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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

For Father's Day, conclusion of fine BBC film "Eroica," recording the moment when Beethoven debuted his revolutionary symphony no. 3.   And his "father," Haydn, said from then on, everything changes.  Love that same actor also portrayed young John Lennon.

1 comment:

Laurence Glavin said...

I try to keep up, but I was totally unaware of this film. I just got through perusing the background on it at IMDB.com. This was apparently the run-through shortly before the first public performance; according to a description of what had gone before the segment here, there were a few flubs be musicians not only unfamiliar with this piece, but inexperienced with anything like it! In the film, the audience doesn't applaud. At first I took it that they were just flummoxed and didn't know how to react. It's possible however that members of the aristocracy were disinclined to applaud because musicians heretofore were servants, like Haydn himself. I wonder if Haydn actuially attended this concert; he was in declining health by then. He had evinced some displeasure with some of Beethoven's early chamber music. If he had actually been confronted with liottle wearning with the "Eroica", that alone might have done him in. Now one presentation I'd REALLY like to see is that episode of the CBS Televion Network profram "You Are There" from the 1950s. The episode about the premiere of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony featured Lorne Green as LvB.