DAY 40 SATURDAY 31ST OCTOBER, HOME…

After 40 days, what a relief to be home. Now, what to do with that three-foot high pile in my in-tray… You know, I think it can wait a day or two..

END.

DAY 39 FRIDAY 30th OCTOBER, HONG KONG

Feeling very achy – I hope my body is not going to rebel now the 40 days is up. Spent the day packing, tying up loose ends and buying my son a camera for his birthday. It might just have been the shops in Kowloon but I didn’t notice it being any cheaper than the UK. Good camera though – ideal for him. You can take a picture and then electronically draw over it or add patterns, symbols, etc…extraordinary what our kids have access to. And then to the airport…one last wait for the plane (taken up, as so often, by writing this blog…). Here, then, are some summary reviews from the past few weeks:


‘IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN’ A Phil Grabsky film

“Superb…The film will give those who already know about Beethoven enormous pleasure,
and provide any receptive 12-year-old with an ideal introduction to the man and his music”
The Telegraph (UK)

‘beautifully lensed and intelligently crafted’
Variety (USA)

“TEN OUT OF TEN! The best film I’ve seen about a composer!” The Sun Herald, (Australia)

“A hit...so terrific I wept”
Mail on Sunday (UK)

“Gripping”
Wall Street Journal (Europe)

“Expertise and passion combined......high-class”
New York Times (USA)

‘Sensitive & meticulous’
THE AUSTRALIAN

“One of the finest movies about a great musician I've ever seen”
The Observer (UK)

‘splendid ..a revelation to the uninitiated and a joy to music lovers’
The LA Times (USA)

‘an extraordinary collection of musicians, conductors and musicologists”
Time Out London

“impressive”
Village Voice, New York (USA)

“An endearingly human biography….every bit as wonderful as In Search of Mozart.”
Chicago Tribune (USA)

“Captivating”
Minnesota Public Radio (USA)

“The musical examples are exemplary – including a brilliant 9th Symphony”
Herald Sun (Australia)

“One of the best films I’ve seen about a musician – it gets close to the mystery that is creativity”
Financial Review (Australia)





Let’s hope it gets ‘bums on seats’ otherwise it remains just as hard as ever, maybe even harder, to make another one – and I really do want to make IN SEARCH OF HAYDN now.

DAY 38 THURSDAY 29th OCTOBER, HONG KONG

I can’t sleep in these rooms – with the air con on it’s too noisy and off it’s too hot… So up early and a quick visit to the gym. Emails till 11 when I do an hour-long phone interview. I then head off to meet lovely man Ben Cruft at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. Fantastic facilities…and a very interesting man. Bit of an Haydn expert too – which may well come in handy..

More reviews coming in from Australia and rumours are it’s doing extremely well in the cinemas in which it’s playing. Not going to be any kind of smash hit but may do respectably well. After Ben, I hopped in a cab to the Hong Kong University… 260 people turned up and they thoroughly enjoyed the film – I really will redouble efforts to get more screenings here.

DAY 37 WEDNESDAY 28th OCTOBER, HONG KONG



Woke up feeling a bit rough. Really need to go outside for some fresh as opposed to recycled air. Had a little walk about but spent most of the day on the computer and starting to read up about Haydn. Caught the ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island just as the sun was going down as I had appointment with the host of tomorrow’s screening. Walking through the overpasses, tunnels and shopping malls is a bewildering experience – you really do feel like a white blood cell coursing through the veins of some mighty beast. At random, I dropped into a clothes shop – picked up a suit and asked the price. £5000! Yes, that’s right…£5000. Apparently their target market is rich Chinese businessmen who come to HK with suitcases full of money…only they can afford this stuff. I laughed and left. Everyone has earphones for music or their telephones – so strange: I mean virtually everyone has these little black wires coming out of their ears…Like one big security company… Had stunning dinner and thoroughly nice time with Professor Daniel Chua who is something of a Beethoven expert himself but is also hosting the screening at the Hong Kong University. I really am finding people here are tremendously nice. Glad to return to the relative quiet and solitude of my hotel room though – you could get lost in the bowels of these huge department stores and never emerge..

