In Search of Beethoven (Phil Grabsky's blog)

[Agnes Selby]

Beethoven

I don't know about that, Agnes, but at the end of the programme it was mentioned that a DVD was available, although I couldn't find any mention of it in the usual places.. As "In Search of Mozart" is currently available, it looks very likely that the Beethoven will surface eventually.

Thank you, Michael. I will be on the lookout for this program.
No doubt our ABC will get it sooner or later.

[DavidO]

I have hopes for this documentary, but not high hopes. I've been burned too many times. I've seen -- we've all seen -- too many dull or tendentious programs about composers. Last night, I watched the very highly acclaimed "O Thou Transcendent" film by Tony Palmer on the life & work of Vaughan Williams. Now I love Vaughan Williams & I'm also a bit of an anglophile, so I figured what could be better? But Palmer has an agenda to sell: to strip Vaughan Williams of his English countryside qualities, his elegiac stateliness, his hymnal muse, &c. &c.

In principle, that's an admirable goal. I'm sure that Vaughan Williams criticism has suffered from that Hey-Nonny-Nonny view of his music as merely a collection of refashioned folk tunes, & that a useful corrective was needed -- one that put more emphasis on his more prickly & dissonant music. But the agenda in this very long (too long) film was shoved down our throats. Palmer's (& the biographer's) creed is that the composer saw such horrors in the Great War that his music was forever afterward marked by fatalism & despair, some of which is "hidden" by Tudor flavor & nationalism.

So the three-hour film -- which could certainly have been more judiciously edited (it dragged terribly in parts) -- contains numerous scenes of wartime atrocities & social unrest, practically none of which has any relevance to Vaughan Williams or his music. This stuff is repeated to the point of tiresomeness at first & ultimately revulsion. What's left? Dozens of interview clips, some of which are cute (secretaries & old friends) & many of which are trite or dull (the VW biographer, pop stars like Richard Thompson & the Pet Shop Boys). The music itself was played only in spurts -- the film could have used a lot more music (lengthier clips) & a lot less blather from the biographer, who wanted to sell us a Vaughan Williams every bit as concocted & phony as the earlier view of the gruff old folk-tune collector in his tweed & cap.

One sees the same situation with critical biographies of composers. Take the Solomon bio of B. Someone here -- maybe it was Phil -- argued that it wasn't Freudian (maybe he just meant that it wasn't overly Freudian). But my goodness! Not Freudian?! Solomon's whole agenda, which underlies every aspect of his biography, including his music analysis, is that B. suffered from an Oedipal conflict, & furthermore that this conflict expressed itself in Beethoven's relationships with his father, his brothers, their wives, his nephew, his patrons, his friends, his music, the aristocracy in general, the royal houses of Europe, autocratic French generals, publishers, & even figures from ancient history! You can't get much more Freudian than that. To whom could such an overtly Freudian interpretation of an artist's life be quite so interesting these days? The vogue for such readings has passed or abated, one would think. Nevertheless, there is Maynard Solomon, analyzing every strand in Beethoven's creative & psychosexual life as if it were a medical marker for deep-rooted textbook neuroses, all expressing the Oedipal conflict with dear old dad.

I like my biographies -- films or books -- when the biographer steps back a bit & moves the subject of the biography forward.

[Peter]

I have hopes for this documentary, but not high hopes. I've been burned too many times. I've seen -- we've all seen -- too many dull or tendentious programs about composers. Last night, I watched the very highly acclaimed "O Thou Transcendent" film by Tony Palmer on the life & work of Vaughan Williams. Now I love Vaughan Williams & I'm also a bit of an anglophile, so I figured what could be better? But Palmer has an agenda to sell: to strip Vaughan Williams of his English countryside qualities, his elegiac stateliness, his hymnal muse, &c. &c.

In principle, that's an admirable goal. I'm sure that Vaughan Williams criticism has suffered from that Hey-Nonny-Nonny view of his music as merely a collection of refashioned folk tunes, & that a useful corrective was needed -- one that put more emphasis on his more prickly & dissonant music. But the agenda in this very long (too long) film was shoved down our throats. Palmer's (& the biographer's) creed is that the composer saw such horrors in the Great War that his music was forever afterward marked by fatalism & despair, some of which is "hidden" by Tudor flavor & nationalism.

So the three-hour film -- which could certainly have been more judiciously edited (it dragged terribly in parts) -- contains numerous scenes of wartime atrocities & social unrest, practically none of which has any relevance to Vaughan Williams or his music. This stuff is repeated to the point of tiresomeness at first & ultimately revulsion. What's left? Dozens of interview clips, some of which are cute (secretaries & old friends) & many of which are trite or dull (the VW biographer, pop stars like Richard Thompson & the Pet Shop Boys). The music itself was played only in spurts -- the film could have used a lot more music (lengthier clips) & a lot less blather from the biographer, who wanted to sell us a Vaughan Williams every bit as concocted & phony as the earlier view of the gruff old folk-tune collector in his tweed & cap.

