Bonn and piano recitals
I really enjoyed my visit to Beethoven's birthplace last month. The fact that it is the only dwelling place of his family to survive intact makes it very special indeed. The Beethoven afficianados who got together at the end of the 19th century to save it from demolition deserve our fulsome praise!
It was quite moving to see his 2 pianos joined together just as they appeared to visitors at the time not to mention the personal effects such as ear trumpets, walking stick, compass and name seals... The ancient Egyptian quotation ("..no mortal has ever lifted my veil..") was there too in Beethoven's own handwriting along with his mobile writing desk. On the latter was the very last thing he wrote to do with his will/nephew Karl's entitlement.
Next door to the house was a recent addition called the "Digital Beethoven House", a kind of internet cafe where you could freely access the vast archive of Beethoven material stored on site. Down below in a kind of "dungeon" (appropriately enough!) was a representation of characters in Fidelio as "interactive objects" which you could manipulate as the music played in the background. By doing this the abstract patterns on the 3-D screen would also change.
Although I didn't manage to hear a concert in the splendid new chamber music venue on the other side of the house, I did manage to hear the Missa Solemnis in the Beethoven Hall in another part of town. I couldn't help thinking how PROUD these people must be that one of their number could produce such magnificent life-affirming music! The elderly conductor literally danced at the climactic moments in the great fugues.
I also took the tourist office's "audio tour", walking in Beethoven's footsteps as it were. I attended Catholic Mass in the imposing St Martin Basilica in the Munsterplatz, gazed up at the famous statue in the same square, walked down to the Rhine and back up to the town square where the elegant rococo style town hall still stands. Rather amusingly I couldn't return my (annoying American) MP3 guide as the tourist place shuts early on Sunday! Lost 20 euros deposit though...
All in all a fantastic trip and the "Beethoven" hotel I stayed at was excellent value, just yards from the house too.
Some recent piano recitals here in Scotland:
Mitsuka Uchido tackled Op 106 with great gusto in her concert last week in Perth Concert Hall. Only the 2nd movt failed to shine as she grappled mightily with Beethoven's powerful outer movts and carefully managed the extraordinary slow slow movt whose tempo she got just about right. Earlier she played Op 101 but when the lights suddenly went out confided to the audience, "I can't perform the fugue in the dark.."!
Paul Lewis continued his sonata cycle in Edinburgh on Monday night. I was most impressed with his graceful Op 2 no 2 though the other 2 sonatas in the set seemed under characterised by comparison. However the audience applauded him to the rafters after his electrifying performance of Op 57, the final bars of which are still reverberating in my ears!
It was quite moving to see his 2 pianos joined together just as they appeared to visitors at the time not to mention the personal effects such as ear trumpets, walking stick, compass and name seals... The ancient Egyptian quotation ("..no mortal has ever lifted my veil..") was there too in Beethoven's own handwriting along with his mobile writing desk. On the latter was the very last thing he wrote to do with his will/nephew Karl's entitlement.
Next door to the house was a recent addition called the "Digital Beethoven House", a kind of internet cafe where you could freely access the vast archive of Beethoven material stored on site. Down below in a kind of "dungeon" (appropriately enough!) was a representation of characters in Fidelio as "interactive objects" which you could manipulate as the music played in the background. By doing this the abstract patterns on the 3-D screen would also change.
Although I didn't manage to hear a concert in the splendid new chamber music venue on the other side of the house, I did manage to hear the Missa Solemnis in the Beethoven Hall in another part of town. I couldn't help thinking how PROUD these people must be that one of their number could produce such magnificent life-affirming music! The elderly conductor literally danced at the climactic moments in the great fugues.
I also took the tourist office's "audio tour", walking in Beethoven's footsteps as it were. I attended Catholic Mass in the imposing St Martin Basilica in the Munsterplatz, gazed up at the famous statue in the same square, walked down to the Rhine and back up to the town square where the elegant rococo style town hall still stands. Rather amusingly I couldn't return my (annoying American) MP3 guide as the tourist place shuts early on Sunday! Lost 20 euros deposit though...
All in all a fantastic trip and the "Beethoven" hotel I stayed at was excellent value, just yards from the house too.
Some recent piano recitals here in Scotland:
Mitsuka Uchido tackled Op 106 with great gusto in her concert last week in Perth Concert Hall. Only the 2nd movt failed to shine as she grappled mightily with Beethoven's powerful outer movts and carefully managed the extraordinary slow slow movt whose tempo she got just about right. Earlier she played Op 101 but when the lights suddenly went out confided to the audience, "I can't perform the fugue in the dark.."!
Paul Lewis continued his sonata cycle in Edinburgh on Monday night. I was most impressed with his graceful Op 2 no 2 though the other 2 sonatas in the set seemed under characterised by comparison. However the audience applauded him to the rafters after his electrifying performance of Op 57, the final bars of which are still reverberating in my ears!
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