VIFF Review: In Search of Beethoven

In Search of Beethoven
Granville 7 Theatre 2
Monday, October 5 2009 6:15pm

In 2006 director Phil Grabsky gave Mozart his thorough treatment, correcting the myths that arose out of the fictionalized Amadeus. Now Grabsky sets his camera on Beethoven with the same thoroughness and myth busting in a breathlessly paced and information packed 140 minutes.

The film traces a chronological time line of his life. Details are filled in by readings from his letters, performances of his most significant musical works, and interviews with the most eminent scholars, conductors, musicians, and musicologists available in Europe. The film brings welcome insight into his personal life, and puts his work in context with the geopolitical events of the late 18th century and early 19th century. The revolutions, wars, and politics of the day were a definite influence on his music.

Beethoven the man is revealed in his letters as well as his music. While his popular image is of a misanthropic, deaf, and melancholy old man he was also romantic, idealistic, and gastronomic. He was constantly falling in love with his aristocratic young lady students and would write pieces devoted to them—most famously the Moonlight Sonata, and Für Elise. Unfortunately, his affections could not be returned because of the class barriers of 19th century Viennese society—no noble lady could be allowed to marry a mere musician!

He appreciated good wine and good food, frequented the best restaurants in Vienna, and cultivated the reputation of a gourmand. More than once he we would write and ask his friends for bottles of fine wine to sooth his ailments. Ominously, his father died an alcoholic after he fell into depression over the death of his wife.

His frequent bouts of poor health and progressive deafness were a great source of despair, and he was driven to the brink of suicide at a few points in his life. But his art brought him back as he could not end himself when there was always one more piece of music in him which he felt obliged to bring forth to the world. While he could no longer perform publicly on the piano, his deafness was no barrier to music composition as his later works are some of his best ever.

Despite the troubles of the world around him, Beethoven was a believer in the higher nature of humanity and the potential for societal enlightenment. This belief showed through in his music like his only opera Fidelio, and the 9th Symphony. Through adversity, (a) man could prevail with hope and love. Beethoven suffered through adversities both personal and worldly, and in the process produced some of the best music ever conceived.

I will be eagerly looking forward to Grabsky's next music documentary project when he takes on Haydn.