Awareness: Beethoven and Sandy

Some music for the storm recovery.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ludwig Was Here.

Last night at the New York Philharmonic concert, I got a little card in my Playbill, helpfully reminding me that November in New York City is Beethoven Awareness Month. As far as I am um...aware, this is the second year in a row that our city has celebrated the music of the great man. 

In light of recent events, I wanted to share the following clip, from Beethoven's only opera Fidelio, which ranks as my favorite piece that the composer ever wrote. It is a quartet in canon form, from the first act of the opera, and can hopefully serve as some kind of psychological balm in these chaotic days that have followed the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. 

Things are (slowly) getting back to normal here at the Superconductor desk, but that doesn't mean they are for the rest of the city. Whole sections of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island remain devastated, with enormous, unrepairable damage to lives, homes and property. So I urge you, after listening to this (or even before, to join the effort to help people in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere recover from the hurricane's impact. Here's a list of ways you can help:

The American Red Cross fund for Hurricane Relief. They need money. And if you can, visit a Red Cross blood drive and donate some of what flows in your veins.

Occupy Sandy Our friends at the movement for social change have set up kitchens and distribution of relief centers in Brooklyn. They have a list of donation requirements.

AmeriCares has set up its own disaster relief fund.

The Salvation Army is also doing disaster relief. I don't agree with this organization's policies on sexual discrimination but will post this if you want to help their relief efforts.

The Knights of Columbus, another organization I don't agree with but they are also out there organizing and donating.

New York's food trucks are working to provide food for people displaced. 

Food Bank New York is trying to feed the people who are out of their homes.

Finally, you can donate to the Mayor's Fund in four easy ways:

1. Online – visit www.nyc.gov/fund.

2. Mail – checks can be made payable to Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, with “hurricane relief” in the memo line, and sent to:

Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City,

253 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10007. 

3. Call – donations can be made over the phone at 212-788-7794.
4. Text – text NYCFUND to 50555 to donate $10 to the Mayor’s Fund to support hurricane relief. (Message and data rates may apply.)

100 percent of donations are being dispersed to relief efforts and organizations to meet the short- and long-term needs of New York City and its residents. This includes immediate aid such as the supply and transport of water, food, toiletries, baby supplies, blankets and cleaning materials to distribution sites, as well as longer term restoration and recovery efforts.

To volunteer or for in-kind donations, visit www.nycservice.org.

Bloomberg vs. Beethoven

An Open Letter to the Mayor of New York City.

New York's third-term mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

"He, too, then, is nothing better than an ordinary man! Now he will trample on all human rights only to humor his ambition; he will place himself above all others,--become a tyrant!"
--Ludwig van Beethoven.

The Honorable Michael R. Bloomberg
Mayor of the City Of New York
City Hall (260 Broadway)
New York, NY 10007

Dear Mr. Mayor:
Today, you declared Nov. 20, 2011 to be "Beethoven Day" in the City of New York. But by your recent actions, Mayor Bloomberg, you have shown yourself to be totally ignorant of the composer in question.

Ludwig van Beethoven was a fiercely independent artist who fought against tyranny. He broke the European system of patronage and "court" composers, eking out a difficult life as a freelance musician. A fierce republican, he famously reacted to Napoleon assuming the title of Emperor by striking the name "Bonaparte" from his symphony No. 3. The work is now known as the Eroica.

Under normal circumstances, "Beethoven Day" would be a great idea. WQXR's clever "Obey Beethoven" campaign has the composer's scowling mug all over the city. Recent performances by the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique have brought the composer's genius to the city's concert halls. And today WQXR has achieved something historic, an all-day marathon of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas, played live.

But right now, things in our city are a long way from normal.

Less than one week ago, Mr. Mayor, you ordered a small army of riot police to "clean out" Zuccotti Park, the two-month home base of Occupy Wall Street. Protestors in the park were warned that they had less than one hour to remove all of their property from the Park before the police went in. And we know you ordered it. You went on the air and claimed responsibility for the actions of the police.

The poster for WQXR's "Obey Beethoven" campaign.
© 2011 WQXR/National Public Radio.

