In Search of Beethoven
                                                                                                       
Director: Phil Grabsky
Year: 2006
Rating: 7.5
There was a reason that Schroeder was obsessed with Beethoven and ignored Lucy. Beethoven along with Haydn and Mozart were the greatest composers of all time. The amazing thing was that for a brief period they were all in Vienna at the same time in the 1790s. Haydn was the father figure - mentoring at different times both of them. Unfortunately, Mozart was to die in 1791 at 35-years-old, while Haydn lived to the age of 77 and was alive to see his one-time pupil Beethoven's Third Symphony, the Eroica, be played. It was a breakthrough piece of music - nothing like it had even been written with such power and force. It astonished audiences at the time.

The three of them represent classical music over this period - Haydn who was employed by various royalty with the classical instrumentation based on composers like Bach before him, Mozart who happily played with that and had a genius for melody and then Beethoven who came along and in his way took a hammer to their musical style. Listen to Mozart's 41st symphony which is stunning in its beauty and then put on Beethoven's Fifth which gets you out of your chair to play air conductor. He wanted to be better than them both. To be remembered.  Less prolific than both - a mere nine symphonies for Beethoven but 104 for Haydn and Mozart wrote 41 plus of course works of other kinds. Again, listen to Mozart's sublime 21st piano concerto and then Beethoven's 3rd or 4th. Mozart's is perfection, Beethoven's is pure power.

Every one knows that by the time Beethoven wrote the magnificent 9th Symphony he was deaf - but he had been losing his hearing since before the Eroica. Knowing he was losing it, weighed down and depressed him to the point he contemplated suicide - but he felt that he had another great work inside of him. Often sick, often near financial ruin and often in love, he often wrote out of despair. He never married but dedicated many of his piano sonatas to the love of his life - till the next one came along. He tended to love women of the upper class but he was not considered good enough to marry them. He was also a difficult man with a fierce temper, little patience, liked his drink and by the age of 30 he was losing his hearing. In a letter he complains that he is so tired of telling people to speak louder.

This is a 140 minute documentary and a pleasure to listen to. There are live short performances of many of his more famous works and then the conductor or the player talks about why this piece of music is so extraordinary, especially for its time. At the end, one expert says that after Beethoven died he left such an impact on music that there was nowhere else for composers to go. He had done everything so well that they had to go off in other directions not to be compared to Beethoven. A little while back I watched In Search of Mozart which was also terrific - there is also In Search of Haydn. I would love to find that one.