DAY 36 TUESDAY 27th OCTOBER, HONG KONG

Ventured out…went for a run down by the ferries… What a truly wild, weird and wonderful place.. Where to start? Even though it was only about 7am, there was a sea of people out rushing to get to work. Red cabs everywhere..building work…hawkers…dim sum bars…joggers…great views across to Hong Kong island.. After a radio interview to promote Thursday’s preview screening, I’d set up three appointments which simultaneously would give me a good look around. I really don’t know if I can describe the city – it is so easy to get lost in the bowels of buildings – pavements, streets, walkways all pass through the ground floors of buildings and you are endlessly walking past fancy, well-lit shops (expensive too – where do people get their money?!). But the people are extremely polite and friendly, everything is spotless, the public transport puts the London tube to absolute shame and, I discover at the one meeting a bit out of the centre, this crammed, crushed state of affairs is the middle but, thanks to legislation preventing endless building, the countryside is close by and from the little I saw it looks stunning.

DAY 35 MONDAY 26th OCTOBER, FLYING TO HONG KONG

Well, it’s farewell Australia… I am glad to be one stage nearer home but I will certainly be eager to get back to Australia – it’s a wonderful place with wonderful people. And another excellent flight on Qantas (no they are not sponsors, sadly..)took me to the next and final stop…Hong Kong. I arrived in the dark but nevertheless it’s an impressive sight. It’s always one thing to see a place with your own eyes. Certainly I had not realised how many skyscrapers there were..talk about cramming millions of people into a small space! First of all, though, I have to say that it should be compulsory for all employees of British and American airports to visit Hong Kong and see how it should be done. Now that is what I call efficient! Arrival, passport, bags, free buses to hotels – all as smooth and quick as you could hope for. Mind you, the area I am staying in – Kowloon – is an absolute jungle – a chaotic symphony if you will – of neon, wires, underpasses, overpasses, tunnels, junctions, and lord knows what. I have arrived in the world of the film Blade Runner… I actually felt too overwhelmed to wander the streets which is what I usually do in new places. I used the excuse of dozens of emails to stay safely indoors – in another (comfortable) prison cell where you cant open a window and cant see the sky… And the normal hour or two wasted getting the right room, the internet to work, correcting the mistakes in the billing, etc, etc…

DAY 34 SUNDAY 25th OCTOBER, PERTH, AUSTRALIA

Nice review to read in the coffee bar at 7am at a local golf course


Sunday Times (Western Australia)
by Gavin Bond
October 25, 2009
Dedicated director and historian Phil Grabsky (In Search of Mozart) has now turned his attention to chronicling the life and times of arguably history’s most revered composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, with this meticulously crafted documentary.

Grabsky combines a series of interviews with numerous accomplished classical musicians (who gush eloquently about Beethoven’s intricate compositions) with informative narration by British thesp Juliet Stevenson.

This combination of fact and opinion is most successful in delivering a comprehensive historical portrait of the man and his considerable musical achievements.

Like his previous film, Grabsky chronologically documents his subject’s legacy by first recounting the musical prodigy’s first performance at the age of seven.

The precocious pianist then penned his first concerto while still in his teens before establishing himself as a pre-eminent and amazingly dexterous musician who performed for the Venetian aristocracy of the day.

The film then dissects his remarkable output as a composer of a series of progressively inventive, emotive and stirring concertos and symphonies, an opera and, his self-proclaimed proudest achievement, a religious mass.

Music lovers will also be pleased to note that a renowned bevy of cellists, violinists and string quartets perform more than 50 live performances of Beethoven’s best known works, culminating in a rousing rendition of Ode to Joy.

Through the use of excerpts from his personal diary, this doco also explores Beethoven’s rather tragic and troubled personal life, including his dysfunctional childhood and ongoing ill health.

Grabsky also delves into the cantankerous composer’s turbulent romantic life and his eventual mental breakdown and premature demise in 1827 at the age of 56.

But what this film does best is illuminate the many inexplicable paradoxes of the man himself.

The fact that Beethoven was a misanthrope who created such optimistic music, that he was an incurable romantic who remained unmarried and that his instinct for melody failed to be thwarted by his inability to hear prove to be most enlightening, even to authorities on the subject.

Despite its excessive length, this reverential doco will enthuse fans, historians and even those, like yours truly, whose familiarity with Beethoven is limited to the opening strains of his 5th Symphony.

