Beethoven and the Ancient Poets: The Second movement of the Fourth Piano Concerto

DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (June 21, 2020)

Beethoven studied the ancient Greek and Latin poets. He read Plutach's “Lives”, which was one of his main sources for the “Coriolanus”. He therefore knows well, the story of Orpheus, who was famed by the Greeks as the greatest musician of all. When Orpheus’ wife, Eurydice died, Orpheus broke all the rules and entered Hades, in the hopes of bringing her back from death. Such a thing had never been done. The Goddess of Wisdom, Athena, gave him a lyre to take with him. If death could be reversed, only music could do so! Orpheus' lyre put the ferocious dog guarding Hades, Cerberus, to sleep.

Erebus was both an ancient God who represented the very soul of darkness, and the lowest place in Hades. According to the ancient poet, Virgil, Orpheus' song moved even the depth of Erebus:

“The insubstantial shadows, and the phantoms of those without light, came from the lowest depths of Erebus, startled by his song”

Shakespeare must have been aware of this, when he wrote, in his " Merchant of Venice”:

"Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast...

The man that hath no music in himself,

Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,

Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;

The motions of his spirit are dull as night,

And his affections dark as Erebus.

Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music."

According to the other ancient poet, Ovid, Orpheus sings:

“Love conquers. This god is well known in the upper world;...

But nevertheless, I sense that he also is here,

I beg by these places full of despair

by this huge Chaos and the silence of this desolate kingdom,

unweave the premature death of Eurydice!”

Orpheus has to conquer the hearts of the Erinyes, presided over by the Furies—ancient Goddesses who knew neither mercy, nor love, only the fixed code of revenge. Aeschylus dealt with them best, in his magnificent Orestes Trilogy.

Virgil captures the enormous rage of the Furies:

“Not for nothing does divine anger harass you:

you atone for a heavy crime: it is you,

Orpheus, wretched man,

who brings this punishment on yourself...”

The condition laid upon Orpheus was that he not look upon Eurydice until they were back on Terra Firma. He failed the test, and Eurydice was drawn back to Hades. However, we are drawn to the miracle of the first person allowed to escape death, through the power of music.

That music has the power to escape death must be a fascinating idea to composers. Gluck wrote a wonderful representation of Orpheus' encounter with the Furies in the following composition:

According to Beethoven's first biographer A.B. Marx (whom both Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn saw as the man who helped them comprehend the late Beethoven), the second movement of the the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, was based on the story of Orpheus’s journey to Hades. Certainly, the second movement suggests that this could be true!

We present here a version conducted by Furtwangler in 1943. The Nazis were in power at the time in Germany. Furtwangler said in an interview that he stayed to defend beautiful German culture against these thugs who took over his homeland. History showed that he had the courage to have shouting matches with Hitler over the right to have Jewish musicians in his orchestra. His fight for the soul of Germany is in some ways, like Orpheus’s fight in Hades to win back his beloved Eurydice. We submit that this performance would have left the Nazis in the audience, in a state of extreme discomfort.

We will soon address the rest of this magnificent concerto.