Beethoven's Ninth: An Ode To Humanity - Arte Click here to watch 200 years ago today, on May 7, 1828, in Vienna, the first choral symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, was played for the first time. It had been commissioned by the London Philharmonic Society but it soon became clear that London didn’t have the musical resources it needed - a huge choir that could sing Schiller’s poem Ode To Joy in German and an orchestra large enough to do it justice. Beethoven, who had wanted it premiered in his hometown, Berlin, grudgingly agreed to its first performance taking place in Vienna. The hall was packed with an eager and curious audience including the Austrian Chancellor, Klemens von Metternich for what would be the composer's first onstage appearance in 12 years. The orchestra, which included many important musicians, had only two rehearsals to learn this monumental work which they had never seen before. Beethoven was billed to conduct but the orchestra, soloists and singers were actually led by Michael Umlauf while Beethoven stayed at the side of the stage, following the score and waving his hands, but unable to hear it as he was, by then, stone deaf. The symphony was an immediate and outstanding success. At the end, Beethoven, with his back to the audience, was unaware of the pandemonium of applause breaking out behind him, and the contralto soloist, young Constance Unger, gently turned him around so that he could see the joy his “Ode to Joy” had caused. The audience acclaimed him through five standing ovations. Once they realised Beethoven could not hear the applause, they waved their handkerchiefs in the air, raised their hats and hands so he could at least see the ecstatic audience reaction. This year, Beethoven fans (and is anybody NOT a Beethoven fan?) have been bombarded with 200th anniversary performances on stage, in concert halls, on television and in the streets, of this transcendent work and I have screened several new video productions only this week, nearly all of which are excellent. But after all this fuss, in the end, I have no hesitation in recommending this one to you. Larry Weinstein is a top Canadian filmmaker who specialises in films about music and the depiction of the creative process, but his other subjects have ranged from the horrors of war to the pleasures of football. Garlanded with many well-deserved and prestigious awards, he has never shirked from inserting politics into his films when called for, as with his brilliant film The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin. But unexpectedly, when he set out to make a film about Beethoven’s Ninth for the 200th anniversary, it turned into something deeply personal. His sister, Judih, and her husband Gadi, who lived on the Israeli Kibbutz closest to the Gaza border, though at first it was thought that they had survived as hostages, have now been confirmed to have been slaughtered by Hamas in their home on October 7. Suddenly, Weinstein was making a film, not just about the difficult life of a transcendent genius composer and his greatest work, within the context of its geography, history and politics, and the ways in which it has been purloined in the conduct of war, but also about the personal cost of war through a family. His own family. This film is a kind of masterpiece, with its objective narrative about Beethoven and his work, as well as the appropriation of the Ninth throughout its 200-year history, as it has been used and abused all over the world by dictators, politicians, and, yes, music lovers, as a symbol of both war and peace. Here are Nazi rallies, the Berlin Wall, Leonard Bernstein, and the countless people for whom Beethoven’s Ninth is a beacon of hope. But it is also the story of a family, the filmmaker’s family, as they live through the agony of waiting for news of their dearly loved relatives, cruelly butchered in the current war, and try to come to terms with the worst possible outcome. Beethoven’s Ninth: An Ode To Humanity, a film by Larry Weinstein, is free to watch, and it is simply unmissable. The Little Big Things – National Theatre Click here to subscribe to the National Theatre At Home National Theatre at Home has just released the worldwide premiere of The Little Big Things, a new musical telling the extraordinary true story of an ordinary family - based on the best selling autobiography by Henry Fraser. Henry Fraser was left paralysed from the shoulders down after an accident on holiday in Portugal when he was 17. He has gone on to build a large profile as a motivational speaker and by inspiring his 45.2k followers on Twitter to overcome obstacles and live life to the fullest. When one moment changes everything, Henry’s family are split between a past they no longer recognise, and a future they could never foresee. It is an extraordinary true story about an ordinary family. The Little Big Things is a colourful new British musical with an explosive theatrical pop soundtrack in a world premiere production. You can subscribe monthly (£9.99) or annually, and cancel at any time. National Gallery – Picture of the Month Click here to watch The National Gallery’s Picture of the Month for May is Piero della Francesca's 'The Baptism of Christ' and, In celebration of the Gallery’s 200th birthday, Director Gabriele Finaldi has picked one of his favourite works in the collection to share with us. As always, his commentary is informative and succinct. I always come away from these brief discriptive videos knowing more than I knew before and with a deeper understanding of the art. Lenore Piano Trio – Wigmore Hall Click here