Beethoven on Television

[sjwenger]

PBS will be running "Keeping Score:" an exploration of Beethoven's Eroica, this week. Local times may vary, and each PBS station decides whether or not to run it. In the Washington DC area, Part One of three will be on Thursday, November 2, at 11 pm until midnight, on channel MPT (Maryland Public TV, local channel 22).

I think this is a late addition to the schedule - if you don't see "Keeping Score" coming up in your area, look for "Program to Be Announced" or some such.

I haven't seen yet when parts 2 and 3 will air, if at all.
- Susan

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To learn about "The Port-Wine Sea," my parody of Patrick O'Brian's wonderful Aubrey-Maturin series, please contact me at
susanwenger@yahoo.com

To learn about "The Better Baby" book, ways to increase a baby's intelligence, health, and potentials, please use the same address.

[Joy]

Thanks for letting us know about this special on PBS. I will be watching for it!

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[sjwenger]

I see now that my local PBS station will run parts 2 and 3 on the following Thursdays. I'm looking forward to this!
- Susan

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To learn about "The Port-Wine Sea," my parody of Patrick O'Brian's wonderful Aubrey-Maturin series, please contact me at
susanwenger@yahoo.com

To learn about "The Better Baby" book, ways to increase a baby's intelligence, health, and potentials, please use the same address.

[Joy]

Originally posted by sjwenger:
I see now that my local PBS station will run parts 2 and 3 on the following Thursdays. I'm looking forward to this!
- Susan

Lucky you! I hope my PBS station will broadcast this in the near future! Let us know how you like it.


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[PDG]

Originally posted by Joy:

Lucky you! I hope my PBS station will broadcast this in the near future! Let us know how you like it.

Joy, pray tell, what is a PBS station? I know what a train station is. Yours, PDQ....

[Joy]

Originally posted by PDG:
Joy, pray tell, what is a PBS station? I know what a train station is. Yours, PDQ....

Are you putting me on? Maybe they don't have PBS in Britain. Anyway, it's Public Broadcasting Station where they broadcast classical concerts, biographies, and, oh, yes, lots of British comedies without any commericals. I think it would be like your BBC?!



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[PDG]

Originally posted by Joy:
I think it would be like your BBC?!

Ah yes, our Brainless Broadcasting Corporation. I don't have a licence, you know...(snigger)...

[Sorrano]

Originally posted by PDG:
Ah yes, our Brainless Broadcasting Corporation. I don't have a licence, you know...(snigger)...

PBS is funded by the educational institutions, plus donations from listeners and viewers (radio and TV). Some of the programming is local to the university that provides the service while other programming is syndicated and usually broadcast via the PBS network.

[Joy]

Originally posted by PDG:
Ah yes, our Brainless Broadcasting Corporation. I don't have a licence, you know...(snigger)...

Well, if the B in BBC stands for 'brainless' then that couldn't be our PBS, far from it!



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[sjwenger]

I saw Part One of Keeping Score last night. Parts Two and Three will run in the next two weeks. I thought it was very, very nicely done. It's gripping to see a person who has dedicated himself to music, as Michael Tilson Thomas has done, speaking passionately about a work he has studied for so many years. He showed his marked-up score, with all the questions he asked himself about the music. He's struggled for a long time to understand the Eroica. I really enjoyed the segments showing him rehearsing his orchestra for the performance.

There were interviews with the musicians who talked about the difficulties in playing their sections of the Third. Segments of each movement were highlighted and explicated.

One thing not explicitly mentioned but I figured out, as I'm sure we were supposed to figure out without Thomas drawing arrows for us:

In introducing the Fourth Movement, he described the "competition" between Beethoven and (I fogot his name) - a contemporary composer who had the temerity to improvise on one of Beethoven's themes, and Beethoven got into an improvisation competition with him. The guy's wife was a tambourine player who often accompanied him in duet when he performed, and they showed a re-enactment of the man playing the piano while his wife played the tambourine.

Anyway: Beethoven took this man's best-known piece of music, turned it upside down, played the upside-down music, and improvised on it for an hour, and the guy retreated to St. Petersburg in embarassment.

Michael Tilson Thomas said that the UPSIDE-DOWN theme that Beethoven improvised on was the opening theme of the fourth movement of the Eroica. Beethoven was showing off his cleverness, capitalizing on that triumph as an opening for the fourth movement. What Tilson-Thomas didn't mention was, there are three sharp notes after the first theme of the fourth movement. I surmised that those three BOM-BOM-BOM notes represent the wife's tambourine in the incident. Beethoven is still making fun of the man in his performance of the Eroica. If there's any confusion about what I'm rambling about, I'll listen again and count the notes into the movement to identify those three notes.
- Susan

------------------
To learn about "The Port-Wine Sea," my parody of Patrick O'Brian's wonderful Aubrey-Maturin series, please contact me at
susanwenger@yahoo.com

To learn about "The Better Baby" book, ways to increase a baby's intelligence, health, and potentials, please use the same address.

[Joy]

Sue, have you seen the special yet? How was it? PBS did answer me back and said they will show the three part series beginning Thursday, November 9th! On the 16th they will feature Stravinsky and on the 23rd Copeland.

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