Patrick O'Brian and Beethoven

[sjwenger]

Author Patrick O'Brian mentions a lot of music of the Beethoven period in his novels, but never Beethoven - his heroes listen to and play a lot of Bach, a lot of Mozart, some Corelli, Clementi, Hummel, Locatelli, but nary a word about Beethoven. Why? Perhaps Beethoven was too revolutionary in his music for O'Brian's heroes to accept? Perhaps it was Beethoven's early admiration of Napoleon? Any O'Brian fans in this group with an opinion?


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Fate banging on the door with a jackhammer

[Peter]

I'm not familiar with this author, but E.M Forster was passionate about Beethoven and I always remember the lecture scene on the 5th symphony in Howards End. Tolstoy however was quite scathing regarding B.

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'Man know thyself'

[sjwenger]

Even if you're not familiar with the author, you nonetheless gave me two excellent answers to my question. 1. The Hornblower connection: O'Brian was touted as a successor to Hornblower, and made his lead character almost an antithesis to Hornblower. 2. The Tolstoy connection: O'Brian's wife had previously been married to a Tolstoy descendant, and O'Brian probably left Beethoven off in deference to her familial dislike. Thanks!


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Fate banging on the door with a jackhammer

[Peter]

Originally posted by sjwenger:
2. The Tolstoy connection: O'Brian's wife had previously been married to a Tolstoy descendant, and O'Brian probably left Beethoven off in deference to her familial dislike. Thanks!

That is interesting thank you. Tchaikovsky who admired Tolstoy greatly couldn't understand how he could refer to Beethoven as 'talentless' - nor can I, mind you I had a grandfather who thought Beethoven knew nothing about music!

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'Man know thyself'

[This message has been edited by Peter (edited 09-14-2005).]

[Rod]

Originally posted by Peter:
That is interesting thank you. Tchaikovsky who admired Tolstoy greatly couldn't understand how he could refer to Beethoven as 'talentless' - nor can I, mind you I had a grandfather who thought Beethoven knew nothing about music!

Is this the same Tchaikovsky who said of Beethoven's late quartets 'glimers and nothing more..the rest is chaos'?

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Peter]

Originally posted by Rod:
Is this the same Tchaikovsky who said of Beethoven's late quartets 'glimers and nothing more..the rest is chaos'?

Indeed. He was not fond of late Beethoven but greatly admired early and middle - well 2/3 is better than nothing! Not forgetting of course that late Beethoven was generally not appreciated in the 19th century.

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'Man know thyself'

[Opus131]

Originally posted by Rod:
'glimers and nothing more..the rest is chaos'?

You mean, unlike Thackosvky's own music, which is ALL glimmers and nothing else ?


[This message has been edited by Opus131 (edited 09-25-2005).]