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("Second Piano Concerto
in B-flat Major, Opus 19")

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[Girl] Hey.

It's a good practice room.

Have fun!

There are different ambitions.

As a pianist, my ambition
is always to develop,

to get better, to understand
this music better.

I've always liked to go into one composer,

to have certain projects,

so for a while I would
concentrate on Schumann's Sonatas.

Before five years, I was
doing CD project of Liszt,

I was doing a couple of Haydn recordings,

that made me really focus
quite a lot on one composer.

As a pianist, you have such
a variety of repertoire

and possibilities, so this opportunity

to go a little bit deeper into something

is important for me.

I felt increasingly the last years

that Beethoven is really,

the most meaningful music there is.

I love so many aspects
of Beethoven's music,

the energy, the sound, the
drama, the storytelling,

the feeling that there's always a goal,

there's always somewhere to go.

He knows where he's going and
he knows what he's telling,

and he's telling something big.

This music is so potent,
it's so full of virility,

original ideas, and surprises.

It's so rich, and that's why I really feel

I can work four years on this music

and never get tired of it.

(applause)

Beethoven is considered by many

the greatest composer that ever lived.

I've heard most of it,
his symphonies, masses,

sonatas, trios, quartets,
quintets, and opera,

but above all for me it's
the five piano concertos

that have been popular since
the day they were written.

Five piano concertos that reveal much

about Beethoven's life and work.

Five piano concertos that, at some point,

basically every concert
pianist decides to tackle.

("Second Piano Concerto
in B-flat Major, Opus 19")

The Beethoven Journey is more
or less a four year period

where I am really working in depth

on the five piano concertos by Beethoven.

And not only the five piano concertos,

but also other Beethoven pieces,
the sonatas for piano solo,

but the main focus are
the five piano concertos,

and I'm making recordings of
them over a three year period.

The last year I am doing
several residencies

in several cities, playing
all the five piano concertos.

I will play in over 50 cities,

maybe 150 performances, maybe more.

It's really a big, big journey for me

and I hope to learn a lot about Beethoven

in these years as well.

Obviously I'm searching to find my own

interpretation of these pieces,

and that's part of the journey as well.

It's really for me a journey

that I wanted to make for myself.

The basic story is well known,

born in Bonn on the
river Rhine in Germany.

I believe it was a
mid-December day in 1770

that he was born in a top floor apartment.

His father was a musician at the court

and Ludwig obviously
followed in his footsteps.

At age seven he gave his first concert.

By age 13, he had the best
teachers that Bonn could provide.

I don't know this pedal system.

(speaking in foreign language)

(piano chords)

And this one?

(speaking in foreign language)

Beethoven's music makes
such an impact to a child,

I mean, to a sensitive child,

if you play the first bars
of the Moonlight Sonata,

("Moonlight Sonata")

there's such an immediate
atmosphere to that,

that the child will get sad

or get a strong emotional reaction to it.

From there, there is a whole rainbow

of ideas and of emotions and
of reactions to this music.

My parents always encouraged me

and I would say even at
this age when I was 11, 12,

I didn't really want to play the piano.

I wanted to do more social
things with my friends.

They rather pushed me to
go through that period

because they saw that I had a real talent.

("Kreutzer Sonata")

I think I was 14, 15
before I suddenly realized

that, oh my goodness, I'm a pianist,

I am really a pianist, I can't stop this.

I felt so at home, I felt
that this was my language,

this was my way of communicating,

much more than by talking.

I was on tour in Sao Paulo a few years ago

and I checked into a hotel

and realized that they were playing,

in the lifts they were playing a CD

of Beethoven's first and
second piano concertos

in a loop the whole week.

After two days, I thought this
would make me absolutely mad,

but the opposite happened,

and I realized that listening
to 37 seconds of these pieces

each time I entered the
lift was quite wonderful,

because I could just hear that bit

and I thought, "Oh, how beautiful is that

"and how original and how strange

"and how fresh and how
different from any other music."

And I thought, "Now is the
time for me to tackle that,

"now it is time for me to do Beethoven."

("Second Piano Concerto
in B-flat Major, Opus 19")

I grew up on a small Norwegian island,

and then as a 16 year old
I moved to a city, Bergen,

to study and to try to start a career.

Beethoven was obviously among
the composers that I studied.

He, too, moved from the provincial Bonn

to the music capital of the world, Vienna,

and it's there that he wrote

some of the greatest music in history.

I'm early in my journey in
understanding Beethoven,

but I want to understand more,

I want to know more, what it was like

in the beginning of the
19th century, in Vienna,

what the particular reasons
why he wrote like he wrote.

The second concerto is
actually the first concerto,

but he got it published second,

that's why we call it second.

It was really a work in progress for him

because he started it
as a teenager in Bonn,

and then presented it
years later in Vienna.

I think the audiences will have noticed

this incredible vitality
and this virtuosity,

this new sound also from the orchestra,

very strong and bold choices.

