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BSO event to delve into the cause of Beethoven's death and blindness.
BEN MOOK
Daily Record Assistant Business Editor
February 15, 2008 4:35 PM
Modeling their approach after those of popular television forensic crime dramas, a team of medical and musical experts assembled by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will discuss the mysteries behind Ludwig van Beethoven’s progressive hearing loss and death at the early age of 56.
On Feb. 27 and 28, the BSO will present what it is calling CSI: Beethoven, which will use expert discussion, performance of Beethoven's music and an actor’s portrayal to give the audience a better understanding of the composer’s life.
The two-part event is the brainchild of the BSO Music Director Marin Alsop, who started preparing for the event more than a year ago.
“Still today, people don't understand Beethoven's deafness and his other ailments and I want my audiences to feel a connection to the composers, especially Beethoven,” Alsop said. “Plus, I probably watch too much television while I’m on the road.”
Alsop, a self-professed fan of shows like CSI and House M.D., has lined up experts including Dr. Charles Limb, a head and neck surgeon and assistant professor otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University; William R. Meredith, a Beethoven scholar who is the director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies; and Dr. Philip A. Mackowiak, a professor and vice chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The focus will be on Beethoven, who suffered from a host of maladies throughout his life including progressive hearing loss and a painful buildup of fluid in his stomach. In one oft-related incident, upon premiering his Ninth Symphony, the composer had to be turned around to face the audience since he was unable to hear their thunderous applause.
Beethoven’s progressive hearing loss, his host of lifelong maladies and his death on a stormy day in 1827 at the age of 56 will dominate the discussion. By providing some possible answers about Beethoven's life and illnesses, Alsop hopes to make the composer more accessible to audiences who might feel intimated by the Beethoven legend.
“Most people, when they think of Beethoven they think of the bust on the mantle,” Alsop said. “I want people to think of the entire person.”
Alsop said that what makes Beethoven’s case so intriguing is that while chronic lead poisoning is the most accepted theory there are still so many unknowns about what afflicted the composer.
“The irony is, is that even with all of the advances and technology available even today, they might not have been able to determine what was wrong with him,” Alsop said.
Limb, the Hopkins professor and a member of the computer music faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, said the event has been in the works for about a year. Limb said he finds it hard to imagine what it must have been like for Beethoven to struggle with the loss of the sense most crucial to a musician.
“For a musician it can’t be crueler, from a human perspective,” he said. “Music is your passion, it’s what gets you up in the morning and hearing loss is just a cruel irony for a musician.”
Beethoven himself would seemingly approve of the discussion since he was not one to shirk from discussing his health problems. The composer spent a lot of time mulling over what was afflicting him, most famously in a letter to his brothers, known as the Heilegenstadt Testimony. In the letter, he outlined a life defined by physical pain and the baffling loss of his hearing.
Listen to symphony No. 9 and No. 5 with normal hearing and with moderate or severe hearing loss.
“I have fallen into an incurable condition, aggravated by senseless physicians, year after year deceived in the hope of recovery, and in the end compelled to contemplate a lasting malady, the cure of which may take years or even prove impossible,” Beethoven wrote, according to an English translation of the Heilegenstadt Testimony posted on the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London’s Web site.
Beethoven also stipulated in the letter that upon his death an autopsy was to be performed in order to find an answer, even posthumously, to what ailed him.
“You, my brothers Carl and [Johann], as soon as I am dead, if Professor Schmidt is still alive, beg him in my name to describe my illness, and append this present document to his account in order that the world may at least as far as possible be reconciled with me after my death,” Beethoven wrote.
Considering the length of time that has lapsed since Beethoven’s death the panel of experts will rely on anecdotal evidence like the Heilegenstadt Testimony and other accounts, including the autopsy, as the basis for most of the discussion.
In addition, the BSO will perform excerpts from Beethoven symphonies, and Tony Tsendeas, an artistic associate of the Baltimore Shakespeare Company, will portray the composer at various times throughout his life. Using a hearing-loss simulation program, audiences will also be able to hear how the composer’s work would have sounded to himself.
“What I didn’t want is for it just to be an autopsy report,” Alsop said.
While her idea met with skepticism from people who thought the idea was “crazy,” Alsop said it was replaced by such enthusiasm that she plans to incorporate similar events annually. She plans to spotlight a famous composer each year, finding a way to make the artists and their work more accessible to audiences.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you go:
Part I (featuring excerpts from symphonies No. 1,3,4,5,9 and String Quartet No.13, Op. 130) will be held Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Part II (featuring excerpts from symphonies No. 5,6,7,9 and String Quartet No. 13, Op. 130 and Grosse Fugue) will be held Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Each event will last 90 minutes and will be held at the Joseph Meyerhoff
Symphony Hall.
General admission tickets are $20 for each night and are available through the BSO Ticket Office at 1-877-BSO-1444.
