Notes for Beethoven n' Schubert
One day in 1785, Mozart, his father and a few other notable musicians of the day attended a small party and chamber music session in honor of Franz Josef Haydn's birthday. Important and innovative music by Mozart, dedicated to Haydn -- Europe's numero uno- top-o-the-pops composer- was presented. It prompted Haydn to remark to Mozart's dad (also a world-class musician) -- "Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name: He has taste, and, furthermore, the most profound knowledge of composition."
On another day, in I'll say 1787, a teenage Beethoven was brought to meet and play for Mozart. He played some of his own stuff and some of Mozart's. Mozart listened intensely, got up and left the room. He told his associates in the adjoining room, "Keep your eyes on him; some day he will give the world something to talk about." Or as I've read in another source, "This one's going to be trouble."
A day in 1827 found Beethoven on his deathbed (he would spend four months in bed, dying). He had long been aware of Schubert though they had never met. During his bedridden months, Beethoven had entertained himself reading through Schubert songs remarking, "Truly a divine spark dwells in Schubert". About a week before Beethoven left the planet, a friend brought Schubert and another young composer to meet the dying composer. Beethoven said, "Let Schubert come first".
Sadly, tragically, Schubert would follow Beethoven to the grave a mere year later, a stinking 31 years of age, damn.
What's the connection? Hmmmm. Yes, these four were the superstars of Classical Music and Classical Music is defined by the work of these four original geniuses. But that is not the connection I have in mind.
Vienna is. Vienna -- capitol city of Austria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Mozart came from Salzburg and Beethoven from Bonn but all four were true sons of Vienna. At the turn of the 19th century, Vienna had a population of possibly 250,000, major for the time. Austria was militarily formidable, financially sound, its monarch untouchable and its borders secure. This condition would not evaporate until 1889 when the heir to the throne shot his girlfriend and himself while at the hunting lodge, commencing the slow slide of Europe into W.W. I. That aside, Vienna was the alpha city of Europe during this Classical period and the culture expressed itself in music -- the music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.
In European (and other) history, cities tend to move in and out of prominence (alpha position). If a nation can sustain those critical conditions described above -- those being, loosely, strength in finance and the military, stable government and an enlightened co-existence with its neighbors- then a city in that nation can become a cultural powerhouse. This "alpha" designation has moved around a bit in the last 2000 years, give or take. Rome was an extreme case but so was Alexandria in the 1st and 2nd century. Cordoba in the year 1000. Florence in the 15th century. Holland in the 17th. Paris under Louis XIV. New York after WWII. Currently, I couldn't say who processes the Golden Fleece. For Florence, the genius was manifested in visual arts generally -- Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael. For Holland it was painters. London at the turn of the 20th century was all about writers. I will now attempt to limit myself to talking about Beethoven and Schubert.
Beethoven was not born on a pedestal nor did he live on one. I once heard a guy with a fancy accent on the radio discussing Beethoven's background like this: Suppose you were a physician and a couple came to you, the wife pregnant, seeking advice. Two alcoholics, T.B., clap, living in poverty and probably a host of other problems that you couldn't diagnose. Additionally, two still births and one child with Downs' Syndrome. What would you advise? Abortion? You just killed Beethoven. He came from impossible circumstances. However, both his parents were musical. He was not a prodigy as were Mozart or Mendelssohn. His musical development and achievements came after dogged hard work. He was a rough and difficult character. He did nothing well except write music. He had an awful temper that could be ignited easily even by those whom he loved or loved him, causing him to fall out of favor with them, followed by his begging their forgiveness and plying them with gifts. As he became older, his personal hygiene went south. He bickered with everyone. There were always those who recognized, supported and gravitated to his unquestionable genius, but he was really an unbearable person and his later life was one of isolation and social distances. In one of the great letters ever, EVER, referred to as the Heiligenstadt Testament, he confesses to his brother Carl that his isolation, wretchedness and unusual behavior was due to his progressive deafness. This was 1802, when he was 32 and still had 25 years of miserable health ahead of him. The letter speaks of merciful suicide, which he rejects -- "It was only my art that held me back". This deafness thing is central in the Beethoven mythology. Most folks do not understand the skills possessed by that very top echelon of notable musicians. There are musicians who are both gifted and trained to look at a page of music and hear, really hear it, as if it were coming out of speakers, and there are those who could hear music and write it down spontaneously, as if taking a dictated letter. As his deafness became complete, his music came from a deep interior source. It was meant for no audience. Pure music. Not so much modern but eternal. These late quartets stand alone in Western Art. Who among us could claim to have ever released thoughts or emotions so deeply held that we might not even know we had them?
