Classical musical fans in general and Beethoven buffs in particular will find much to appreciate in English writer-director Phil Grabsky’s documentary, a companion piece to his 2006 work In Search Of Mozart. For the uninitiated, it may serve as a useful introduction to the musical genius.
Not quite a hagiography, In Search of Beethoven is an overwhelmingly flattering portrait of the German-born artist extolled by various experts as the world’s greatest composer, 'one of the Gods," and the man who 'defined what music means."
The film does chart his many failed relationships, his fury at the pianists whom he regarded as having ripped off his works, a mental breakdown and his thoughts of suicide.
But it does try to under-play some of the darker aspects of his life; there is a brief passing mention, for example, of the fact that his nephew Karl, whom he adopted after his brother died, tried to kill himself after being repeatedly bullied by Beethoven.
Narrated drily by actress Juliet Stevenson, the docu painstakingly traces Ludwig Van Beethoven’s early life in Bonn; his feat of writing his first piano concerto at the age of 13; and his move to Vienna, where he quickly became a popular pianist, composer and piano teacher, a rival to Mozart (whom he may or may not have met; experts disagree on that) and Haydn.
A procession of historians, musicians, composers, conductors and musicologists discuss his life and work in minute and sometimes monotonous detail: who knew, or cared, that he once owned a horse but forgot to feed it, or that he was untidy?
We learn the circumstances in which he composed some of his most famous pieces including the Fifth Symphony, the Moonlight Sonata (dedicated to a Countess whose parents forbade her to marry him before he was beneath her station), Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony, and the torture he went through in creating his only opera, Fidelio.
At one point he was a fan of Napoleon Bonaparte, dedicating the Third Symphony to him, until the egotistical chap declared himself Emperor. 'He may be the ruler of the world," Beethoven liked to say. "But mine is the empire of the mind."
While there are plenty of performance clips, most are fairly short and/or overlaid with comments by some expert or other: some purists may have preferred more music and less chat.
The most illuminating aspects of the man are revealed in his letters, read by actor David Dawson, to friends, colleagues and lovers. Beethoven enunciates his grief when his mother died; he laments that prolonged illness and deafness condemned him to 'live like an outcast"; and he writes to one unrequited love, 'I love you as dearly as you do not love me."
Late in his life and totally deaf, he was so poorly-dressed he was mistaken for a tramp and arrested by the police.
For Beethoven fans and music students, this film has plenty to offer, although at 139 minutes, it belabors a lot of points.
