Clips from "Beethoven" (1970), E4 of the "Biography" series.
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00:00look. what is it? yours? your work? some of its drafts notes that sort of thing.
00:05yes but what is there here? two symphonies some sonatas a trio piano concertos a lot
00:11of other stuff. I have no idea. all of it unperformed. oh no some of it's what you
00:16heard already but most of it I showed some to Haydn. what happened? he didn't like it.
00:24you know the terrifying thing about Haydn? in his day he was a musical
00:28revolutionary. a daring innovator. now look at him. the year I studied under
00:33Joseph Haydn was the most boring of my life. I don't know how I survived. the
00:37same goes for all those other teachers. Albrechtsberger, Halster, Schenck, Dahl, Dahl.
00:42a lot of them. still that's Vienna for you. and the Viennese. horrible place.
00:47what are you laughing at? nothing. mind you there's no risk of them ever joining the
00:52revolution. not while they can stuff themselves on black ale and sausage.
00:56though they might cut up nasty if they're ran short of ice cream. but you're not gonna
01:02give up performing.
01:05what? I was only... I can't keep up with you. are you well? no no I'm not. what is it?
01:13headache bowels but it's not that. are you eating properly?
01:18here
01:22over there
01:26what?
01:32what?
01:40again! oh wait.
01:47now
01:56again! again!
02:12what? but surely... I'd be grateful if you could find out the names of the best
02:16physicians in Vienna for the ear. I've been unable to bring myself to do so.
02:21but you've not seen anybody about this. not since Bonn. and it's getting worse.
02:26month by month. there's a reason you see. there must be a thing like this. it's not
02:35an accident. you won't tell anyone about this. I have enemies. the deaf musician.
03:21Mozart. yes. the greatest musician that has ever lived. he gave me lessons you
03:41know when I was 17. and Vienna which he enriched so much with his genius let him
03:46die in dingy poverty and buried him in a common paupers pit. I went looking for
03:51his grave when I came back. there's nothing to be seen. nothing. it's not even
03:57a very good likeness. it's a death mask. my husband took it and there's the clothes
04:02he died in. when they come and see this now he's dead. in their hundreds.
04:07sublime Mozart. they hate any man of genius. he's too disturbing. he shows up
04:14their own mediocrity too clearly. they're appreciative to you. at the moment. look
04:19at the thing. it's pretty. genius isn't pretty. squealing in a trap. a sheer
04:30naked defenselessness inconceivable to other men. there's no will no choice in
04:35it. you lie stretched out between what humanity is and what it could become.
04:39twisted and racked between those two things. singing out. oh the greatest
04:44wisdom. like he did. he gave us music. and then when you're barely 35. 35. just
04:55beginning. of course it's not at all like that really. it's bloody hard work. your
05:05husband. your husband must have been a remarkable man. oh he made a lot of money
05:09abroad making casts and things and put it all into this. he married me partly to
05:14try to slip back into his social plane. but they wouldn't have us.
05:19those specialists. you've been? yes. yes. and? what do they know? time. it's a matter
05:31of time they say. you haven't mentioned or to anyone? no. what do you mean time?
05:37just a few years. it will be gradual but in the end the loss of hearing will be
05:45total. that's what they say. all of them? it's due to the condition of my abdomen
05:51they say that I cannot hear. so I have medicines, oils, greases, disgusting
05:55things. also they've advised me to move into the country to rest my powers of
05:59hearing as much as possible. I have been considering a move for some time. out of
06:04Vienna? into the country away from all this to work. I don't know whether I
06:09shall go yet. I am considering. it's quite unreal you know. how many years? four
06:19five perhaps. certainly by the time I'm 35. do you think could we? what? turn that
06:30thing off.
06:42well. are they asleep? I very much doubt it. really Ludwig and you look so guilty.
06:48are you going up to say goodbye Franz? in a minute. what? I'm joining my regiment.