BSO event to delve into the cause of Beethoven's death and blindness.
BEN MOOK
Daily Record Assistant Business Editor
February 15, 2008 4:35 PM
Modeling their approach after those of popular television forensic crime dramas, a team of medical and musical experts assembled by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will discuss the mysteries behind Ludwig van Beethoven’s progressive hearing loss and death at the early age of 56.
On Feb. 27 and 28, the BSO will present what it is calling CSI: Beethoven, which will use expert discussion, performance of Beethoven's music and an actor’s portrayal to give the audience a better understanding of the composer’s life.
The two-part event is the brainchild of the BSO Music Director Marin Alsop, who started preparing for the event more than a year ago.
“Still today, people don't understand Beethoven's deafness and his other ailments and I want my audiences to feel a connection to the composers, especially Beethoven,” Alsop said. “Plus, I probably watch too much television while I’m on the road.”
Alsop, a self-professed fan of shows like CSI and House M.D., has lined up experts including Dr. Charles Limb, a head and neck surgeon and assistant professor otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University; William R. Meredith, a Beethoven scholar who is the director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies; and Dr. Philip A. Mackowiak, a professor and vice chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The focus will be on Beethoven, who suffered from a host of maladies throughout his life including progressive hearing loss and a painful buildup of fluid in his stomach. In one oft-related incident, upon premiering his Ninth Symphony, the composer had to be turned around to face the audience since he was unable to hear their thunderous applause.
Beethoven’s progressive hearing loss, his host of lifelong maladies and his death on a stormy day in 1827 at the age of 56 will dominate the discussion. By providing some possible answers about Beethoven's life and illnesses, Alsop hopes to make the composer more accessible to audiences who might feel intimated by the Beethoven legend.
“Most people, when they think of Beethoven they think of the bust on the mantle,” Alsop said. “I want people to think of the entire person.”
Alsop said that what makes Beethoven’s case so intriguing is that while chronic lead poisoning is the most accepted theory there are still so many unknowns about what afflicted the composer.
“The irony is, is that even with all of the advances and technology available even today, they might not have been able to determine what was wrong with him,” Alsop said.
Limb, the Hopkins professor and a member of the computer music faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, said the event has been in the works for about a year. Limb said he finds it hard to imagine what it must have been like for Beethoven to struggle with the loss of the sense most crucial to a musician.
“For a musician it can’t be crueler, from a human perspective,” he said. “Music is your passion, it’s what gets you up in the morning and hearing loss is just a cruel irony for a musician.”
Beethoven himself would seemingly approve of the discussion since he was not one to shirk from discussing his health problems. The composer spent a lot of time mulling over what was afflicting him, most famously in a letter to his brothers, known as the Heilegenstadt Testimony. In the letter, he outlined a life defined by physical pain and the baffling loss of his hearing.
Listen to symphony No. 9 and No. 5 with normal hearing and with moderate or severe hearing loss.
“I have fallen into an incurable condition, aggravated by senseless physicians, year after year deceived in the hope of recovery, and in the end compelled to contemplate a lasting malady, the cure of which may take years or even prove impossible,” Beethoven wrote, according to an English translation of the Heilegenstadt Testimony posted on the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London’s Web site.
Beethoven also stipulated in the letter that upon his death an autopsy was to be performed in order to find an answer, even posthumously, to what ailed him.
“You, my brothers Carl and [Johann], as soon as I am dead, if Professor Schmidt is still alive, beg him in my name to describe my illness, and append this present document to his account in order that the world may at least as far as possible be reconciled with me after my death,” Beethoven wrote.
Considering the length of time that has lapsed since Beethoven’s death the panel of experts will rely on anecdotal evidence like the Heilegenstadt Testimony and other accounts, including the autopsy, as the basis for most of the discussion.
In addition, the BSO will perform excerpts from Beethoven symphonies, and Tony Tsendeas, an artistic associate of the Baltimore Shakespeare Company, will portray the composer at various times throughout his life. Using a hearing-loss simulation program, audiences will also be able to hear how the composer’s work would have sounded to himself.
“What I didn’t want is for it just to be an autopsy report,” Alsop said.
While her idea met with skepticism from people who thought the idea was “crazy,” Alsop said it was replaced by such enthusiasm that she plans to incorporate similar events annually. She plans to spotlight a famous composer each year, finding a way to make the artists and their work more accessible to audiences.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you go:
Part I (featuring excerpts from symphonies No. 1,3,4,5,9 and String Quartet No.13, Op. 130) will be held Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Part II (featuring excerpts from symphonies No. 5,6,7,9 and String Quartet No. 13, Op. 130 and Grosse Fugue) will be held Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Each event will last 90 minutes and will be held at the Joseph Meyerhoff
Symphony Hall.
General admission tickets are $20 for each night and are available through the BSO Ticket Office at 1-877-BSO-1444.
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