Beethovens 9th and the Grosse Fugue

Last night, 25^th May 2011, I watched a film about the last years of the life of Ludvig van Beethoven centering on the completion and performance of the 9th Symphony and his writing of the Grosse Fugue. I was reminded once more of the occasion of first hearing a live performance during my first and only season of attending promenade concerts at the Royal Albert Hall with a half season ticket.

I was reminded that whenever I heard The Symphony No 9 in D minor, Op 125 "Choral" (1824) my soul revels in an ecstasy of emotion and memory at the wonder of my own experiences and at the capacity of talented and inspired human beings to create for the enjoyment and betterment of everyone and anyone willing to listen.

I went to my collection to CD’s and was shocked to find that I do not posses a copy and I was immediately too lazy to transfer the record player console from next door to this room, or sit next door listening. Fortunately I live in this increasingly wondrous but also horrific technological era when it is possible within seconds to conjure a full version of the Symphony via the Internet. In this instance a Live Performance on 17^th May 1956 with Otto Klemperer conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra. The sound reproduction via the internet speakers of this 50 year old recording was not good but nevertheless brought back my reactions to the film and previous listening.

Afterwards I decided that it was stupid to keep the present location of the audio player next door because I rarely, if ever, go just to listen so the next task was reorganise which involved a dusting and move the player to the small table behind me placed against a middle wall of the building so what while the sound will fill this room it will have less of an impact on neighbours. I have a pair of large Sony speakers which have to be attached by wire to the back of the unit with patient skill but once connected they produce a rich deep enveloping sound which underlines the limitations of the Internet and TV reproductions. I am listening to the 5^th Symphony - bon bon bon, and the sixth, known as the Pastoral. I did find my copy of the 9^th but the crackle was such to confirm that I do need one of those Internet connect units which removes the surface noise. I have the noble intention of converting all my video film, tape recordings to the CD and DVD as part of the artwork project, as well as reading all the books and then making written notes. At present I lack the physical strength and the will to complete all the tasks I have set myself as well as continue to experience “new” experience, but listening to the great Master composer I am fired with the fresh determination.

This was also the basic theme of the fictitious films called Copying Beethoven, and MGM 2006 production with Ed Harris giving an excellent performance of the aggressively deaf Beethoven and Diane Kruger as the female composer who persuades her father to allow her to go on her own to Vienna to study at the conservatoire and live at a local convent. She is a fictional character and the convent aspect is a gesture to the reality of the times 1824 1827 when apart from courtesans and the proletariat an educated middle/upper class woman would not be allowed to travel unaccompanied. The other concession to modernity is that she has a boyfriend and although kiss is a chaste one this again would not have been permitted.

The purpose of this fictional character is to expose the temperamental genius of the Maestro who was totally deaf and could not hear the music he was creating and communicated mainly by notepads. And the theme? The nature of creative genius and the inspiration which the young woman experiences by undertake work for Beethoven and which at one point he declares “you want to me.”

In the film story the young woman knows/studies/is related to the man who acts as copyist and assistant to Beethoven who because of illness asks her to step in for a session and she grasps the opportunity and sticks with the position despite the dust and chaos in which he lives, including rats. He is attracted, in a nice way, to her individuality recognising a fellow spirit whose creative abilities need to be unlocked from the conventional upbringings of the day.

In the build up to the completion of the ninth Symphony there are two sub stories. The first is the relationship between Beethoven and a nephew who has gambling debts and comes to Beethoven for financial help. Beethoven adores the young man and wants him to become a concert pianist but the young man knows he has no talent and wants to become an officer in the military. The second story is that of the relationship between the young copyist and her engineer boyfriend who has designed a bridge for a competitive selection contest. The bridge is a great disappointment to the girl who pretends otherwise but Beethoven who attends smashes the work with his stick because it has no soul, something when pressed the young woman agrees. The boyfriend issues an ultimatum that she must have no contact with Beethoven or lose him and she chooses Beethoven because in her the creative drive dominates all others.