In the first movement, has
this suddenly this unison.

("Second Piano Concerto
in B-flat Major, Opus 19")

And then just moving it up to this soft,

and then it's in a very different key.

(humming)

And that kinda music, one
wouldn't have heard before.

[Beethoven] The state of music here

is becoming worse and worse.

Conditions are worst of all
at the Theater of der Wien.

The musicians were enraged
when, from sheer carelessness

a mistake had been made in the simplest

and most straight forward
passage in the world,

I suddenly make them stop playing

and called out in a
loud voice, "Once more."

Such a thing had never
happened to them before.

On the day before my concert,
they so went to pieces.

It was as if they had
suffered a shipwreck.

("Second Piano Concerto
in B-flat Major, Opus 19")

(string instruments tuning)

I had a vision that it
would be absolutely wonderful

to work with a great chamber orchestra,

which I now am working with
the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

The Mahler Chamber
Orchestra has a crucial role

in this project, in that
I'm recording the concertos

with them and we do many, many tours.

They are such a fantastic group of people

and of musicians.

I get so many ideas from them.

(energetic piano music)

It's young orchestra, but
it's not youth orchestra.

There is a young energy to it,

but they are also very
experienced musicians.

They have been around,
they have done a lot

with great people, so
it's a very good mix,

and also interesting that there
are so many nationalities.

(lively orchestral music)

This is an orchestra so full of vitality

and such an ability to find and discover

all the different
characteristics and possibilities

in these magic pieces.

Amazing musicians, and
I get so much from them.

It's often frustrating for a soloist

that you work with a conductor
who has different ideas,

who's a little bit on the side.

You sit in the solo position,

sort of far from the orchestra.

Here, I'm sitting in the
middle of the orchestra,

in the middle of the action.

We are looking at each other,
we have such direct contact.

We're hearing each other extremely well,

which is important in this music

because there's such a feeling
of dialogue so many times.

There's also often a fight
between the piano and orchestra.

It's mixed in these concertos.

When I'm there conducting in the middle,

I feel I'm in the drama
of the music constantly.

They wouldn't have had a
conductor at that time.

A conductor often can get in the way,

it's an extra added element
which is not really necessary

because we really mostly
need to listen to each other.

Of course an orchestra
needs a center, a focus,

somebody who gives energy,

and that's why I'm also
conducting a little bit

and certainly rehearsing with them,

but they are also so
capable of giving character

to the music when they
listen to my playing,

and also by their own playing.

("Second Piano Concerto
in B-flat Major, Opus 19")

This is the first piano concerto

in which people hear
Beethoven play in Vienna,

and he had to mark himself as an original,

he was an original.

One thing, for instance, is the ending

of the second movement.

The orchestra has big chords.

("Second Piano Concerto
in B-flat Major, Opus 19")

Stops very open, and the piano starts.

So simple, and he asks the performer

to keep the pedal down all the time.

And then the orchestra
comes in, and whispers.

He asks for me to keep the pedal down

the whole ending here.

Of course, he didn't play on a Steinway,

and the piano at that time wouldn't

have the same length of resonance,

so I have to take into
consideration that when I play

and maybe change the pedal slightly.

But he wanted a very specific
effect, a blurry effect.

He didn't want it to be clean.

[Beethoven] I should
never have written down

this kind of piece, had
I not already noticed

fairly often how some people in Vienna,

after hearing me
extemporize of an evening,

would note down on the following day

several peculiarities of my style

and hand them off with pride as their own.

I resolve to forestall those people,

to embarrass those Viennese pianists,

some of whom are my sworn enemies.

He was really going for it.

He writes (speaks in foreign
language) on this long note,

very clearly, which
means that he wants this

really to be emphasized.

("Second Piano Concerto
in B-flat Major, Opus 19")

He wants to show that,

lets put the emphasis on
the weak part of the bar,

to make a sort of collision

between the right and left hand here.

I'm sure he was not shying away from it.

He was showing it very
clearly to his audience.

[Beethoven] I am not wicked.

Hot blood is my fault.

My crime is that I am young.

Even though wildly surging
emotions may betray my heart,

yet my heart is good.

To do good whenever one can,
to love liberty above all else,

never to deny the truth.

I love to play for an audience.

I love to communicate music,

to say, "Look how wonderful this is."

But then I think
ultimately it is very much

an internal process.

It's very much about the moments

that I have alone with the piano.

If I didn't love sitting at
the piano for hours and hours,

to find out how this music works

and how I can develop it,

it also wouldn't work
in front of an audience.

So that internal process is
very, very important to me

and I've felt that since I
was eight, nine years old,

this was the place I wanted to be.

("First Piano Concerto
in C Major, Opus 15")

The first concerto is even
more confident, I think.

He's more sure of what he wants.

You feel a longer line
also in the phrases.

It's not as short.

