series of lectures with music on various Beethoven (and other musical) topics through The Teaching Company. The series Beethoven His Life and Music combines biography and musical analysis. Dr. Greenberg provides much historical and musical evidence that Beethoven’s periods of peak creativity and productivity coincided with the most emotionally difficult points in his personal life.
I’ve borrowed these and other Greenberg cds from my local public library.
This. I haven’t heard any of his Beethoven lectures, but can attest that Dr. Greenberg’s TTC courses are fun and informative and that the man’s love of music is infectious. If you can find any of his stuff in your library I’d highly recommend checking them out.
I tried to reserve the Greenberg audio biographies, but was unable to find them here at my regional library. Going to try the college library next.
Also as regards “In Search of Beethoven”: Wow! I subscribe to Blockbuster and they don’t have it, but Amazon does at about $30 bucks for a new copy of the 2-disc documentary. The reason for the “Wow!” is because I read some of the reviews from Amazon customers and they rave about it, so it looks like I’m going to go ahead and order it and keep it with my other Beethoven material.
A quick personal thanks to JCorre for the recommendation. The documentary is one of the best I have ever seen on LvB, and I especially liked the full performances on DVD#2.
Quasi - have you ever tried to play or sing any of Beethoven’s works? I don’t know about your piano skills (and Beethoven is hard - the easiest two sonatas are the pair, G Major & g minor, op. 49. There are lots of variations and bagatelles that are easier, but they aren’t as satisfying.) and he never fulfilled his promise to Giuliani to write something for the guitar. There are arrangements, but they’re killer hard and they tend to sound like arrangements.
However, I’m working on ‘An die ferne Geliebte’ right now, and it is exquisite. Ever thought of having a go at it? ‘Zärtliche Liebe’ is quite an easy song (‘Ich liebe dich, wie du an mich…’) to start with. Or there’s ‘Adelaïde’…
There’s nothing like wrestling with the actual notes to give you an understanding of the music. I’ve compared listening to Mozart to being like walking with Clark Kent - listening to Beethoven is like going on a serious hike. He shows up at the door with ropes, boots, crampons and a small axe and sure enough, you’re hanging on a sheer rock face faster than you can say ‘Allegro ma non troppo.’ By the second movement, you’re suspended upside down over a raging stream and simultaneously have never felt so close to your death and have never felt so alive. The third movement you gaze down on a mountain lake where you can’t count the shades of blue, and the fourth movement you see the most glorious sunset of your life before returning home to a pint and a hot tub.
I love his music; wish I could play piano well enough to do justice to the sonatas.