As to the two pieces on our program:
The Fidelio Overture accompanies Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio. Overtures are smallish, one movement affairs that precede an opera. This overture contains all the great Beethoven devices for surprising listeners and demanding their attention. It also has some great tunes. One of the miracles of music composition is that you have people who can just keep inventing tunes, good tunes. There are only 12 notes in an octave, (the other notes on a piano are repeats of these, higher or lower) and every new and singable, hummable, whistleable tune is a new rearrangement of those mere 12 notes. Beethoven was the consummate tunesmith, second to none.
The Piano Concerto #4. Orchestral works featuring a solo instrument, (i.e. piano, violin, steel drum or kazoo) are referred to as concertos. Sometimes the soloist goes off on his or her own and leaves the band staring into space. That is called a cadenza. After a little while the band re-enters and off we go again. Music was changing in Beethoven's lifetime, often due to Beethoven. In earlier times, musicians tended to be dependant for there livelihoods on wealthy patrons, like the church in the case of Bach, or royalty for Mozart or Haydn. Beethoven quit that. Nobody told him what to do. He was, in this regard, an artist for a new age and his independence would be the model for most who would follow him. His concertos were very popular and people came and paid to come see them. They came to public theaters that were architecturally novel, and heard music on new forms of the piano that could fill these new halls with new sounds.
Franz Schubert. He was a city kid. His musical abilities were apparent and were nurtured when he was young. Vienna provided him fine teachers. He produced a great deal of music in his regrettably short life. His specialty was songs referred to as 'lieder'. He wrote symphonies and chamber music, and some opera, but his output of songs was huge. He fell in with a bunch of guys who liked hanging out all night singing or reciting poetry while Schubert played piano and all getting variously intoxicated. This might account for why he only briefly held one job in his also brief life. His father encouraged him to teach more but he didn't want to be bothered. He saw Beethoven in a music store once as a boy and thereafter kinda 'stalked' him. Later, they were mutually aware of one another, though only met on Beethoven's deathbed as previously noted.
Schubert's 4th Symphony is a fine one and he didn't name it "Tragic", that was the work of some publisher. Schubert would never receive the attention Beethoven did. In fact, in his lifetime he barely received any at all. He was a small quiet man and he is pictured always wearing glasses. One of his symphonies, the 8th, now titled "Unfinished", is readily recognizable, but the others are not and they are all gems. Full of good tunes, honest emotionality, rich orchestration, and all-purpose genius.
Eventually, Beethoven and Schubert were laid to rest side by side in Vienna's big high-visibility graveyard. Later they were joined by a couple of other heavy hitters.
As you listen to this music it all sounds (to the un-oriented ear) both similar and antique. When premiered, it was startling and new. Schubert's commitment to delivering emotionally charged music would become the grail of all the great Viennese composers to follow him. On so many levels, Beethoven didn't just open doors for the progress of the music that would follow, he ripped the freakin doors off the hinges. Critics at the time were not as kind as they might be now. You would not believe the reviews Beethoven got, how they trashed him, though the public loved him.
They were human beings. Exceptional human beings. They endure because they were brilliant and had something to say. They are neither antique nor irrelevant. They are with us to our benefit and re-direct our lives by example. They were real; maybe we live fictions.
--Robert Block