DVD Release: In Search of Beethoven

Can you praise Beethoven too much?

by Igor ToronyilalicSunday, 06 September 2009

Joseph Karl Stieler's portrait of Beethoven 'when composing the Missa Solemnis'

Early on in Phil Grabsky's documentary In Search of Beethoven (out today on DVD), handy fortepiano player and Ludwig van-lookalike Ronald Brautigam starts screwing up a section of Beethoven's very first, unpublished piano concerto. "If I concentrate on playing it," he laughs nervously, his hands covering his reddening face, "I might be able to do it." Brautigam is not just screwing up for our amusement. He's making a valuable point.

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