It's not yet as epic as the later ones,

but it has stronger tread through it,

and even more tension, I would say.

You can ask a lot of pianists
about Beethoven's first,

and they would say, "Ooh, difficult one."

I think that he is clearly trying to show

what he can do, in so many ways.

I mean, both in terms of
virtuosity as a pianist,

he was more famous as a pianist

than as a composer in the beginning,

though at that time,
they didn't distinguish

between the two terms.

But he's also so much trying to show off

what he can do in the way of composition.

Beethoven was a master of development,

and what he does with this
in this grand first movement,

it's not a small concerto, it's
a big concerto, is amazing.

The space, the provocation,

this sort of, look what I can do,

the enormous contrast, it's
all there from the start.

[Beethoven] I have cursed
my Creator and my existence.

Vienna's flooded with musicians,

and thus, even the most deserving

find it difficult to make a living.

He wanted to show off.

He wanted to show off how
well he could play the piano

and how well he could write for the piano

and how well he could compose.

He's terribly confident at this point.

I mean, he writes,

("First Piano Concerto
in C Major, Opus 15")

all these sort of technical things.

Okay, suddenly there are triplets

with short staccatos in there
in the left hand, 16 notes.

I mean, this was terribly exciting for him

to show off what he could do,

and there's such a potency in that.

It's meant to be virtuosity.

[Beethoven] My dearest friend Eleonore,

I should very much like to
be the fortunate possessor

of another waistcoat of angora wool,

knitted by you, my beloved friend.

("First Piano Concerto
in C Major, Opus 15")

I must tell you a secret,

namely that there is a touch of vanity

fundamentally connected to my request,

for I want to be able to say

that I have received a present

from one of the best and
most adorable girls in Bonn.

I live entirely in my music,

and hardly have I
completed one composition

when I have already begun another.

At my present rate of composing,

I often produce three or
four works at the same time.

[Leif] Reading Beethoven's letters,

you can tell what an extraordinary time

it must have been in Vienna.

Mozart had died prematurely young,

but left a remarkable legacy.

Haydn was still alive and working,

and were many other composers.

The Austrian Hungarian
emperor and his nobles

had been active commissioning new works.

Mind you, you can sense in his letters

the unease the 1789 Revolution
in France had created.

You might have expected seriousness

and high-minded thoughts, but
actually, he's quite witty,

quite funny about things.

[Beethoven] We are having
very hot weather here,

and the Viennese are afraid that soon

they will not be able to
get anymore ice cream,

for as the winter was
so mild, ice is scarce.

Here, various important
people have been locked up.

It is said that a revolution
is about to break out,

but I believe that so long as an Austrian

can get his brown ale
and his little sausages,

he is not likely to revolt.

People say that the gates
leading to the suburbs

are to be closed at 10:00pm.

The soldiers have loaded their muskets.

You dare not raise your voice here,

or the police will take you into custody.

The man who writes this music

is a man extremely happy
about what he can do.

The message is, of course, so big,

for eternity, for humanity,
it's so meaningful.

But it's also somebody really celebrating

that he can do it.

("First Piano Concerto
in C Major, Opus 15")

I was reading the other day

that two days before the first performance

of the first concerto, he
wrote the last movement.

He was feeling not very well,

and he writes this extremely
funny, good humored music.

You know, with this,

("First Piano Concerto
in C Major, Opus 15")

dancing, slightly
Turkish march like theme.

And then he gets to
where they are performing

and the piano is half a tone too low,

so he has to transpose the
piano part up to C sharp major.

That, for me, tells one
very important thing:

he was an incredible virtuoso.

That is a really difficult beginning

of a movement of a piano concerto.

To transpose that, then,

I mean, I wouldn't have a chance.

And, from there on, (laughing)

what did he do?

He did it on the spot.

What a genius.

When I think about humor in music,

I'm always thinking about this place

in the last movement of Beethoven's first.

("First Piano Concerto
in C Major, Opus 15")

It's so funny,

I actually feel we have missed something

if we don't make people
laugh in the concert hall,

or at least smile.

Because this music is clearly intended

to put a smile on people's faces.

I always feel with the
orchestra we start laughing.

It's like a boogie woogie.

And it's so wild, to write,

you see?

It's very difficult

(laughing) to play this left hand.

I can't remember anything
from that period,

I mean, we're talking 1801,
which sounds like that,

and the sort of jazzy emphasis.

That's how he writes his emphasis.

It's just so funny.

("First Piano Concerto
in C Major, Opus 15")

When playing and listening to this music,

I'm thinking, "This is
not the sort of miserable,

"stately figure that we so often

"think of with Beethoven,"
and we see on all these busts.

This is a really lively person

who loved to sit down and
improvise, play with his friends.

I think he must've been
really happy in this period.

This is music of a happy man.

(applause)

With these two concertos,

Beethoven clearly
established himself in Vienna

as a great pianist and a great composer.