06:54you're rejoining my regiment. I leave tonight for Eichstatt. there's a huge
06:58offensive planned on the northern front. you'd heard that Mainz fell yesterday. we
07:03must defend the existing order whatever its shortcomings because that is better
07:07than anarchy and anarchy is what Bonaparte is producing. no. yes his
07:10Italian campaign is a... the Italian campaign has shown the man to be a
07:13political genius. we already knew he was a military one. all these rotten states
07:18he's conquered. subservient to the Empire. simply drained of their wealth to
07:22subsidize the nobility of Vienna who never went near them. he's turned them
07:26into new republics. self-governing. every man a free citizen with responsibility.
07:31not the poor ignorant wretches they were before. he's new man Franz. creating a
07:38new world in our lifetime where men can speak openly and freely and breathe and
07:43hold up their heads. dear God what world do you live in? this one! one of the
07:49children calling out. anyhow. Ludwig. no I have to play at Lushnovsky's tonight. we
07:58shall be there. respect my views. you will come and see the children again. I
08:05regret I am moving into the country. there is work that must be done while
08:13the...
08:15why...
08:17let me...
08:24he's over the crisis. one of my brothers had pleurisy like that when we were
08:28children. the breathing was just like that. you look at them they're so
08:32vulnerable lying asleep. ah Franz. well are you back or didn't you go?
08:41oh I didn't know. a bullet? through the palm out here. broke some little bones here.
08:51can you... and would it be all right? they can't say yet. unscathed. shall we... I want
08:58to talk to Beethoven. all your grand gestures working for a new world. I saw
09:06men standing with their guts hanging out and screaming. I'd never seen it before.
09:11you never have. I saw a child no older than Stefan with his head blown clean
09:17off. no new world is worth that. of course it's horrible when the innocence... words
09:22Ludwig. words you've not seen. you must look at the wider issues as well. that's the
09:25trouble. that's exactly what you've been doing and nothing else. birth is not
09:28pretty. it's bloody and savage and it can only be achieved by force. in this case
09:33the enlightened will of one man. my dear Ludwig he will go the way of all the
09:35others. the pattern is so old. a man gains power. an idealist. because of his
09:41idealism he finds to transform the world he has to adopt more and more the sort
09:45of methods he's overthrown. he finishes up indistinguishable from the time as he
09:49rebelled against in the first place. no. it's true Ludwig. read history. if that
09:52was so it would negate everything I'm doing and you can hear it is not negated.
09:56that is what my music is about. it's already happening. look at this so-called
10:00armistice. look what's happening. as a sock to us for taking away our Italian
10:03estates Bonaparte has proposed that we carve up the defenseless state of Venice.
10:07the state without an army. innocent independent. the state that's had no part
10:11in the war at all. and Austria has agreed. deplorable yes barbaric. but your idealist
10:16proposed it. oh we don't know his reasons. just because you and I. it's a temporary
10:22expedient. everyone knows. that the war will soon break out again. yes of course.
10:27but there is an overwhelming hunger to make a good world. I grant you. so it must
10:32be possible. the Almighty would not set us a problem like this if there were no
10:37answer to it. the Almighty moves in ways so mysterious at times I doubt if he's
10:40holding command of his senses. it's true. look at your disability. what? what
10:44possible reason could there be for such a grotesque thing? you of all men.
10:50what? you must have... you're ill. no. tell me. I'm sorry Ludwig. it doesn't matter.
11:00my hearing. my hearing is going. I'm going deaf. both ears. I shall be totally deaf
11:10by the time I'm 35. there's a reason for it. something I'm being made to learn.
