every smith
  • MS: Max Smith's blog
  • History to the Defeated
  • every smith: independent creative consultants
  • Words: Max - a brief bio
  • Sites to see

Leamington Letters #67: Beethoven through the ages

27/1/2014

15 Comments

 
Picture
Young: The Atrium
The Royal Pump Rooms in Leamington Spa has had a chequered history since it was opened in 1814, as the New Pump Rooms and Baths, with the pumps themselves manufactured by two great names of the Industrial Revolution, Boulton & Watts of Birmingham. As ‘taking the waters’ became less fashionable, and those that wished to do so travelling to Europe, business and revenues declined throughout the 1840s and ‘50s to the extent that, in 1860, the building was to be demolished and the land sold for re-development.

A group of local investors managed to save it in the short term, but – failing to make a profit – sold it to the local Board of Health, and it has remained publicly owned ever since, lately under the control of Warwick District Council. In the 1990s, the Council proposed that it should become a private operation, and it took a concerted campaign by local people, with the help of luminaries such as Earl Spencer, Lady Diana’s father and a really nice guy, to thwart these Thatcherite plans and, instead, transform these famous buildings into a cultural complex, which incorporates a library, a museum, an art gallery, a tourist information centre, and the refurbished original assembly rooms. This last has an ambience and an acoustic which are particularly well-suited to chamber music and, in my view at least, has contributed immeasurably to the continuing success of Leamington’s International String Quartet series.

This is where I was on Friday evening to hear the Atrium String Quartet play a concert which included the first of Haydn’s Russian Quartets, Opus 33 No1, the second Prokofiev, Opus 92, and – in the second set – Beethoven’s quartet in A minor, Opus 132, perhaps the finest of Beethoven’s great, late quartets.

I am a huge fan of these four young Russians from Leningrad (or St Petersburg as I fail to learn to call it). Having seen them in Leamington, I have travelled to London for a couple of performances of Shostakovich in the Wigmore Hall; so I was looking forward to seeing them again at the Pump Rooms and hearing, especially, the Beethoven, which was written just 11 years after the building opened its doors.
Picture
Old enough: The Amadeus
They were in a hurry. The presto of the Haydn was taken at breakneck speed. The Prokofiev came and went in no time at all. And the great slow movement of the Beethoven came in, I estimate, at well under 15 minutes.

Now, I was brought up on the Amadeus, who would usually extend this movement closer to 20 minutes. Which it should be – despite the faster moments of renewed health which punctuate it. So the Atrium’s version lacked that sublime gravitas to which I was accustomed.  And it occurred to me, walking home in the rain, that this is to do with the age and maturity of the four players.

The A minor is about mortality. It was written whilst recovering from a life-threatening illness. The slow movement is dedicated to a god who had spared him. I am not sure that the youthful precocity of the Atrium is ready for the profound emotions which I find when listening to the Amadeus renditions. 

This is not surprising, really. Would one wish to see Lear played by a 20 year old actor? One looks for the life experience and depths of pain and pleasure of a significantly older man.

So with Beethoven who, at this point, had less than two years to live.

There is no doubt that the performance was technically accomplished. It was played with spirit and power. But perhaps because I am now of a certain age, I look for more emotional resonance, more appreciation of the uncertainties and inconclusiveness of life.

So it's back to those distant memories of the Amadeus in the '60s and to those definitive recordings.

Back also to The Swaps at Wilde's tonight. Still an age gap but I'll hack it.

Today from the everysmith vault: in addition to the Amadeus recording, I have also listened to the Lindsays. Interestingly, Peter Cropper and the boys come in at more than 18 minutes for the slow movement. 



15 Comments
Rod
27/1/2014 01:35:20

Personally, I never trust a violinist over the age of 30.

Reply
Peter
27/1/2014 01:46:15

Think this is a good point. There is also a cultural element: can middle-class white boys sing the blues? Discuss.