Audiences must have been thinking

and been very eager to
know, what's coming next?

(gentle piano music)

The main reason for
recording here in Prague

is this wonderful, wonderful
hall, the Rudolfinum,

which I think is perfect for this music

because it's reverberated as
a beautiful, golden sound,

and it's not too large.

I think for pieces like
this you need real acoustic.

You need real rooms when
you're recording as well.

To record in a studio is not the same,

and then we're doing
recordings live as well,

which hopefully will give the performances

some vitality and energy that is difficult

to achieve in the studio.

Good, good, and that's probably
better than what we did.

("Third Piano Concerto
in C Minor, Opus 37")

We'll have to do it a few times.

Okay?

I'm so happy with the
recordings right now,

and I hope we can keep that level

but of course I hope to grow, as well.

I hope we discover new things.

It should feel like a warm towel.

Yes.

When you come out the shower,

you know how that should feel.

(laughing)

You know, obviously
there is a development.

It's not a cycle of pieces,

they are independent pieces,

and from number three it becomes more epic

and then it becomes
more and more original.

Just great inventions,

but that doesn't mean that the
two first are student pieces.

Very far from it.

I often read that when I read
about the five concertos,

that, you know, oh he
learned from Haydn, Mozart,

and then later on developed his own style.

Absolutely not true.

He's Beethoven from the start,

but he's becoming more and
more daring, of course.

("Third Piano Concerto
in C Minor, Opus 37")

Beethoven must clearly have known

Mozart's C minor concerto, which goes,

("Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor, K.491")

very sort of shadowy.

Then when Beethoven
writes his third concerto,

it starts with the same two first notes,

("Third Piano Concerto
in C Minor, Opus 37")

in a way that's much more primitive,

that's more elemental.

But what he does with
it through the piece,

that's extremely sophisticated.

("Third Piano Concerto
in C Minor, Opus 37")

A solo cadenza is a very
important part of these pieces,

and there are sometimes
several cadenzas in one piece,

but the main one comes at
the sort of culmination point

of the first movement,

after things have been really building up

and you feel the struggle

and there's anticipation of
something great to happen.

Then the soloist gets the possibility

to show his skills as
a virtuoso performer,

and at that time, as an improviser.

What we have from Beethoven, fortunately,

are his improvisations,
he wrote them down,

and some of the cadenzas, so, so great.

I cannot imagine playing other
composers' attempts on these.

Like in this third
concerto, it's so dramatic

and he just throws himself
out there on stage.

And with such a passage,
he's gone completely wild

and he's going to the extremes
of what the piano could do.

Because at that time, he
didn't have the register

at his disposal.

His pianos would go up
approximately to here

and down to here,

and he's always going to
the extremes, Beethoven.

He's going to the top
note, to the bottom note.

At the end of this gigantic solo cadenza,

he ends with long trills on
the piano, typically for him.

("Third Piano Concerto
in C Minor, Opus 37")

And now, this chord from
the orchestra will come in,

and at the same time,
the timpani is playing,

and then I'm answering.

And, (humming)

and this, if you remember
this theme from the beginning,

this motif.

It's now only in the timpani,

under these very mysterious
and scary chords,

and it's like this has
become a heartbeat for me.

It's just really remarkable

how he turned that motif into
something so significant.

It's much more epic, this concerto.

You feel it from the beginning,

the ambition and the
storytelling goes further.

("Third Piano Concerto
in C Minor, Opus 37")

The second movement, after
the first movement has ended

with this huge explosion in C minor,

the second movement starts with E major,

which is very far away from C minor.

("Third Piano Concerto
in C Minor, Opus 37")

And that is a mild shock, one can say,

because this music is,

caressing us so much,
and it's in such a dream.

It's so far away.

That's a huge development
from the two first concertos.

All the time he's reaching out

for something greater than himself,

and that's what makes
his music so fascinating,

because it's so human on one side

and it's celebrating human life

and so full of dances and
earthly behavior and struggles.

And at that same time,
there are these moments

of stretching out, and it's so spiritual.

[Beethoven] Dear Franz, how is Letzte?

I am dreadfully lazy
about writing letters,

and it takes me a long time to
write down instead of notes,

some dry letters of the alphabet.

I am very sorry that you, my
beloved and worthy colleague

in the art of music, did not let me know

something about your
financial problems sooner,

for I could have given you
some of my quartets to sell,

and also many other works.

I hope that if works of
art can produce any profit,

it will fall to the lot of
genuine and true artists,

rather than to that of mere tradesmen.

For the time being, I am offering you

the following compositions,
including my first symphony.

How much that sum amounts to

in your (speaking foreign language)

does not concern me, because I am really

an incompetent businessman
who is bad at arithmetic.

There ought to be in the
world a market for art,

where the artist would only
have to bring his works

and take as much money as he needed.

But, as it is, an artist has
to be, to a certain extent,

a businessman as well.

I call it a tiresome business.

