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Beethoven was a very unique composer,
a very unique human.
—VasilY pETrEnKo
(Left to right) Marin Alsop, Gustavo Dudamel, and Vasily Petrenko
will each lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in monumental
Beethoven symphonies at Ravinia this summer.
talking about the early ’0s—they tried to play Beethoven as
if you’re playing Tchaikovsky! Very heavy bowing, big long
phrases, and actually it sounded quite Russian.
“Sir Georg came to them and started to suggest things
which much later were common in the Western world—
about bowing, about articulation, about attention to articu-
lation, about attention to dynamic differences, attention to
tempo—practical things. And the orchestra, for the first and
second days, didn’t want to change at all. I could even sense
this growing arrogance in the orchestra against it because we
played it in the Russian way; if someone comes and tells us
what we have to do, why do it? Then came the dress rehearsal,
when the orchestra for the first time really tried to do what
[Solti] suggested to them, because they had no choice: they had
a concert that night! So they tried it, and actually, it worked.
And you could see, from the great resistance and resilience, the
orchestra started to enjoy what they were doing and went with
him. And this concert was probably the best I ever heard them
at the time playing Beethoven.
“I went to Sir Georg and introduced myself and said I
watched the rehearsals and this process and I really respect
what he was doing—he was so firm with what he wanted
despite such resistance from the orchestra’s side. He smiled a
bit and then I asked, ‘Do you have any advice for me? I am a
starting conductor. Anything, a word from God, that you can
give to me?’ And he said something that I didn’t understand
then, but now that I’m working more and more I think he was
00 percent right. He told me, ‘Young man, I wish for you that
music will always be your hobby.’ He’s completely right. The
meaning of it is that you have to love the music all the time. It
should not be your business. It should be your hobby.”
, the question of how to interpret his
music has long been open, widened even by the authenticity
movement, but that’s not to suggest that it’s a question with a
“correct” answer. Alsop and Petrenko have both found some-
thing to inform their approach from that movement.
“Well, many things,” admits Petrenko. “If you look at the
finale of the Fifth Symphony, for instance—I wish I could take
a time machine to when the strings for the first time went into
this C-major outburst! Because even for modern orchestras,
which are miles away by
professional standards from
when Beethoven was writing
the music, it is challenging! I
just wish to see the eyes of the musicians when they have just
seen this material and this man who was very, very strict and
uncompromising, and what they would have said to him.
“We should not forget that Herr Maelzel, who created the
metronome, was an inventor of many things, including special
ear-horns for Beethoven. They were in very close contact at the
time. The invention of the metronome and music becoming
ADRIANE WHITE (ALSOP); MARK MCNULTY (PETRENKO);
RAFAEL PULIDO (DUDAMEL)
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JULY 9 – JULY 22, 2018
38