In Search of Beethoven

A month into the editing now and the beast that is the film IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN makes slow but steady process. I remember the rough-cut of IN SEARCH OF MOZART once topped 11 hours - or maybe even more than that - and now Beethoven has hit double figures, edging over ten hours yesterday. It's not my fault! He just wrote so much great music which I have been fortunate enough, after a lot of hard work, to gain access to film - and I have also been lucky enough to have done 40 or 50 interviews with world experts on him and his music. So the challenge is whittling it down, and down again, until it is more like 2 or 3 hours. So far we've had no really tough decisions to make - except for cutting one world famous violinist who simply felt unnecessary. But I tremble at facing choices between symphonies or not being able to keep in all five piano concertos, etc. And I really don't want to only have 20 second clips - ah well, time will tell. It's Saturday today so the office is quiet and I can spend the day snipping away. I shouldn't take the great Michelangelo's name in vain but it feels like his wonderful unfinished slave sculpture- you know there is a work of art in there somewhere but it involves extraordinary precision in working through the marble until the form is fully realised. We'll see...Meanwhile, my days are accompanied by the performance of, among others, Helene Grimaud, Ronald Brautigam, Vadim Repin, Claudio Abbado, Paul Lewis - and so, so many more. Somebody asked me the other day what is my favourite piece and it's impossible to answer - it's the piece I'm working on at that moment. Yesterday we were editing the Missa Solemnis that I filmed in the Musikverrein in Vienna and we were laying the violin solo over an extract of interview from the conductor Fabio Luisi in which he was explaining how the violin playing over the orchestra was written by Beethoven like that to illustrate the Holy Ghost hanging over mankind. I love that kind of insight, explaining what I am seeing and what it means. The World Premiere is now set for 30th March in the Concert Hall in London's Barbican so I have a tight schedule to keep to now. US, Australian, Dutch theatrical releases are also being sorted out so one can feel the pressure ramping up. No-one has tried to make anything as comprehensive as this (just as no-one has made a film as comprehensive about Mozart as IN SEARCH OF MOZART) and I really feel a responsibility to do a good job not just for the screenings and broadcasts we'll have next year but the screenings and broadcasts we'll be having in 10 years. Mind you, one has to wonder what kind of media environment we'll be living in over the next decade: I went to a UK channel's Commissioning Briefing a few days ago and their Editor of Factual announced how delighted she was with a recent production (that had got just under 3 million viewers) - the title? 'The Woman with Giant Legs'. You can see why I can never raise the money to make films like Beethoven! I don't know what's worse - the broadcaster commissioning something like that or 3 million people deciding that was the best way they could spend an hour of their time. Or, indeed, the fact that, in a public forum, you would declare great pride in having shown such a film. Maybe it was ever thus: poor old Ludwig had to put up with the knowledge that the most popular symphony during his life time was his so-called Battle Symphony - all cannons and rousing patriotic tunes. Maybe human nature simply doesn't change and artists just have to deal with that fact and work around it. Anyway, my edit suite awaits - this morning, it's the fantastic Endellion String Quartet and the late quartets...