Dear Ferdinand,

see immediately, dear
friend, whether the proof

of the piano concerto is correct.

My health problems do
not allow me to do this,

and the matter permits no further delay.

When you have corrected the proof,

bring it to me at once.

When I started this journey,

I actually didn't know that Beethoven

developed his deafness very early on.

At least the beginning of it,
when he was in his early 20's,

he already knew that he had a problem,

and it gradually developed
into a serious handicap.

But that means that absolutely
most of his major works

are written in this kind of situation,

where he knows that he
is not going to be able

to keep his hearing.

The third is a remarkable and strong work

and so full of human struggles,

and it's always difficult to know

what is reflected from
Beethoven's life in these pieces.

One cannot help to think
that this was the period

when he was really realizing
that he was turning deaf.

There's a lot of darkness,

there's a lot of suffering in this piece.

A lot of isolation.

("Third Piano Concerto
in C Minor, Opus 37")

It's not sad, it's not angry,

and it's also not happy.

It's ambiguous, and that's what's so great

with so much of this music.

It has a little bit of all
different kind of emotions.

It's a journey from the
first note to the last,

and all these valleys
and mountains and lakes

you have to visit, and the
flowers you have to smell.

You get to know that the
more you play for people,

it's not only how to study
in the practice room.

("Third Piano Concerto
in C Minor, Opus 37")

(applause)

What's striking me about
Beethoven and his music

is how hard he works to make it all seem

so natural and effortless.

For example, I've looked
at Beethoven's manuscripts,

and it's just full of changes.

He's erasing, he's scratching out,

taking out things, adding new things.

It's interesting that whenever he could,

he headed to the countryside for relief.

I've always felt the same.

200 plus days of airports
and foreign hotels,

different faces, and you
just need to recharge.

For me as a Norwegian,

I need to get into my own countryside.

Once a year, for example,
I go to an estate

at Rosendal for a small,
intimate performance

that I've been doing since I was young,

and it really means as much to me

as Carnegie Hall or Royal Festival Hall.

And right now, it's a chance
to play something else

from Beethoven's enormous output.

The concerto, only one
part of Beethoven's output,

of course, and I wanted
the Beethoven Journey

to also include chairman music
and solo pieces and sonatas.

I'm basically playing my first recital

with Vilde Frang, who is an absolutely

wonderful young Norwegian violinist

now making a big international career.

We have chosen the best piece of all,

Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata.

("Kreutzer Sonata")

When I was 22, when I first came here,

I think I was struggling quite
a bit with finding my way

in this strange profession,

because I wasn't sure how much

repertoire can I allow myself to do.

I was very restrictive, actually.

I did one recital program per season

and a couple of concertos,

and I felt already it was too much

if I had agreed to
study a couple of pieces

for the next season, and
I wouldn't sleep well.

I would cancel sometimes
things far in advance

because I didn't feel in
control of the situation.

It was only when I was 25, 26,

that I allowed myself to do more

and to do different things,

and I felt a certain kind of freedom.

("Kreutzer Sonata")

This is my room.

I have to say for me, it's very important,

now and then, to come
back to the small rooms,

and this is a really small room.

It seats about 70 people.

It's extreme, and a modern instrument

would maybe not work in this room,

'cause it would be too
loud, it would scream.

I'm playing here on an 1860 Pleyel,

which is also a unique experience,

and this feeling that the
instrument can speak and whisper,

it's a conversation.

It feels very honest

in a way that sometimes in
the big hall it doesn't.

("Kreutzer Sonata")

(applause)

This decision now, to
devote these four years

mainly to Beethoven is, it feels great,

because this music is so
great and it deserves it.

It becomes easier to play this music

because the more you work on the language,

the better you get at it.

You understand not only
the obvious messages

but the awkward messages

and the transitional works
and the transitional passages,

the strangeness of it, and the enigma,

which is also part of Beethoven's oeuvres.

We have this image of Beethoven

as a very lonely character, don't we?

And quite an impossible man to be with.

Maybe that image is very wrong.

I mean, it seems like he
was very close to people.

He worshiped his friends
and his social life.

I'm cooking.

I love cooking.

It's the most relaxing thing there is.

An important part of my Beethoven Journey

is actually to get all kinds
of different experiences

of Beethoven performances,

but I'm also working
with different conductors

and different orchestras.

Now I'm in Los Angeles playing

with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

That's a very different ensemble

from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Sunglasses?

(speech drowned out by laughing)

The speech study had a long line?

No no, no, no no no no no.

I've been very lucky to play

with some excellent
conductors and orchestras,

and what I find as I'm growing up,

I'm playing more and more with conductors

from my generation, or
even younger than me

like with Gustavo.

You can't get away from the fact

that it's easier somehow
to feel free to say things.

I mean, with Gustavo,
he's such a personality

where there's no vanity involved,

and I hate those kind of vanities.