11:20everything in my past has been preparing me for what I must do. I lie awake and I
11:26go over my life. I watch things falling into place. gathering momentum. and I try
11:34and see how my disability could be part of it. as a child catching a chill after
11:41a swim. or my father striking me here when he was drunk. or an insect that
11:46crawled into my ear one summer's night so I awoke screaming. why? why? why should a
11:55great hunger be implanted in me? a genius to achieve something most specific? a task
12:02that I have to fulfill? that it is my life's function to fulfill without a
12:06shadow of a doubt? and at the same time be endowed with all the powers and
12:10skills and functions to the highest degree necessary to carry it through
12:12save one. my supreme function. the noblest part of my being. my hearing. and moreover
12:21not to be deprived of it until I'm well along the course. why should men be
12:28allowed to glimpse at paradise when they cannot enter it? do you know what I truly
12:35believe to be the worst thing in the world? to have a passionate desire. a
12:40desperate need to achieve something. so that it becomes an all-consuming passion
12:45but to lack the actual ability to achieve it. I've seen it so often in
12:49young musicians writers and many others. their souls burn but they have no genius
12:56no skill and they are in agony that they fail. now why should this be? it is in
13:03them without a doubt. they burn with it just as it is in man. will you agree? it
13:11is in us to create such a world. we burn with it like they do. he knows that. he
13:17sees it. that's why he fights. but deafness breaks in. Venice. that child.
13:28but it is there in people. we are capable. though I did read something quite
13:35recently that haunts me though I cannot believe. I read that the people of
13:44southern Italy capture singing birds to cage and to keep their song more full
13:49and beautiful. they blind them with red-hot needles and you know they stream
13:57with song. now why should this be? why? can you conceive that the Almighty could do
14:08this to man? could do this to me? so that... so that... oh stay with us.
14:30oh how kind. how very kind. but it's far from being of the level of your creation.
14:38yes I know it is. I wasn't suggesting it was. it's very different isn't it?
14:43oh we're poles apart I know but I was hoping we might find some sort of a
14:48bridge eh? we both had marriage troubles I believe. I made a rotten one. you
14:54haven't made one at all. well that should bring us together a little shouldn't it?
14:57well it is possible. what? that widow woman I've been hearing about? oh my dear
15:04Ludwig I'm so glad. when's it to be? oh we haven't actually discussed dates yet.
15:10well never mind. at least it means Vienna will be seeing a little more of you. I
15:14assume you will be moving back after the country bumpkin life you've been leading
15:19and where will you live? I've just signed a contract with the Teater und der Wien.
15:22it includes a flat over the auditorium. over the auditorium? won't that be dreadfully noisy?
15:30it doesn't matter. I have this. what? oh like this. yes well I'm sure it helps.
15:41does it help? no. well perhaps the man who made it feels proud and happy or
15:48something to have made it for you. yes he did say something like that. ah well then
15:52you see some good has come of it. now what else does this contract cover? an
15:56opera in the first place. oh good I'm so glad you haven't thrown opera out of the
15:59window. what's it about? the Revolution. oh dear yes well don't you ever think of
16:05anything else? not often. I hear that fellow is getting closer every day.
16:14Bonaparte. each day we wake up he's nearer to Vienna than when we went to
16:19sleep the night before. that's what someone told me. chilling thought. glad I
16:24shall be here when he arrives. you disapprove of that of course but I can't
16:28help it. I was born in another world. I dare say it has run its course. it has
16:34grown old and feeble and all the rest of it. but I couldn't bear to see it
16:41overthrown. there was something I wanted to tell you. now what was it? my memories
16:50going. shall I play something for you? oh yes that would be delightful. I should so
16:54enjoy that. but Ludwig. please. nothing of yours.
17:03I suppose what I'm trying to say is don't take the charm out of music. charm
17:25is a very valuable thing you know. a very human thing. it's not understood by you
17:31young musicians. like style you mistake it for affectation and it's not you know
17:37it's very far from it. with all your revolutions and rebirths of the human
17:43spirit and all the rest of it you won't forget that life is for living
17:47will you? do I sound like a moral trap? I believe I do. forgive me my mind isn't
17:55what it was. I forget things.
18:04do you know I've had the most marvelous life? I've had the luck of the devil.
18:09worked like a slave and done jolly well for myself. I've always kept this picture
18:17of where I was born. ah you've seen it before. there's nothing all that wrong
18:26with a civilization that lets a creature born in a hovel like that rise up and
18:33fulfill himself in his chosen craft in the glittering center of Europe. he
18:40really did glitter you know in a way you can't imagine unless you saw it.
