There’s no disputing the innovative genius of composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Internationally acclaimed British pianist John Lill, who opens the 2008 Mainly Mozart Festival with a marathon playing of the five Beethoven concertos June 10, says that composer’s music is a challenge to any pianist.
Apparently it’s not just the music that challenges humankind: Beethoven himself provides a challenge to playwrights as well. Area theatergoers were entranced by Moises Kaufman’s “33 Variations,” which recently closed an extended run at La Jolla Playhouse. Their curiosity having been piqued by the biographical sketches in “33 Variations,” they may wish to learn more by attending the world premiere of Hershey Felder’s “Beethoven as I Knew Him,” currently playing through June 8 at the Old Globe.
The truth is, there is no such thing as too much Beethoven. Any new insight gained, any new tale unearthed, leaves us wanting more; and so does a trip to the concert hall.
Actor/playwright/pianist Felder is more than adequate to play the man, play at his music and portray his late-in-life friend Gerhard von Breuning, through whose eyes this particular tale of Beethoven is told.
As a 12-year-old music student, Von Breuning was acquainted with Beethoven over a period of two years, making almost daily visits to the ailing composer, who was a friend of Gerhard’s father and lived across the street from the house that Beethoven rented, known as Schwarzspanierhaus (house of the black-robed Spaniards). Set in 1870, Felder’s play is based on Von Breuning’s book of recollections, “Aus dem (from the) Schwarzspanierhaus.” Breuning narrates the book, which he writes at the desk left him by the maestro.
Though Felder’s acting is more than adequate for the task, “Beethoven as I Knew Him” ” which includes Felder’s playing of music from the “Emperor” and “Moonlight” sonatas and snippets from the Fifth and Ninth symphonies mixed with bits of “Fur Elise” and Mozart’s “Requiem” ” the text does not conclude gracefully. An interesting but extraneous and clinical 11th-hour fact intrudes, detracting from the possibility of an emotional and/or musical catharsis.
Early in the play, Von Breuning asks “Why does he move us so?” and Felder comes close to answering with such lines as [Beethoven’s music] “tells secrets that only God knows.” “reminds us what it means to have a human, beating heart,” and [explores] “dimensions of the mind, the heart and the soul” ” but Felder doesn’t trust the music itself to deliver the elusive answer, which lies inside each listener and in the mind of genius. Felder’s choice to one-up the music with shocking storytelling is a big mistake. Poe this is not.
Sadly, I must report that the opening night hearing aid at house right provided a huge challenge for this listener. More and more this “singing,” evidently unheard by the wearer or his/her companions, intrudes. Can’t something be done?
“Beethoven as I Knew Him” continues at 7 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through June 8 at the Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park. For tickets ($47-$72) and information, visit www.theoldglobe.org or call (619) 23-GLOBE.