When the NYPD went in, they swung nightsticks, slashed nylon tents with razor blades, and attacked protestors. The media was walled out, with fire trucks blocking cameras and reporters from all three papers either arrested, attacked, or kept from covering the actions of the police. City councilman Ydanis Rodriguez was injured and arrested, and incarcerated for almost 24 hours. He identified himself as a city official, and was not allowed to talk to a lawyer.

The worst crime perpetrated against the protest was the partial destruction of the People's Library, a 5000+ volume collection of novels, philosophy, textbooks and even a bound copy of the Torah. The cops dumped these neatly stored books into Department of Sanitation garbage trucks. The trash compactors were activated. Over 2000 volumes were crushed into garbage, destroyed beyond repair. Some have been recovered, but many are badly damaged.

Beethoven's lone opera, Fidelio is another triumph over tyranny. Written in 1804 and revised in 1815, Fidelio is a "rescue" opera: the story of a wrongfully imprisoned nobleman, locked in a deep dungeon by a corrupt prison governor. The prisoner's wife, Leonore, cross-dresses and goes undercover as "Fidelio", an assistant turnkey at the prison. Eventually, her husband is freed and evil is defeated.

Mayor Bloomberg, you have arrested and charged over 1,000 people in your city in connection to the Occupy movement. You have allowed police to use "kettling", pepper spray, night-sticks and L-Rad sound cannons on your citizens. You ordered the large-scale destruction of books and personal property. Despite owning a media company, your police have prohibited journalists from doing their jobs and exercising their Constitutional right to free speech. And you have even had your own politicians, like Mr. Rodriguez, injured and imprisoned, denying them their right to speak to an attorney as guaranteed by Miranda v. Arizona.

Beethoven once said: "What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven." As one of those princes, you are not worthy of him.

Sincerely,

Paul J. Pelkonen
Editor, Superconductor.
Brooklyn, NY

Concert Review: Owning Beethoven

The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique at Carnegie Hall.

Ludwig van Beethoven.

Thursday night at Carnegie Hall featured the second of two concerts by the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. For the past two decades, this British ensemble has specialized in playing Beethoven, using only instruments from the composer's lifetime.

The concert featured Beethoven's Third (Eroica) and Fourth Symphonies, under the baton of Orchestre founder and period performance specialist Sir John Eliot Gardiner. The show opened with the overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, the opener of the composer's lone ballet score. It was played as a vigorous, spicy amuse-bouche, setting the table for the meal to come.

Although the program placed the Fourth before the intermission, the first symphony played was the Eroica. Its sudden start, with two sharp raps on the timpani caught the audience off-balance. Occasionally the sound was marred by an overtaxed violin or a balky horn, but the musicians' passion and Beethoven's genius overcame these obstacles to enjoyment.

In the first movement, Sir John Eliot delved deeply into the inner workings of Beethoven's innovative score. The famed funeral march carried extra weight when played by the raucous slide trumpets and natural horns. A chipper solo on the principal oboe led off the Scherzo, the rumbustuous dance movement, and another of Beethoven's innovations.

The last-minute switch of the Third and Fourth on the program might have something to do with the Prometheus overture. Beethoven took the principal theme for the finale of the Eroica from the concluding part of that ballet. He developed this simple theme into a bewildering set of variations, including a colossal fugue. The O.R.R. responded to this superb material, lending grace and lift to the variations, bringing the whole piece home with its powerful final chords.

The Fourth is one of the less frequently played Beethoven symphonies. It is usually relegated to the position of curtain-raiser, either to one of its more famous brethren or some grandiose work by another composer. By moving it to the second half of the evening, Sir John Eliot made the symphony stand on its own merits. The slow, dramatic introduction led into a whirling Allegro. This dancing, fast movement had an earthy, organic feel.

The slow movement was played with delicacy. The muscular third movement, a tipsy Scherzo, might be the sound of Austrian rustics, stopping at the local heurige for a few glasses of spring wine, probably getting ready for the third movement of the Pastoral It led directly into the wild celebrations of the finale, played with enthusiasm and power despite an occasional squall from the horns.