‘Beethoven grabs you by the collar; Schubert leads you by the hand’
Why BeethovenThe pianist Jonathan Biss, in a New York Times essay, attempts to delineate the impact on a performer of playing the late works of the two great Vienna contemporaries.
He does so in an attempt to argue that Schubert, rather than Beethoven, understands loneliness to its core and can help us out of isolation.
I’m not so sure. In my book Why Beethoven, I described how Beethoven, more than any maker of music in any age of history, exemplified the situation imposed on many of us during Covid-19 – confined to our houses, separated from loved ones, denied the touch of a friendly hand, alone as never before. And how, in this confinement, Beethoven in his late sonatas and string quartets, found a path out of his enclosure in deafness that helped him and us to believe once more in the redeemiung power of art.
Biss writes: Loneliness is universal; paradoxically it is a shared part of the human experience. Schubert knew this, and had the gift to convey it in sound, sometimes with profound sadness, but never with bitterness. Schubert’s heart remains open, ready to be broken anew. If you feel alone — because of holiday anxiety, or political uncertainty, or life circumstances, or simply because you are a person — I implore you: Listen to Schubert. He offers his soul to the listener, without armor or guile. He is our best friend.
There is a case to be made for both composers, and for others. Schubert may be one person’s remedy, perhaps in acute situations. I find the Beethoven effect functions more efficaciously across time.
Beethoven’s loneliness was not of the same kind as Schubert’s. Mr Bliss generalises in a pathetic way when he says that “loneliness is universal”.
By the way, Mr Bliss is a great pianist.
though his pianism may bring you bliss, his name is not bliss, but rather, Biss.
Sorry, but his name is Mr Biss. Best to keep the ‘l’ out.
Out of a pretty long life, now 74 years, perhaps nothing was more wrenching than my visit to the so-called ‘Schuberts Sterbezimmer’ in Vienna. The room and adjacent exhibit were unheated on a freezing, gray December day, thus recreating for me what it must have been for Schubert as he was dying and composing the litany of unfathomable masterpieces that emerged in his final weeks on earth. Mr. Biss’s comments on loneliness thus hit the mark for me.
Nothing to do with the subject of this post, but isn’t it time Beethoven lost his face mask?
I find these debates on whether one great composer or another great composer is best at doing this or that rather reminiscent of a primary school playground (ie, my dad is cleverer than your dad). There are no absolute criteria that could differentiate the efficacy of one or the other. It’s all based on personal preference. I’d rather spend time listening to the music of both composers than debate such matters in depth. That’s my own personal preference.
The strapline ‘Beethoven grabs you by the collar; Schubert leads you by the hand’ sums it up perfectly – two different approaches, both of which co-exist and are of equal value.
Trying to work out who was loneliest and more despairing is equally facile. Beethoven lost his hearing and if he was friendless, that was mostly of his own making. He was fearsome, short-tempered and abusive, although he usually relented. But his works were received with acclaim and the first performance of the Ninth Symphony was a resounding success.
Schubert learned that he had syphilis in his early twenties and suffered appalling symptoms for almost a decade until he died. He knew that he was doomed to an early death. His letters attest to his despair. He had a circle of friends but some drifted away when they married. He never married – he was short, fat and unattractive to women. Most of his major works lay unperformed until decades after his death.
Turning to the evidence of Beethoven’s and Schubert’s music, Beethoven’s late quartets and piano sonatas certainly portray his loneliness and despair but no more than Schubert’s later works: what about Winterreise, the String Quintet and the tempestuous outburst in the second movement of the late A major piano sonata? Then there’s the G major String Quartet and the heavenly Fantasie for Violin and Piano. NL says that ‘perhaps in acute situations, I find the Beethoven effect functions more efficaciously across time’. That’s his personal verdict. For my part, I cannot differentiate between one and the other in terms of their profundity, spirituality and consolatory values.
Exactly — both composers left plenty of works that can support Biss’s argument AND its refutation. The Beethoven cello sonatas alone can occupy the extremes. And some works — Herbie mentions Schubert’s Fantasie for Violin and Piano — can support either side at the drop of a hat.
And this of course is not unique to Schubert, or to Beethoven. Take Mozart’s string quartet in G, K. 156, one of his earliest, where the external movements are lightweight, fun, and energetic, exactly what you’d expect of a 16 year old (genius). But then there is the Adagio in a minor key and you have to wonder, should a 16 year old have these thoughts this dark and deep?
Thanks for your rather long message, Herbie G. This video illustrates your point about debates in “a primary school playground”.
https://youtu.be/9UMedd03JCA?si=BvaH9buOvI0vZe1p
I’d rather agree with Bliss than with you. I can add that Schubert understood not only loneliness but also solitude, as his Trout Quintet testifies. As for the LVB’s late sonatas and quartets, very few understand (or claim they understand) what maestro tried to express in these.
Schubert could hear people talking to him as well as his own music.
Having heard Jonathan Biss in concert more than once, I can attest to his artistry in performing both composers. But in my dark moods, I’m more prone to put on something less evocative of the abyss, like Mozart or Dvorak. Or Beethoven’s Archduke Trio or Schubert’s Trout Quintet.