18:46you know sometimes I think I must be getting silly. I'm so happy. I had a wife
18:53who really drove me mad. I've had a tremendous struggle sometimes to work my
18:58way up. for years I've been writing symphony after symphony great solemn
19:03masses the creation. I should be profound and solemn and full of gravitas. here I am
19:12giggling away like a schoolboy. no sense of occasion at all. what was it I wanted to tell you?
19:23I knew it was important because I said to myself
19:33may I ask you something? the Emperor's coming at four to see me. would you pass
19:40me my wig? over there. that's it. thank you. that glass would be a great help.
20:02and would you straighten me up a bit?
20:11I am glad about the alliance your Corsican hero has formed with the Pope.
20:18at least it shows he's ready to start compromising with the old world. my dear
20:24fellow surely you knew he has formed a concordat with this holiness not to
20:30sweep away the church corrupt though it may be. in return I understand for vast
20:36assets of land and treasure for his own personal fortune. sounds like a
20:42sensible man after all. in a way though it negates what he's been doing so far.
20:50for destruction it's only justified if you really are going to substitute
20:56something better. don't you think? this is my best wig. look at it. and they cost
21:05so much nowadays don't they? oh I forgot you don't wear one. still I can't meet
21:10the Emperor in anything less. can I? he's a good man you know. old ill like me. and
21:20a bit a perfect symbol one can't deny it. ridiculous old man.
21:33and look at these hands. useless things now. there now. am I decent? I certainly
21:44feel better. now I am ready. a little style my dear Ludwig. a little style. come
21:55and see me again won't you? goodbye. remember me to everyone. goodbye.
22:09what is it Ludwig? tell me what happened. what did he say to you?
22:39the band goes over the head thus. now let go of the horn. let go. there you see.
22:50look take a look in the mirror. now that's not so bad is it? better than the
23:00other one. much better fit altogether. oh and if I might make a suggestion some of
23:08my former clients who have suffered from the same affliction as yourself have
23:14found considerable ease in the use of conversation books. that is to say blank
23:20books always available at hand on which can be written whatever remarks are
23:26desired for the afflicted party to read. the most useful device I'm sure you will
23:31agree. I have some here. let me give them to you. I'll put them on the bill.
23:38what are you doing? I have to go out for a while. well leave it on. in this street?
23:44yes of course at all times. now put your hat on.
23:54oh come now. you will soon get used to it.
24:02he is working as you hear. we will wait. we haven't long. we will wait nevertheless.
24:11you are leaving? yes this afternoon. we just looked in to say au revoir and to
24:16advise him to to be careful. in what way? the police are conducting a secret
24:23investigation. there is a file. on Ludwig? so I am informed. for his beliefs? I imagine so.
24:31but he believes no more than a very great many educated people in Vienna
24:35nowadays. the difference is that he never keeps it to himself and with Bonaparte so
24:42close they may be looking for scapegoats. you are staying? I believe so. indeed.
24:52yes we are staying. the children were asking for you. what? the children. I was
25:03working. I know but surely... what? nothing.
26:03it's all right darling. it's nothing.
26:33mama! hush. you're safe darling. don't wake Anna. you were dreaming. I thought it was a gun.
26:40what gun? in St. Francis Square they put a big gun there. I saw it coming home from
26:45school. I'll stay here mama. oh you're all right. hush. that's enough now. don't go mama. don't go.
27:03I'm sorry.
27:33I followed the men who were moving your things. I followed the men who were
27:51moving your things. I thought you'd have left Vienna by now for the children's
27:55sake. we're leaving tomorrow that's why. what? tomorrow. come with us. where are you
28:03going? I don't know yet. Franz is arranging something. you can't stay here.
28:09you heard Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor with full hereditary succession.
28:14as Franz said. so you see. emperor. and crowned himself. come with us. what time?
28:258. tomorrow morning. well then. what? I said well then.
28:40where did you come? Weiden. lower market.
28:51so the shelling hasn't reached that part of the city yet. there's to be a ceasefire
28:54at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. all civilians who want to may leave. come
29:00with us.