I want conductors to say
to me whatever they want,

and whatever their
opinion is about the music

or how we're doing or how
the performance feels.

And I want to have the same freedom

to tell them anything, and that feels

extremely freeing with Gustavo.

("Third Piano Concerto
in C Minor, Opus 37")

Sometimes we do feel
connected to artists.

They build up a life together,

so we can see where our life as a musician

and as an artist together,

because I'm sure this
is not the last time.

We will do this cycle,
and I hope that we will do

more Mozart or whatever,
Rachmaninoff, whatever composer.

And it's also a
question of trust, right?

Mm hmm, exactly.

After a while, one really,
really trusts each other.

(vocalizing)

In Spanish.

(speaking in foreign language)
(laughing)

We respect the music,
we respect each other.

We love music, and we love each other.

The most important thing.

(laughing)

Mahler Chamber
Orchestra plays this music

with much less vibrato,
and when they use vibrato

maybe it means more.

Maybe I prefer that way, but you know,

a big American orchestra like this

has such qualities, it can
give other things to it.

And certainly with Gustavo,

it's incredible the rhythmic
impulse and insition

and happiness he can bring.

("Third Piano Concerto
in C Minor, Opus 37")

In most collaborations like this,

there are moments at least,
where I learn something.

That's why I'm doing this,

this is a journey.

I want to learn, and
certainly with a conductor

like Gustavo, I am always learning.

[Beethoven] I am well, very well.

My art is winning me friends and renown,

and what more do I want?

And this time I shall
make a good deal of money.

I shalt remain here
for a few weeks longer,

and then travel to
Dresden, Latze, and Berlin.

I'm playing about 80 concerts a year

and I'm traveling about half the year,

and I don't want to feel like
I'm living in a suitcase.

So even if I'm in a hotel room
just for three or four nights

I will unpack my suitcase
and I will put things

in the cupboard and try to feel like

I have a little home for a few days.

Well we're Skyping almost every day.

It's just wonderful, I am so happy

to be part of Skype generation.

I mean, I want to see
my daughter every day.

She wants to play with
me and I'm not there,

but at least she sees a
glimpse of me every day

and she doesn't forget me.

[Beethoven] The connection
with foreign countries

is always an advantage to
the reputation of an artist,

particularly if he
starts traveling abroad.

I intend to sell the
following six new works

to a firm of publishers in
France, to one in England,

and to one in Vienna simultaneously,

but on condition that
they shall not appear

until after a day to be fixed.

The works are a symphony, an overture,

a violin concerto, three quartets,

the violin concerto
arranged for the piano,

and a new piano concerto.

The beginning of the fourth concerto

would have been a shock for
the listeners at the time.

The first shock would be that
the piano starts the concerto.

The normal thing would
be, in a piano concerto,

that the orchestra has an introduction

presenting all the material,

and that the soloist would
enter after a couple of minutes.

But here, the piano enters.

And the second shock is, it enters softly,

not with the normal fanfares,

just with a chord,

and out of this amazingly
beautiful G major chord,

organically,

("Fourth Piano Concerto
in G Major, Opus 58")

a theme occurs.

It's so simple, so heavenly.

Third shock, the orchestra responds,

but in such a surprising
key suddenly, B major,

and even softer.

I mean that beginning, you have a sense of

what journey have we begun here.

This is such a new ambition,

so different from any music, until then.

What I sense in Beethoven's music

and more and more on this journey,

is the love that sits at it's heart.

It's remarkable when you
think of what he faced

on a day to day basis,

the difficulties of the
life in 19th century Vienna,

sanitation, food, disease,
money, political instability.

And he bore three additional burdens,

his increasing deafness,
his health problems,

I mean he frequently had
such serious stomach problems

that he couldn't work.

And then, his unsuccessful
attempts to find a wife.

[Beethoven] Now you can
help me look for a wife.

Indeed, you might find
some beautiful girl,

one who'd perhaps grant
a sigh to my harmonies.

She must be beautiful, because
it is impossible for me

to love anything that is not beautiful.

It's tough to think
that he never managed

to find a partner, so that
he didn't have children,

but especially that he couldn't
find a partner in life.

Because when you feel
this incredible warmth

and how this music embraces you,

he must have had so much love to give.

Around Christmas time, we got to know that

Ragnild was expecting twins,

which was the first shock.

We hadn't planned to
have such a big family,

but of course it's great.

The twins arrived much
too early, 12 weeks early,

and there was no way I could
do the recording and the tour.

I mean, seeing these two tiny babies.

They were born very extreme
premature, and so fragile,

and we were very concerned

about what would happen with them.

I just needed to be with my family.

They are doing well.

This is where I get my exercise every day.

(laughing)

Unexpected things can happen to a journey,

and in this case, I had to
cancel quite a few concerts

and delay a recording.

So what?

Family comes first.

("Fourth Piano Concerto
in G Major, Opus 58")

Beethoven seemed to have
had problems with love,

and if relationship will change the music,

how can we know such things?