Reply
CJ
27/1/2014 02:01:45

I seem to remember an interview with the Emerson Quartet some years ago when they recorded the late quartets. It was to the effect that they believed that they were now capable of taking them on, having reached - I think - middle age. The reductio ad absurdum of course is that there is young music and old music and that they belong exclusively to the appropriate age group. Nonsense. But I agree with you in this case.

Reply
StephenB
27/1/2014 02:57:05

The Lear analogy is good. And works the other way - an old man playing Hamlet? Not sure how far one can push this thought, though. And suspect that you have it right when you refer to your age and response to the performance. Did you fully appreciate the Amadeus when you were 20 or younger? No you didn't. Nor the Beethoven.

Reply
Jem
27/1/2014 05:13:47

I think this is the point. Max, what is the demographic of a Leamington audience for a late quartet? Of your certain age?

Reply
Max
6/2/2014 03:17:37

AB, white, 50 to 70. Bit like me really!

Matt
27/1/2014 04:22:42

I'm not a musician but isn't there some stuff about subsequent metronome markings instructing faster playing than the tempo indicates? Proper musicians please comment because I am now intrigued.

Reply
Laurie
27/1/2014 05:58:00

Nor am I but it has long been realised that there was something wrong with Beethoven's metronome. Some of his tempo markings are regarded as so fast that they are impossible to play. There's an article in the American Mathematic Journal of all places which gives you as much and more detail than you probably need:www.ams.org/notices/201309/rnoti-p1146.pdf‎

Reply
Martin
27/1/2014 07:29:33

I thought they were good and enjoyed the evening. They made a lovely sound and they were interesting to watch, too. I think that more than most quartets I've seen they were making this big overt effort to express and communicate with each other and that's why they were so interesting to watch. I often like to close my eyes when listening to classical music, especially quartets, but with this lot I was concerned I might be missing something. Looking back, I think I was more impressed with the first half than the second. I'm always impressed by just how good Haydn is, especially played like that - so deftly. I guess we should expect it that top quartets are so technically brilliant, but I'm always impressed. I thought the Prokofiev was really interesting, it had lovely moments in it, and they really went to town on it. Loved it. I think I like my Beethoven late quartets austere, played by very old grey men and women, trembling and all weltschmerzed out, who really know what it's about. The Atrium Quartet made such a lovely smooth sound it didn't seem quite right. But it was different, it was their way of playing it, and I did enjoy it. Having said that, I didn't think they were brilliant in the first movement, not so together, I almost thought 'under-rehearsed', but perhaps I just hadn't got my ear in properly, because I thought the subsequent movements were just fine, and they did the slow movement beautifully.

Reply
Allan
27/1/2014 11:41:39

There's an age thing sure. But also cultural. What makes them such great interpreters of Shostakovich makes them less so with. Beethoven.

Reply
Rick Hough
30/1/2014 00:38:04

Very much enjoyed Mr. Smith's observations and then found myself fascinated by the discussion among the commenters. One doesn't frequently get to read a collection of differing views of a single performance.

Reply
Anders
30/1/2014 09:05:58

Intrigued by this and have checked out this business of the faulty metronome. It would appear that quartets strike a balance between the markings.But it is also true that each generation reinvents for itself, and perhaps this is what the Atrium was doing. It may not be for you, Max, but it might be for your children ...

Reply
Doctor D
30/1/2014 17:42:32

How should one read 'perhaps the finest'? Has 132 replaced 131 in your affections? - the latter of which I came to rate the highest through your recommendations of the versions by both the Amadeus and the Lindsays?

Reply
Max
6/2/2014 03:15:35

Sleep easy. My allegiance still with the 131. The form of words merely an acknowledgement that others have another view! Must be getting old! Et toi?

Reply
Doctor D
17/2/2014 19:48:44

I must go on. I can't go on. I'll go on.




Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Max Smith

    European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father, grandfather and son. Resident in Warwick, England.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Baseball
    Books
    Film
    Food + Drink
    French Letters
    Leamington Letters
    Media
    Music
    People
    Personal
    Politics
    Sport