One sees the same situation with critical biographies of composers. Take the Solomon bio of B. Someone here -- maybe it was Phil -- argued that it wasn't Freudian (maybe he just meant that it wasn't overly Freudian). But my goodness! Not Freudian?! Solomon's whole agenda, which underlies every aspect of his biography, including his music analysis, is that B. suffered from an Oedipal conflict, & furthermore that this conflict expressed itself in Beethoven's relationships with his father, his brothers, their wives, his nephew, his patrons, his friends, his music, the aristocracy in general, the royal houses of Europe, autocratic French generals, publishers, & even figures from ancient history! You can't get much more Freudian than that. To whom could such an overtly Freudian interpretation of an artist's life be quite so interesting these days? The vogue for such readings has passed or abated, one would think. Nevertheless, there is Maynard Solomon, analyzing every strand in Beethoven's creative & psychosexual life as if it were a medical marker for deep-rooted textbook neuroses, all expressing the Oedipal conflict with dear old dad.

I like my biographies -- films or books -- when the biographer steps back a bit & moves the subject of the biography forward.

I think you're spot on here, although I did enjoy the Palmer/Vaughan-Williams - I was grateful that someone at least took the trouble to do an in depth study of a great and neglected composer and rescue him from Constant Lambert's list of 'cow-pat' composers! Palmer is generally reliable but nowhere was he more off the planet than his portrayal of Purcell in 'England, my England'.

As for Solomon I couldn't agree more - it really is such twaddle of the type that dominates modern thinking.

[Euan Mackinnon]

I have hopes for this documentary, but not high hopes. I've been burned too many times. I've seen -- we've all seen -- too many dull or tendentious programs about composers.

David

As someone who has also been 'burned too many times', I share your views.

I bought Grabsky's earlier In Search of Mozart and was disappointed. In particular the marketing blurb promised that the film would follow Mozart's travels and this was one of the main reasons I bought the DVD. The result was a travesty: I don't think filming a trip down Germany's autobahns etc etc constitutes 'following Mozart's travels'.

Despite this I went to see In Search of Beethoven and found it far, far better to the extent that I shall also buy the DVD.

The film is a straightforward, largely chronological, development of Beethoven's life and work. And 'straightforward' here is meant as a compliment to Grabsky and his team. For once, a film does do broadly what the marketing stuff says (give or take one or two exaggerations).

I would recommend you to give it a go.

Euan

[susanwen]

I'd like the DVD also. It's not available at amazon.com If anyone finds a source, please post it.
- Susan

[Fidelio]

DVD Available from the website
http://www.insearchofbeethoven.com/

[susanwen]

I tried, and I wasn't able to purchase it from that site. It is not listed yet in amazon.com, but I saw that amazon.co.uk will start selling it in September, and is taking advance orders now.

[Preston]

What was the problem that you had Susan, when trying to order? You could send Seventh Art an email telling them that their ordering system is not working properly.

[Michael]

I was able to edit together the five parts of the Sky broadcast and burn them to a DVD, and am quite happy with this.
Anyone with Sky Arts should keep a lookout for a repeat of this Beethoven documentary. "In Search of Mozart" crops up very often.

[Emma7thArt]

Hi everyone,

In Search of Beethoven is currently available to purchase from www.seventh-art.com. It will be available from all other major online stores from September 7th 2009.

If you would like any further information on In Search of Beethoven screening dates etc please visit the official website www.insearcofbeethoven.com

kind regards

Emma
Seventh Art Productions

[Fidelio]

I managed to make a purchase via the website.

Hope you have success soon.

[susanwen]

I tried again and got further in the process, but now I'm daunted by the price. I guess I'll wait until it's available in the U.S. so I can save on shipping, at least. I will buy it eventually.

[Emma7thArt]

I tried again and got further in the process, but now I'm daunted by the price. I guess I'll wait until it's available in the U.S. so I can save on shipping, at least. I will buy it eventually.

The shipping cost is £2 to the US.

[Preston]

I think the best thing this movie has going for it, which I have not seen, is that there is not a writer and actor trying to portray Beethoven. Although, I also, do not have high hopes for this film. Even when I go to the website they have a trailer and the 9th starts playing- seems like another cliche geared towards the popular culture. All these Beethoven movies use the 9th and make these huge scenes surrounding it- I do not like this. Although, I must give it a chance, and hopefully will be surprised.

[Preston]

just some thoughts

DavidO, even by writing what you did, makes my view of Solomon all the more clearer. Thank you. In the past I have tried to reason with his views, but your post makes my reasoning with him far less.

It seems to me, that he is basing all that he writes about on his understanding of psychology- which his understanding seems to be quite wrong. He reminds me of one of the psychiatrists that try to analyze every aspect, on end, of what they consider a "disorder"- the thing about these type of psychiatrists is- that it is them who need to be analyzed! They have no real understanding of such things, only the understanding of terms, .

Peter, I think you are right. It seems to me this type of thinking is of the modern and popular cultured classical thought. This is considered the new musicology isn't it?