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The highlight of the film is the first performance of the Symphony where the Director has skillfully fused the opening of the work with opening of the choral fourth movement. Beethoven officially conducted but in reality the Orchestra was required to follow the directions of another, in a less conspicuous location and ignore those of Beethoven. He had male assistants on the platform giving him the tempo so he could attempt to synchronies his hand movements with the orchestral sounds. In the film the young woman is placed among the musicians enabling him to give a perfect rendering. Her boyfriend is in the audience and responds to the situation with a mixture of admiration and jealousy. Also in the audience is the nephew who is emotionally affected and appears to be remorseful for his recent behaviour.

What is authentic is that the Viennese high society was ecstatic in their appreciation of the new work. In fact the response of the audience was such as to cause concern because it exceeded what was permitted by the conventions of the day.

This reminds of the different reactions in the USA and the UK to when Tony Blair was invited to address the joint House of the State and President Obama’s address to the joint Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall. His speech to Congress as with the Presidential State of the Union speech there are prolonged applause interruptions, up to a score of occasions. The addresses at Westminster Hall, the previous being Nelson Mandela, The Pope and Her Majesty the Queen are greeted in respectful silence with prolonged applause at the end. Yesterday there was one unscheduled interruption when he referred to the own background and becoming the President. Whether he had intended or not at the end of the speech instead of quickly departing he moved into the long hall and made a slow walk shaking the hands with as many people as he could including a surprised and joyous Nicholas Soames, the grandson to Winston Churchill to whom the President referred in his speech several times. I will comment more on the speech and the visit later.

Returning to the film there were two other aspects worth recording. The first is the reaction of Beethoven to the first musical composition presented by the young woman which ridicules. He makes amends later by commenting favourably having made generalizations about the death of female composers who have made it in the past an observations which remains valid, although this has as much to do with the musical establishment and with any lack of abilities.

This brings me to the other subject of the film, we mostly if not all, end our lives in a sense of failure, and in his instance the Grosse Fuge, the Grand Fuge, which was one the last works he created as a single work for a string quartet without a break for individual movements and is a combination of “dissonance and contrapuntal complexity.” In the film the audience walks out to a man and woman leaving him alone with the young woman who also admits she also does not understand the music. Ivor Stravinsky declared the work an absolute contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary for ever. Along with the Ninth considered by many to be one of the greatest symphonic works of all time, the Fuge is regarded as one of his greatest works, and as with all genius the work is often so ahead of its time to be unappreciated and even ridiculed in the day. I followed the Symphonies with a recording of the sound track of the film about the life if Jacqueline Du Pres which ends with a full performance of the Elgar Concerto in E Minor for Cello and Orchestra and which ended just in time for the commencement of the third day’s play at Edgbaston only to find the start was delayed because of rain.

Mahler and Rachmaninov in 3 D

My soul is in live entertainment and art but I am limited in what I can now experience directly because of two factors. My age and chosen way of life and the way I have allocated my finances. The age issue existed before the decision to rise before six and swim in that I have attended orchestral concerts and stage events and struggled to keep awake during evening performances however interesting the work. I have had the same challenge going to afternoon performances both before and since the swim regime, but have been able to manage better recently. I do not dare try and work out the cost of white and coloured A4 cards, the display albums, box files, transparent pockets, the boxes, the photographic paper the glitter pens, the in cartridges and the glue, the printers, computers, cameras and recording devices, display units, lockable filing cabinets, subscriptions and other materials used to create the art work project where recently I finally achieved the half way mark with 10000 completed sets and with other work in progress around 250000 cards and paper sheets now that I have been forced to change down through lack of space as well as cost. The cost of live everything has anyway outstripped my ongoing means at the level I would have wished had I not been so committed to the project.

This week is going to a test of my ability to change my daily life cycle as I decided not to resist the opportunities for new experiences while continuing my present level of involvement with additional or different experience. I use additional experience or different to describe experience which is similar to that of before such going to watch Durham play championship cricket at the Emirates riverside against Somerset. If I was going to a game at Taunton then I would describe this as new or original experience because I have never watched cricket at Taunton although I have travelled through the two while driving to other places in Devon or on to Cornwall.

