Blog

So, I’m in the Memphis airport.  (Again!)  Yes, another day – another airport.  So, last “night” was the concert with the Beethoven Orchester in Bonn.  I have to say that it was a wonderful night all around.  I think every conductor showed something interesting.  It was one of the few masterclasses I have attended where I can say without reservation that every single conductor got better from the beginning to the end of the masterclass.  And, every conductor really brought something unique to the concert.  I think Maestro Masur was pleased with the class in general, and I know that personally, I was pleased to be a member of the class.

The entire seminar was truly a learning experience.  I learned an immense amount from the time in the BeethovenHaus.  Seeing the manuscripts (as I talked about in an earlier blog) really gave an interesting perspective to how we performed the piece.  It was also interesting to hear that at times Beethoven’s music was performed with “modern-esque” string sections AND that he at times demanded triple winds PER PART!!!!  That was truly interesting to hear.  It makes you rethink the ideas of the “performance practice” people.  I had some great conversations with researchers at the BeethovenHaus.

The one that really got me was a discussion of “performance practice.”  It’s amazing to me that if you discuss it with the actual researchers, they have a different perspective on it than the conductors like John Eliot Gardener, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, or even Sir Roger Norrington.  Basically, the Beethoven “experts” in Bonn were much closer in idea to me or Maestro Masur, etc. 
(I am not trying to invalidate what Harnoncourt, Gardener, etc. have done.  I am merely trying to provide another point of view.  What those conductors have done in their Beethoven cycles or their research is truly amazing, and it was truly necessary for the performance of Beethoven symphonies.  They revolutionized Beethoven performance by actually trying to take the score, performance practice techniques, and research into consideration.  They also brought a lot more intellectual thought to the performance of Beethoven.  The problem is that so many people blindly follow the ideas of Gardener, Harnoncourt, etc. that the whole revolution of thinking about interpretation that these conductors brought is lost.)

In my discussions with the researchers at the BeethovenHaus, they tended to agree that more thought needs to go into interpretations because there IS an argument for a more “romantic” interpretation of these pieces.  By that, I don’t necessarily mean the old Bruno Walter interpretations.  I think the tempi need to be a bit quicker than the “older” interpretations.  (And that is also what they said at the BeethovenHaus.)  But there is an argument for the warmer orchestra sounds, longer phrases, etc.)