for tickets which are £20 The Kindertransport was a unique humanitarian rescue programme which ran between November 1938 and September 1939. Approximately 10,000 children, the majority of whom were Jewish, were sent from their homes and families in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Great Britain. A prime mover in this rescue effort was Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker, not Jewish, who travelled to Czechoslovakia, saw the plight of Jewish families desperate to save their children even if they could not save themselves from the Nazis, and when he returned to Britain led the campaign to insist that the British government help the children. He said, “Now I have seen it, I cannot unsee it”. For as long as it was possible through the war, he worked to fulfill the legal requirements of bringing the children to Britain and finding homes and sponsors for them. Thousands are alive today as a result of his efforts. A recent movie, One Life, tells this moving story. We can still catch a commemorative concert marking the 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport, even though it took place yesterday. The Leonore Piano Trio, Benjamin Nabarro (violin), Gemma Rosefield (cello) and Tim Horton (piano), are performing a memorial concert programme reflecting the music, culture and heritage of the German, Austrian and Czech roots of the rescued children. Wigmore Hall, bless them, are keeping this fine concert on their website for 30 days so we can all watch it. £20 PBS Theatre Programmes in May Click on PBS.org to find your local station For readers in the US, and for those who can access the PBS app, PBS will be broadcasting a theatre-related programme every Friday in May. None of these are accessible outside the US unless you’re a PBS subscriber. I am, and it still took me ages and much patience to navigate the PBS website which is as inaccessible as Fort Knox, but do try if you are in the US or have app access because it’s a good month for the arts on PBS. On May 10 at 9pm ET it will be last summer’s Free Shakespeare in the Park production of Hamlet starring Ato Blankson-Wood as the conflicted prince, directed by Kenny Leon (sadly, no relation). On May 24th there’s the Broadway revival of Purlie Victorious starring Leslie Odom, Jr. also directed by Kenny Leon (still, no relation). On May 31st, the 80th Anniversary Celebration of Rodgers & Hammerstein, filmed in London at Drury Lane will be broadcast on PBS. John Betjeman anniversary Click here to watch Also worth mentioning today is that it’s 40 years since the death of British poet, writer and broadcaster, John Betjeman, who was Poet Laureate from 1972-1984. Although born in 1906, he was temperamentally one of the last Victorians, his work almost always harking back to the past, which he considered infinitely more attractive than the present, and he championed many causes for the preservation of old buildings, stations and churches. Here he is, reading one of his most famous poems, Norfolk, his reflections on his own lost innocence, with some delightful filmed accompaniment of his favourite English county. Pocket Review The Cherry Orchard – Donmar Warehouse If you are prepared to forego Chekhov, the new Cherry Orchard at the Donmar is tremendous. Benedict Andrews has adapted and directed this production, jettisoning Chekhov’s language but mining his meaning. The old order is changing. Russia’s aristocrats can’t see that their world is disappearing and that compromises will have to be made if they are to hang on to any part of the Russia they have exploited heedlessly for generations. The serfs, they will soon find out, won’t have it. And not just the serfs. There’s now a rising middle class who know more and want more in the shape of wide boy Lopatkhin (brilliant Adeel Akhtar). He knows how to shape the old estate so the family can remain in their crumbling house but, to do it, they will have to sell off some land for development, sell their ancestral cherry orchard. Unthinkable, says the lady of the house, the imperious, feckless Ranyevskaya, (a stunning Nina Hoss), and her brother, the hapless drunk Gaev, in a delicate performance from Michael Gould. Everyone else knows that change must come, the cherry orchard will have to go, and the servants will move on to a different if not exactly better life. All except the oldest retainer, Firs, female here, (a wonderful June Watson) who worries only that Gaev is not wearing a warm enough jacket. She sees all, says little, but knows that disaster is coming to the family she and her ancestors have given their lives to. Australian Andrews has thrown everything at this production. There are on-stage musicians, clothes that could grace any contemporary festival, music that Checkhov would certainly never recognise, a set which consists only of a carpet wrapped around the action, a smoke machine, and the actors sitting among the audience when they are not required. The dialogue is peppered with swearing, the ‘f’ and ‘c’ words merely puctuation into virtually every line, spoken freely by all the characters Chekhov gave us. They are all here and, if you know the play you will quickly plug into the way they fulfil Chekhov’s intentions while looking and sounding a million miles from his original setting for them. The performances from the entire company are exciting and accurate as to character. You may be shocked by the extremes of the production, I was, but I was won over by the sense that this great play has lost none of its greatness. Just its language.
0 Comments
|
AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|