On Sunday evening May 8th 2011, I stayed up until after 11 pm and turned off the mobile phone alarm notification for 5.30 and although I awoke and made myself comfortable around 5 am I return to bed, turned my face away from the window and the daylight beyond and manage to sleep again rising around 7 to put the rubbish wheelie bin out and then returning and getting up finally around 8.30. The reason for this change of regime was a visit to the Cineworld Bolden for a film in 3D of Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra play two major works at the concert theatre in Singapore.

“The film starts directly with the first beats of Mahler's first symphony, thus without the usual pictures of the conductor and the applauding audience. Through location shots you slowly get closer to what is happening. From above, through the port and Singapore's skyline you step into one of the most important concert halls of the world: the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay in Singapore. On the one hand it is Singapore's emblem and symbol; on the other hand this Concert Hall has showcased some of the best Asian and Western music performed by some of the world's most notable musicians and conductors.” The concert theatre in the semi round appears to hold more than the 1600 because of the number and height of the tiers and is adjacent to a stage theatre with seating for 2000 in an iconic waterfront building not as effective as the Sydney opera house but better than the Sage in Newcastle upon Tyne.

“With the beginning of the first movement's principal theme the spectator arrives at the Concert Hall next to the Berliner Philharmoniker. Mahler's first symphony, originally bynamed as "Titan", lures the audience into a great symphonic world of sounds. The orchestra is visualized as the sounding body, musical structures interwine and music becomes visible. The film stays with the musicians and Sir Simon Rattle for the following parts of the symphony. Thus it gives the spectator the possibility to adapt and to enjoy the new 3D experience.”

“The capture of space in the image complies with Mahler's aesthetic of composition, its natural sounds and the diverse levels of different musical styles. Through the new visual language of 3D it is possible to add an unknown immediacy and intensity to the concertfilm. Just as we arrive at the orchestra, we are raptured from the sound's point of origin again.”

I would describe the experience as being able to get an even more intimate view of individual performers than the conductor and of the orchestra from the perspective of the conductor. The music is not affected by any extraneous audience sounds which I cannot say for the Bolden Cineworld where the small audience of 23, 19 ladies all but two between sixty and eighty and four gentlemen including men of at least sixty years of age. One would have not therefore expected noise at admittedly one of the younger women seated in front munched the form of crisps sold in cinemas, while one of the oldest expressed her reactions to the 3D effects, presumably for the first time. This lasted a good five minutes and I contemplated moving to the lower part if the cinema as the 23 had been placed or placed themselves in close proximity in the middle to upper tiers.

Mahler composed the word between 1884 and 1888. I was struck by the size of the orchestra yet for most of the time the emphasis is on woodwind and brass and on gentle tone play.

The original programme notes which were immediate dropped described the first part as taking inspiration from spring and the awakening of nature, flowering and setting off with full sails. The second part included a funeral march and the expression of a deeply wounded heart. Although the notes were withdrawn they do convey much of my reaction to the music

There was no interval between the two pieces although there was provision for the cinema to do so. The second piece was the Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances and the music is accompanied by brief scenes from around Singapore revealing the different ethnicities, cultures and religions of the people covering their movements, their faces, worship in a Hindu Temple, sights of the Western Skyline, a modern covered pedestrian walkway and Chinatown. I thought this worked well although not all the audience was impressed. The selection of images had direct relationship to the music especially the two sequences of dance movements and the ecclesiastic references as Rachmaninoff was much interested and affect by religious music and chants.

I learned from the notes on the Internet that it is “almost 100 years since the Berliner Philharmoniker became the first orchestra to record. Since 1913, it has been at the cutting edge of technological developments like broadcasting concerts, recording complete symphonies and operas on Schellack, Longplay and later Compact Discs – always using the latest techniques. What better orchestra than the Berliner Philharmoniker to be the first to bring concerts to cinemas in 3D, “Helge Gruenewald, Artistic Advisor, Berlin Philharmonic. I would certainly attend other 3D classical concerts because of having the best seat in the house and because of the price, although I suspect it could have an eventual effect on actual attendances in the theatre.