His music is so full of
everything one thinks of

that has to do with
relationships and love.

It embraces life so fully.

How could it be richer if he had known

a different private life?

Hard to imagine.

Time and again, Beethoven
sought partnership

with countesses or the
daughters of nobility,

and time and again, this
mere musician was rejected.

He was, literally, seeking
a wife outside of his class,

and it was not to be.

That's in the music too, I think,

a struggle, a yearning.

In the later pieces especially

there is a feeling that
things doesn't add up anymore.

There's a lonely feeling,

and there's a very spiritual feeling

of wanting to know something about life

and maybe not getting the answer anymore.

Maybe this is because he was isolated

because of the deafness.

Maybe it was because he
was isolated in his life,

didn't have a family.

Difficult to know.

("Fourth Piano Concerto
in G Major, Opus 58")

It's my job to make
these pieces come alive

so that people can recognize
in them the greatness,

and that they can recognize themselves

and their feelings and
their struggles in life,

and their joys.

I think that's what we do
with a great piece of art,

we come out from a concert
and, having heard this,

we think, "Oh my goodness, he
experienced all the troubles

"and joys and sorrows
that I have in my life,

"all the longing, and he could express it

"in this pure form, which is music."

For me, as an interpreter,

I don't think it's necessary
that I have suffered a lot

or felt all these struggles
that these composers

often felt in their lives.

But I have, at least,
to have the imagination

to get into these feelings,
to feel the ecstasy,

to feel the sorrow.

The most shocking discovery
anyone learns about Beethoven

is that, at this time when he seems

to be at the top of his game

and he's writing quartets,
symphonies, and so on,

self-sufficient financially,
in itself, highly unusual,

he's respected by the court and so on,

one finds that beneath the surface

there was a deep unhappiness,

leading him to question
his very existence.

[Beethoven] Oh ye who think
or declare me to be hostile,

morose, or misanthropical.

How little you know me.

I've been attacked by an incurable malady,

born with a passionate
and excitable temperament,

keenly susceptible to
the pleasures of society.

I was yet obliged early in life

to pass my existence in
solitude, for I am deaf.

What humiliation, when anyone beside me

hears a flute in the far
distance, while I, nothing.

Or when others hear a shepherd singing,

and I, nothing.

Such things brought me to
the verge of desperation,

and well nigh caused me
to put an end to my life.

Out alone deterred me,

how could I possibly quit the world

before bringing forth all that I felt

was my vocation to put use?

In a way, this kind of music

is the beginning of romanticism.

What would come a couple of decades later

from Schumann, Chopin, all
this very confessional music

for one to one, but here
it's like it's the essence.

It hasn't become sick yet.

It's so pure, maybe that's
why it's also so touching,

it's in its pure form.

It doesn't exploit the
relationship to the listener.

It's remarkably touching.

[Beethoven] You will
realize what a sad life

I must now lead.

In my present condition, I
must withdraw from everything,

and my best years will rapidly pass away

without my being able to
achieve all that my talent

and my strength have commanded me to do.

This conflict between the
orchestra and the pianist here

might also reflect how he
was getting more and more

isolated in society,
because of his handicap,

because he couldn't hear anymore.

At the same time,

I'm thinking maybe this is why this music

became so free, so different
from any other music,

that he didn't anymore have
to confront his outer ear,

he could really follow his inner voice.

The very end of this concerto,
it always gets to me,

and what is it that it
does, it's just magic.

It's like he's trying to fly.

("Fourth Piano Concerto
in G Major, Opus 58")

It's just G major and D major.

And finally there is wind.

And off he goes.

For me that's total ecstasy.

See, I get the chills. (laughing)

(applause)

I have a wish for people to
love what I'm loving, basically.

I think that is a driving force,

and therefore I'm also
doing press and I'm doing TV

and whatever I can to
bring this to people.

Of course, the music gives
me the impulse to do this,

but it's also really fun.

I mean, what a life I have.

I have the opportunity,
the last months now

I've played with Philharmonia in London,

I'm in Los Angeles, with great orchestras.

All of these orchestras, also,
they play for full houses.

This week I'm playing basically
for eight or 9,000 people.

What a privilege to share this
music with so many people.

[Cashier] 41.69 please.

("Bagatelle Opus 33, Number One")

The CD has been received very well.

There's been so many reviews,
and largely very good ones.

I'm extremely happy about it.

There's great competition
out there with these pieces,

there are many good recordings before,

but I think we have something,
if not new, then different,

saying it in a different way.

To Brian and Eden.

I think actually the concerts
are driving people to the CD

rather than the opposite.

That's how it works these days.

The record industry is not
that blossoming anymore,

but people come to concerts, and actually,

concert venues are places
for also selling CDs.

That's why I will agree
to sign Beethoven CDs

after Beethoven performances,

because I think, maybe people want to have

a memory from the concert and go home

and listen to the same piece.

