Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Piano Sonata No. 21, Op. 53 “Waldstein”
Piano: Walter Gieseking
Angel Records
Sonata No.21
1st movement: Allegro con brio
2nd movement: Adagio molto
3rd movement: Allegro moderato
Beethoven, by Jeremy Lewis, for Blue Riband
Is that my sun coming over the hillside?——March 5th 2020 was the last time I reviewed a live concert, and I miss it terribly. It was a piano recital by British pianist James Rhodes—a sincere yet particularly entertaining character with an earnest belief that Beethoven and Bach are compatible with the raunchier side of live performance. This Beethoven Sonata was on the program that evening and was the standout of the performance. Incredible/insane just how much as changed since. Then Finance Minister, Bill Morneau, was in the audience that night, blue-suited for the occasion with his signature clean-shaven austere mannerism. Rhodes called him out during one of his off-the-cuff profanity-laden stage banter (the genre could use a lot more of that) to demand more funding for the arts, to which the minister nodded politely. Scenes from an era long gone.
But the music remains, the third movement of this sonata in particular. Each time I heard it this week the pleasant surprise of the closing Allegro’s entrance never waned: how the sunrise of it is indelibly abridged to the cool blue mist of the preceding second movement. The theme is underrated in the catalogue of Beethoven’s music, perhaps because it isn’t more yellow and joyous, but a slow blooming shade of ochre—an Ode to Peace?
Elsewhere——this week brought the publication of my first article for CBC Music, a very special feeling and I’m grateful to the folks who chipped in to make it happen. Special because it’s an affirmation that the writing experiment which this blog continues to be—four years on—can find occasional expression elsewhere. But that’s in the past now, and I’m looking forward to the next opportunity to hype the performing arts.
Song of the Week: ‘Matty Groves’ — Doc Watson
A silver medal in triathlon snitching——‘Matty Groves’ is one of the most adaptable folk songs I know—each version I come across is a slightly more twisted carbon-copy of the original (inasmuch as an ‘original’ can be identified). My introduction to it came by way of Alela Diana (who recorded her latest studio album this week, anticipating a late fall/early next year release). Her version, off of a 2009 album with the like-hearted Alina Hardin, paints a daintier picture of an otherwise grizzly scene. Here Doc Watson leans into the bloodier details of Matty Groves’s last morning with Lord Daniel’s Wife (other versions insist instead on a ‘Lord Donald’ and Alela’s version even substitutes a ‘Lord Arlen’).
Some things are uniform between the two versions—indeed between most versions of this song—notably the marathonian stalwart fitness of one of Lord Daniel’s servants, who took it upon himself to invent a novel Olympic event of triathlon snitching: running for ten miles, then swimming for a little more, then back to running in order to report to your master that one of his other servants was sipping freely from the royal chalice (if you know what I mean). Likewise, both versions have no problem with killing an admittedly ambitious servant, as long as he’s not naked when it happens (makes for bad press apparently).
Nevertheless it’s remarkable how different the two songs sound from each other, Watson’s version being more inviting of a sing-a-long (the last line of each verse is repeated for this effect) and back-tracked by a droning train-beat on guitar. There are a number of differences in the details, but none stand out more than the subtle revelation that in duel between Lord Daniel and Matty Groves, neither make out alive. In Alela Diane’s version, the ordeal ends with the final words from Lord Daniel/Arlen, giving orders on how Matty and his wife are to be buried:
‘A grave, a grave,’
Lord Arlen cried
‘To put these lovers in
But bury my lady at the top
for she was of noble kin.’
Here one could almost picture the Lord scurrying off to his next engagement at an ether frolic to re-combobulate his senses with some freshly sliced cucumbers and ham sandwiches’ crusts removed please’.
Watson’s version ends on a more egalitarian note, even giving the last words to Lord Daniel’s Wife (perhaps there’s a version out there where she has a name of her own?):
Very well I like your rosy cheeks,
Very well I like your chin,
But better I love little Matty Groves
Than you and all of your kin.
You can dig my grave
On a pretty green hill
Dig it wide and deep
And put little Matty Groves in my arms
Lord Daniel at my feet.
Perhaps here she retrieves the blade from Matty’s breast (loaned to him by Lord Daniel in order to have a ‘fair’ duel), and buried it deep in Lord Daniel’s embroidered waistcoat.
Throwback to: YR3, WEEK33 — YR2, WEEK33
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