What we want to do here is to engage a wide range of people in conversations about Beethoven and related topics. We will post shorter comments and questions, and we hope you will share your own thoughts on these topics.
-Question Number One:
We would like to know what films on Beethoven you have enjoyed, and what you would recommend (or which we should avoid!) …
-Question Number Two:
We would like to know which books on any aspect of Beethoven you have read and whether or not you would recommend them. You can share some of your insights or anything surprising learned from reading about Beethoven.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Jaap Steffan // Nov 11, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Films and documentaires.
The most famous film about Beethoven probably is Gary Oldman’s Immortal Beloved. A search for the woman who Beethoven called “Die unsterbliche geliebte” in a famous letter that was found after his death. Although the sequence of events are historically wrong, it still remains a film that is very amusing and worth seeing as long as one realizes that this film tells you nothing about Beethovens real life.
Copying Beethoven is another film about Ludwig van Beethoven. Not only historically wrong, but the story itself is very poor as well. I would suggest that this film is not worth seeing.
Eroica, The day that changed music forever, is a film about the effect of the Eroica symphony on its listeners when they first heard this great work, with Ian Hart as Beethoven. Not only can one enjoy the full Eroica symphony, conducted by Sr John Elliot Gardiner, but it gives a good impression on how Vienna at the beginning of the nineteenth century reacted to this symphony.
For people that want to get introduced to the life and works of Beethoven I can recommend two documentaries from the BBC. The first one is from the BBC series “Great Composers” and gives an overview of the life and works of Ludwig van Beethoven. It is very short (about one hour or so) and only shows the headlines of his life and works, but it is very suitable if one knows nothing about the life and works of Beethoven.
The other one is my absolute favourite but was never released on DVD. The only way to get hold of it is downloading by using the internet. Several years back the BBC broadcasted what they called; “The Beethoven experience” Apart from many activities they broadcasted a series in three parts called “The genius of Beethoven” by Charles Hazlewood and with Paul Rhys as a very brilliant Beethoven. This three hour film/documentary is very much worth seeing. It would be a good thing if the people at the BBC would decide to release this series on DVD in order for it to reach a broader audience.
The last documentary absolutely worth seeing is “In search of Beethoven” by Phil Grabsky, made in 2009. Not only does it show us Beethovens life, but a wide range of famous musicians tell us a lot about Beethovens works and what makes them so special. Among those who contributed are Claudio Abbado, Helêne Grimaud, Riccardo Chailly, Janine Jansen and many more.
So far for film, about books another time. If anyone knows of a film about Beethoven that I haven’t seen, please let me know!
2 Jaap Steffan // Nov 12, 2009 at 4:59 pm
The last time I posted a small commentary on Beethoven films and documentaries. This time books and biographies are my subject. Apart from books about Beethoven’s life and works there are a great deal of books about specific works of the Maestro. If you like you can read a book about “Symphony No9, The Pastoral Symphony, The Moonlight sonata, Eroica, The Violin concerto, Missa Solemnis” the list goes on forever. For this small comment I will limit myself to the subject of Beethoven biographies (a list that goes on forever as well) and pick four biographies that are very readable for both scholars as for the less educated, but very interested reader. Since all the books I will shortly discuss are titled “Beethoven” (how surprising) I will name them by the name of the author.
The first one is by Edmund Morris in the series Eminent Lives. It contains not so many pages and gives a very accessible overview of the most important aspects of Beethoven’s life and works. As an introduction to Beethoven one could very well start reading this book. It’s the story of his life, not of his works. These are treated in more detail in other Biographies.
A book that was a landmark in Beethoven scholarship since it was written in the seventies of the last century for several decades, is Maynard Solomon’s “Beethoven” now available in a revised, second edition (1998). It gives a very detailed study of Beethoven’s life, the times he lived in and his works. If one really wants to get to know all the details of Beethoven’s life and works this is a very good start. Solomon sometimes takes a psychological point of view when it comes to describing Beethoven’s personality, the interpretation of the text of the letter to the immortal beloved and so on. At moments like that he leaves the realm of pure facts and gives his own interpretations and explanations. While reading this (but indeed any biography) one should separate fact from interpretation and always consider other explanations and interpretations than the ones presented. Anyway, a book definitely worth reading!
In 2005 Lewis Lockwood released his Beethoven biography about the music and the life of Ludwig van Beethoven. Although time will tell, I think this will be thé new standard work on Beethoven and equals, if not surpasses Solomon’s biography. It is written in a very accessible way, with very detailed information about Beethoven’s works. In this book, the music comes first and gives the opportunity to paint a picture of his life as well, instead of doing it the other way around we find in most biographies. If you do not only want detailed information about Beethoven the man, but about his music as well this is a book for you.
And I just finished a very recent book on Beethoven by Jan Caeyers (2009). Unfortunately it is for now only available in Dutch ( I live in Amsterdam) and as far as I can see it is not yet translated into English, but it deserves to be translated and reach a wider, international audience. In more than 600 pages Caeyers paints a detailed picture of Beethoven’s life, music, the age he lived in and many other important aspects of his life. It was a pleasure to read and it is the very first Beethoven biography in the Dutch language. If you can read and understand Dutch you must certainly read this book! If not you’ll have to be patient and wait for a translation.
To really get a good image of Beethoven you should really read several different books on the subject. In every book you will find aspects of Beethoven’s life that will not be mentioned in another, and there is a big difference in interpreting certain facts. A classic example is the immortal beloved. Solomon tells us she was Antonie Brentano, while Caeyers tells us rather convincing that she was Josephine Deym. Of course there are inconsistencies in both explanations, and maybe we will never know (and I think that would be the best) but reading more books from different authors and seeing things from different viewpoints will help you get a broader view on Beethoven and his works. But words are insufficient to really get to know Beethoven. What better way to get acquainted with the greatest composer then by his own “musical biography” and to listen to his sonata’s, symphonies and all other beautiful works he created. I think you can not understand the man without the music and you can’t understand the music without knowledge of the man and his life.
I would suggest reading one of the above books, playing the music from that period in the background while enjoying an excellent glass of red wine! (Not necessarily from the Rhineland around Bonn, French Bordeaux will do:-).
3 Jaap Steffan // Dec 29, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I have to add something to what I wrote previously about “The genius of Beethoven” by Charles Hazlewood with Paul Rhys as Beethoven. It is available on Youtube (what isn’t). Search for “The genius of Beethoven” and watch and enjoy.
Another documentairy worth seeing is “Beethoven’s hair”. Also not on DVD I’m afraid. The story of a lock of Beethoven’s hair and it’s journey from the head of the maestro over the past 175 years into the present and the results of a scientific investigation of the maestro’s hair. There is a book about it as well, with the same title.
Since we are at the end of December I wish all Beethoven fans a very happy 2010!
Leave a Comment