The day was spent golfing, working, reading & listening to Haydn…

DAY 33 SATURDAY 24th OCTOBER, PERTH, AUSTRALIA



Three reviews I picked up today and read over my cup of tea:

THE AUSTRALIAN – EVAN WILLIAMS
24 OCTOBER 2009
Beethoven’s Unfinished Symphony
In Search of Beethoven (G)
3 stars
Limited national release
IT can only be coincidence, but two of the films I reviewed recently in these pages both contained excerpts from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. And very different films they were: Departures, that deeply moving idyll of love and death from Japan, and the Hollywood sci-fi thriller Surrogates, whose credits refer to a Beethoven "song" (though I must have missed it at the time).

But is it such a coincidence? I've seen a list of more than 200 films with Beethoven on the soundtrack. There are the famous ones: Disney's Fantasia, Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (the Ninth again), and Copying Beethoven, Agnieszka Holland's partly fictionalised account of the composer's last years. According to my reliable internet source, Beethoven also popped up briefly on the soundtracks of Sex in the City, Hellboy II: The Golden Army and The Assassination of Richard Nixon, and can be heard, would you believe, in Drag Me to Hell, a horror film on current release. What the great man would have made of all this is anyone's guess, but he would have relished the royalties.

Biopics of the great composers used to be standard Hollywood fare: Cornel Wilde doing his consumptive Chopin bit in A Song to Remember (that splash of blood on the keyboard after some crashing chords), Brahms (in the person of Robert Walker) eyeing Clara Schumann in Song of Love, Dirk Bogarde doing his best Lizst impersonation in Song Without End, playing the piano in a way that reminded one wag at the time of someone washing his socks. The last big-name actor to play Chopin was Hugh Grant in the 1991 Impromptu. And the last to play Beethoven in a major biopic was the inscrutable Gary Oldman, in Immortal Beloved (1994).

To this growing filmography we can now add Phil Grabsky's documentary In Search of Beethoven, a brave attempt to come to grips with the composer's anguished life. It is a meticulous work: ambitious, lucid, sensitive, visually handsome and supported by a host of interviews with musical authorities. And, it shouldn't surprise us, it never quite gets the measure of its subject. What film could? But nor, I fear, does it live up to the large claims made for it. According to the producers, In Search of Beethoven "delves beyond the familiar image of the tortured, cantankerous, unhinged personality to reveal a surprising and completely creative genius".

Really? We all know Beethoven was a surprising and creative genius, so I'm not exactly sure what is being revealed. The popular notion of Beethoven as a "heroic, tormented figure battling to overcome his tragic fate" is described in the film's production notes as a "romantic myth". If so, it is exactly the romantic myth that the film perpetuates. It is true that we are given glimpses of another side of Beethoven, but they hardly amount to an alternative theory of personality. Experts line up to tell us that he was jealous of Haydn and Mozart, determined, in a seemingly egotistical way, to overshadow them. He was also a man of some personal vanity - fond of good food and wine, fastidious in his dress - not qualities we associate with distracted genius. According to Grabsky, he liked to cut a fashionable figure in Viennese social circles. An amusing story is told that soon after moving into rented quarters in Vienna, he took a stonemason to his room upstairs and, without consulting his outraged landlord, smashed a hole through the outer wall to improve the view. He would have been at home in Sydney's real estate market.

Grabsky made that splendid documentary In Search of Mozart in 2006, and it was a model of its kind, with well-chosen musical excerpts and readings from Mozart's letters. We are asked to believe that his Beethoven film is challenging accepted wisdom, but nothing in it disturbs our impression of a tragic figure cruelly used by fate.

The suicidal outpourings in the so-called Heiligenstadt Testament, written in 1802, when Beethoven's deafness was well advanced, are movingly recounted. "In my profession it is a terrible hardship," Beethoven wrote of his deafness a year earlier, in what seems now like a masterpiece of understatement. Today his deafness would almost certainly be curable, and I have always thought of it as the worst and most bitterly ironic affliction ever visited on a human being. But perhaps it was a necessary spur to that sublime creativity.

Suffering drove Beethoven to despair, and nastiness. And if anything he was a nastier man than the film would have us believe. I have a much-loved copy of Alexander Thayer's monumental biography of the composer, published in 1866 (and in Henry Krehbiel's English edition, in 1921). The three volumes were the gift of a dear friend, and there is nothing of consequence in Grabsky's film that they hadn't already told me. In Thayer's estimation, Beethoven was a self-hater. When his mother died, his father took to drink; and even before his deafness he was plagued by recurring illness. So a good deal of ill-tempered bitterness would have been natural in him. Thayer despised other traits: Beethoven's snobbery, his meanness in money matters. But what can account for the insane fury he showed towards his family?

