(Program)
Funk & Wagnalls recording. Printed in Canada // Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) // Violin Concerto op. 61 (1806) Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Othmar Maga. Soloist: Wilhelm Klepper
Allegro ma non troppo (D major)
Larghetto (G major)
Rondo. Allegro (D major)
And the moon is so full, the stars are so bright
And my hand is steady, my touch is light
Look in my eyes, hold on real tight
I'll waltz you, my darling, across Texas tonight
‘Waltz Across Texas Tonight’, Emmylou Harris
thus begins the month of beethoven. it was in fact during a similar march of listening to beethoven, a couple years ago, that i started this blog. his is a unique position of universal adulation by newcomers to the genre (which i was at the time) and lifelong performers. he’s classical music’s basic cable, a ramp to get started, as well as the apotheosis of so-called absolute music. what i realized during the performance of three of his piano sonatas by pianist james rhodes this week, in relation to this violin concerto is that, going into my fifth month in the last two years of listening to works by the composer: i still can’t put a finger on the definitive beethoven style. how is it that the solitary ‘inferiority’ of those sonatas and the open air forestry of this concerto can be reconciled within the same output. that’s what i hope to be my take-away from this month of music, to take the composer down from the mantle of the classical music’s holy grail to something of the eye-level understanding that is more accessible in his chamber music than works for orchestra.
i’m not sure what to make of this concerto, it has all the flaws generally expected of an only child—and all of their virtues too. so much is pack into it that it ends up with few edges to hold on to in memory. the violin concertos that i find memorable—the ones by mendelssohn, sibelius, bruch, khatchaturian, tchaikovsky—are characterized by a pointedness, more like a missile than a cruise-liner. beethoven’s, on the other hand, is more like a concerto stuck inside the body of a symphony.
(song of the week: ‘Waltz Across Texas Tonight’ — Emmylou Harris)
the first i heard of emmylou harris was via ed sheeran of all people, after he made a mess of ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ and i went looking for a better cover of the staple folk song—harris’s remains the best i could find. it was thereafter that i realized who it is First Aid Kit was singing about in their song ‘Emmylou’. and just last july, her ‘Old Yellow Moon’ saved me from having to commit to ‘Harvest Moon’ as my summer’s anthem.
at first i thought her ‘Waltz Across Texas’ is a cover of the so-named song by ernest tubb, thankfully a title is all her song shares with his. like in ‘Old Yellow Moon’, the moon is a token of irreconcilable distances, though harris’s lonesome wail carries just a bit more of hope and longing in the direction of a reunion with a love long lost.