In Search of Beethoven is fit for a maestro

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Walter, alas, is not in the documentary but a lot of distinguished musicians are, and the result is seriously intriguing: a tribute that avoids all biographical guff. Grabsky examines Beethoven’s illness-stricken and quite desperate life with fresh eyes, unencumbered by gushing nonsense about genius but determined to see him as very much a man of his time as well as a remarkable composer who was determined to compete with Mozart and Haydn and pushed classical music forward by at least a century.

The endearingly eccentric Sir Roger Norrington and the equally eloquent but less ebullient Gianandrea Noseda are among the conductors whose study of the man and his music produce considerable enlightenment. Emanuel Ax, Paul Lewis and Helene Grimaud also provide excellent perspectives as pianists.

The music itself, given the time-scale of a feature film, is sensitively handled too. This is as good as Grabsky’s In Search of Mozart, which also took the usual clichés about the man and gently tore them apart.

In Search Of Beethoven