Thank you so much.

This is for my nephew, Joey.

I always find there's all
these other necessary things

in my life, other than the
traveling and meeting people

and talking to press and
marketing for my concerts,

for my recordings.

That's all so superficial.

When I get down to the
piano, I always remember

that's why I am here.

[Beethoven] My compositions
bring me in a good deal,

and I may say that I'm
offered more commissions

than it is possible for me to carry out.

I stake my price, and they pay.

For instance, I see a friend in need,

and it so happens that
the state of my purse

does not allow me to help him immediately,

I only have to sit down and compose

and in a short time,
I can come to his aid.

My purpose in life is
not to become a profiteer

in musical art, one who composes solely

in order to become rich, god forbid.

But, I like to live independently,

and that I cannot do
without a small income.

Well the beginning of the fifth,

again, is another really
surprising opening.

This time, just begins with a
huge chord in the orchestra,

followed by what is a tsunami
of a passage in the piano.

First this chord,

("Fifth Piano Concerto in
E-flat Major, Opus 73")

and then.

I find there's such an ecstasy in that,

and it's, for me, like he's saying,

finally, finally we got there.

You know, we were struggling
through all these concertos

and finding our way,

and for me, that marks
so much of the feeling

of the rest of this movement,

which is so much a celebration
of liberty and freedom.

It doesn't have so much
the searching qualities

and the struggles of the other concertos.

It has shadows, it has
questions, but less of it.

I find it a sort of divine piece of music

that celebrates freedom.

There is such a sense
of mastering the fifth,

and there is, not a sense
of the same struggle

as some times in the third
and fourth especially.

His mastery, his craft of
writing these pieces was,

it's so incredible,

that you feel there's a liberty to it.

There's such a confidence in this piece.

It was by far the most played
concerto in the 19th century,

and everything which
came after Chopin, Liszt,

Schumann, Brahms,
Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff,

Grieg, all these popular piano concertos,

they are dealing with the
same sort of heroic, heroism,

which you have in this concerto.

Actually, the soloist is being thrown out

on the gladiator stage
here from the beginning,

with these huge passages,

and it's very much a statement
like in the Greek concerto.

("Piano Concerto in A
Minor, Opus 16" by Grieg)

In the show manner, you know, here I am.

That came from Beethoven.

("Fifth Piano Concerto in
E-flat Major, Opus 73")

[Beethoven] My heart and
mind were ever from childhood

prone to the most tender
feelings of affection,

and I was always disposed to
accomplish something great.

Yet I was obliged early
in life to isolate myself.

I was deficient in that very sense

which ought to have been perfect,

but art prevented me
from taking my own life.

Do not forget me.

I deserve this from you,

because during my life I
wish to make you happy.

("Fifth Piano Concerto in
E-flat Major, Opus 73")

I find it very hard
with some pieces of music,

and this second movement
of the fifth concerto

is among them.

To imagine a man sitting
down writing this music,

it's like it's always been there,

and it remains so hauntingly beautiful.

This idea, a lot of
people say that Beethoven

couldn't write melodies,
just because he was a master

of putting together motifs and creating

great structures out of that,

doesn't mean that he
couldn't write a melody.

I mean, this is the most
beautiful thing I, I know.

("Fifth Piano Concerto in
E-flat Major, Opus 73")

What a melody, and what
heartbreaking harmonies

to go with it,

that last forever.

To know how isolated he
was at this point in life,

and how he had discovered

really the seriousness about his handicap.

He couldn't play this piece.

That must have been such
a feeling of failure.

And then this music,

that is so touching.

There is never for me a trace of self pity

in Beethoven's music,

even with that difficult a life.

("Fifth Piano Concerto in
E-flat Major, Opus 73")

This is a piece that my
father loves very much,

and when I was little,
he would play for me

an uppi that we had,

and especially he was
crazy about the transition

from the second to third movements,

which is very special.

It dies down,

("Fifth Piano Concerto in
E-flat Major, Opus 73")

very calm,

wonderful, sort of lullaby like

version of the theme,

and then from B major,

we go to B flat.

Where we go now, a new
theme is being introduced,

in like a dream.

Am I dreaming?

No, I'm not dreaming.

That's incredible.

One can wonder why he didn't write

more piano concertos after this one.

I think the main reason is
that he couldn't play anymore

because of his deafness.

He couldn't play this concerto.

It was the first one, the only
one he didn't play himself.

And then also, what do you
do after a piece like this?

On this journey I've learned

how full of life and love this music is.

The key word for me now,
after the journey, is freedom.

This music is just full of freedom.

This kind of music is
something that I will

never grow tired of in life.

I can play these pieces endlessly.

Of course there is Bach,
there is Mozart, but Beethoven

is really the greatest
composer that ever lived.

(applause)

I think we can call that a success.

(laughing)

Thank you.

(cheering)

(indistinct chatter)