Moving music and letters that revealed Beethoven’s sad personal life

THE Friday lunchtime concert offered a combination of readings from some of the many letters left to us by Ludwig van Beethoven.

The readings were interspersed with excerpts of his music for both piano and strings.

The resulting offering proved sobering.

Mental health awareness may seem as though it is something of a 21st century discovery but in the early years of the 19th century Beethoven himself was keen to put down on paper his anguish, initially over his mother’s death, and not so many years later, in grappling with his increasing deafness, the symptoms of which first appeared before he turned 30.

A passionate man, he was never to marry.

The famous love letter to his Immortal Beloved, written somewhat later than the others selected for the concert, threw another important sidelight on the personal life of the composer.

While Lawrence Power filled in biographical information, young British conductor Adam Hickox read Beethoven’s letters.

Each excerpt was followed by music which seemed to perfectly match the tone of Beethoven’s words.

Tim Horton provided a key role, not only as piano accompanist contributing to piano trios, but also performing both part of Beethoven’s piano sonata op 22 and the Largo from the composer’s third piano concerto (the orchestral part arranged just for strings for this concert).

Since Beethoven himself was contemplating the fact that his own future as a professional pianist was being dashed by his impending deafness, this added enormous poignancy to the
performance.

The concert ended with reference to Beethoven’s Heiligenstadt Testament, written to his brothers in 1802 but never sent, which revealed the depths of his despair.

However, in the document, he finally resolved to devote his life to his art: indeed, he was to live on for another 25 years and

The emotional honesty was complemented by the music and the whole performance moved many in the audience to tears.

Elestr Lee