Beethoven for the Fun of It on SFSymphony+

Regular readers probably know by now that my schedule has gotten a lot busier with the return of concerts being held in both Davies Symphony Hall and Herbst Theatre. As a result, it took me almost two weeks to catch up on the Chamber Music Series streamed by SFSymphony+. Listening to members of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) playing chamber music has been one of my greatest delights; and I look forward to returning to Davies for those delights. That said, I have been consistently satisfied with the streamed offerings; and my last encounter was no exception.

The program was devoted to the first five movements of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 8 serenade in D major. This was scored for a string trio, whose performers were Victor Romasevich on violin, Wayne Roden on viola, and David Goldblatt on cello. Those who worship only at the Altar of Scowling Beethoven tend to dismiss this music as too lightweight for serious listening, but I continue to believe that anyone not willing to recognize Beethoven’s sense of humor will never appreciate the full scope of his expressiveness.

The context for Opus 8 was nicely set in a program note that George Jellinek wrote for the RCA recording of a performance by Jascha Heifetz, William Primrose, and Gregor Piatigorsky. Here is the relevant excerpt:

… at age 26, Beethoven was not yet storming the heavens, merely the portals of the publisher Ataria. His efforts bore fruit, because the serenade was published forthwith for the pleasure of Hausmusik cultivators. Aside from a virtuosic passage for cello in the polacca section, the work poses no great technical difficulty, though hearing the melody of the Andante movement passing from Heifetz to Primrose to Piatigorsky is anything but an everyday experience.

Sadly, that movement was not included in the SFSymphony+ video. This may simply have been a matter of preparation time. All I can do is hope that there will be an opportunity to listen to Romasevich, Roden, and Goldblatt play Opus 8 in its entirety while I am still around to write about it!

That said, it is important to observe that the video work definitely enhanced the listening experience. This past March I wrote about an SFSymphony+ video that superimposed images from two different cameras to supplement the counterpoint of the music with a “visual counterpoint.” For the Beethoven performance the video work used imaginative split-screen techniques to capture the interplay among the three musicians:

courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony

This provided a first-rate visual interpretation of the trio performers as an “ensemble of soloists,” giving equal priority to both the individual voices and the techniques with which they interacted. With such a perspective, it is hard to dismiss Opus 8 as a “lightweight” undertaking.