Facing Beethoven
His most salient trait [was] his intensity. His silences could be as searing as his rants; he had taught himself to stare without blinking. Sometimes this intensity was charming, [...] At other times it could be terrifying.
This quote isn't about Ludwig van Beethoven, although from what we know of the composer celebrating his 250th birthday this week, it very well could've been. No, this is Walter Isaacson writing about Apple founder Steve Jobs.
Recently, I’ve found it amusing to look for similarities between Beethoven and Jobs. They're both hailed as innovators who dared to see the world differently and challenge the norms. They were uncompromising about quality and results; Beethoven wanted a louder and better piano, Jobs wanted the iPod to fit in your pocket. By all accounts they could be very unpleasant people, but both worked to create beautiful things for the world. They both died young: Beethoven at 57, Jobs at 56.
Perhaps above all, what strikes me the most is how both of these figures have grown larger than life after their passing. Beethoven became the romantic hero archetype of the composer that inspired the 19th century, and Jobs today seems to be a ubiquitous source of inspiration for any new tech startup founder.
In Paris, there is a museum near Montparnasse which houses the works of the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle in his former workshop. Bourdelle had an obsession with Beethoven, and produced a number of busts of him. In the museum, they're mostly all arranged in a single hallway. I have a vivid memory of how the composer’s face becomes more and more disfigured, tortured, and unrecognizable. As if Bourdelle was trying to see past Beethoven’s external features and into his soul.
Like so many musicians, I can't help but be in awe of Beethoven's music. It is extraordinary after all!! Yet I rarely find myself reaching for his cello sonatas when I plan a concert. It’s been fascinating to watch the massive preparations for this anniversary year, and how even a pandemic wasn’t going to stop us from playing as much Beethoven as we could.
Sometimes I wish I could live in a world ignorant of Beethoven's greatness, so that I could come to discover his music all on my own, without expectation. I feel like in that world his music might’ve had a more profound impact on me than in this one, where I feel like I was told Beethoven was a musical genius before being able to understand why.
I find that the more that Beethoven's music is held up as something supremely exceptional, the harder of a time I have touching his works. I start to feel that if this music is a great as we all say it is, then I might somehow be unworthy of playing it.
I sometimes wonder if it has something to do with the way I’ve approached his music over the years. Of all the composers, Beethoven is the one I've agonized over the most. It seems like everything became more strict when it came to his music : No rushing, follow the dynamics, respect the articulation, play that phrase more beautifully, make this moment more special. All good advice for any music really, but these comments had a different weight when applied to Beethoven’s.
I remember spending hours rehearsing fragments of his string quartets, having endless debates over tempos, being encouraged to respect Beethoven's markings to the letter despite how uncomfortable or strange it might seem. As much as I agree that Beethoven — particularly for his era — was especially specific about what he wanted, I often felt like I was playing a certain way because it was expected, rather than because I truly understood what Beethoven was searching for in his music.
Because of all this, I have so many memories of playing Beethoven while being careful to make sure everything was just right, and ultimately it often made it musically unsatisfying. Ironically, the more I attempted to be "correct", the less inspired I felt.
In Jan Swafford's biography of Beethoven, the book that has helped me most understand the composer, he writes that for Beethoven:
Music was the one extraordinary thing in a sea of the disappointing and ordinary. Reared as he was in a relentless discipline, instinctively responsive to music as he was, the boy never truly learned to understand the world outside music. Nobody ever really demanded that of him until, disastrously, near the end of his life. Nor did he ever really understand love. He could perceive the world and other people only through the prism of his own consciousness, judging them in the unforgiving terms he judged himself.
The reality is that Beethoven was human just like everyone else, with all the faults that come with it. He just happened to have been able to imagine the future of music, just as Steve Jobs imagined the future of computing.
I know that for myself, I need to work at bringing Beethoven down off the pedestal that I feel he's been hoisted upon. I think that only then, when I can consider him as another among all the composers whose music I love, will I be truly able to appreciate and indulge in what made him so great.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading! I'm curious to know, what stands out to you when you listen to Beethoven's music? Is there something in particular that you enjoy about it? Let me know in the comments below!