Yet he gave the world those great, unalterable sounds, those imperishable insights into a world of suffering, beauty and spirituality to be found, I think, in no other music. Genius is all too often flawed (don't mention Wagner), and the greater our admiration for the genius the greater our reluctance to acknowledge the flaws. In Search of Beethoven is at heart a cautious film, despite its pretensions. It prefers the genius to the monster, and so do we all.

But what might have been a great documentary turns out to be merely a good and serviceable one. It lacks fire, daring, and originality. There are too many snippets of music, too many talking heads, too little to define that great arc of the composer's life and spiritual development. But no one who cares about the man and his music will miss it. For that I give credit to its subject. The search goes on.

THE HERALD SUN – 24 OCTOBER 2009
In Search of Beethoven (G) Director: Phil Grabsky (In Search of Mozart) Starring: Juliet Stephenson (narrator), Roger Norrington, Helene Grimaud, Emmanuel Ax, Jonathan Biss. Rating:
**** Found behind a wall of sound
Anyone who looked at the title above and immediately envisaged the hunt for a slobbering St. Bernard can go and stand in the corner for the rest of the review.

No, the stately chase promised by this polished documentary tracks the life and legacy of the late German composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

As he did with Mozart a while back, British filmmaker Phil Grabsky is playing detective with classical music history here.

Dispensing with all the clichéd claptrap and generalisations that inevitably plague movies like this, Grabsky successfully reassesses and revitalises the imposing reputation of his subject.

Simply by staying sensible, and sticking to the facts. The prim narration of actor Juliet Stephenson draws liberally from the composer’s own correspondence.

Elsewhere, the film throws open the doors and invites in a wide diversity of opinions and reflections from a cavalcade of experts, boffins and plonkers.

They all know their stuff, and better still, they all know how to express themselves in a way that allows the music of Beethoven to come alive in a whole new way.

As the film proceeds, novice viewers will also get a fascinating overview of how Beethoven’s unusual blend of gut instinct and unorthodox work techniques set him apart from his strait-laced contemporaries.

The musical performances through the film are exemplary, concluding with a brilliant rendition of the timeless Ninth Symphony by conductor Franz Bruggen and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.


THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW
25/10/09
BY Peter Crayford
Two good actors have played him before. Gary Oldman in Immortal Beloved and Ed Harris in Copying Beethoven. Neither captured the man or entirely rescued him from numerous black and white melodramas. But Phil Grabsky’s documentary IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN is one of the best films about a musician I have seen.
He interviews a select group of erudite and articulate musicians, critics and musicologists and each has something interesting, unpretentious and memorable to say.
Musical performances illustrate the interviews. Thankfully free of period dramatisations, it lets the music do most of the speaking through formidable recordings.
This documentary gets somewhere close to the mystery that is creativity

So….did I find anything or not? Well, I think you have to be pretty confident in your knowledge of Beethoven to suggest the film offers nothing new..but each to their own. That slightly mixed review in the Australian was still on a whole page and with a photo – all the other films barely got a paragraph. So that is fantastic!

When I turned up at the cinema, they are in a bit of a fuss: so many people have turned up that they have to swap from the 160- to the 260-seater! The place is crammed. Young and old. What a great way to finish the Australian tour. The cinema has a glitch transferring the film from the hard-drive of one cinema to the other – so ironically I do a 20-minute stand-up about the film, explaining why you could not have made this film without modern technology…while, meanwhile, the cinema struggled to get their modern technology to work! They did, however, and we had a really good screening and Q&A to follow. 3 rounds of applause: 2 more and they’d have called the police! (You need to watch the film to understand that joke…).

DAY 32 FRIDAY 23rd OCTOBER, PERTH, AUSTRALIA

A travel day really. A morning of packing and emails and then a midday flight from Adelaide to Perth. I checked in to the hotel then went over the cinema which is going to play Beethoven. It’s called the Paradiso and is pretty much downtown, near to the train station. The Duty Manager Rebecca could not have been nicer or more enthusiastic about the film and she thinks we’ll do ok in tomorrow’s preview screening. It is going into a 160-seater and she hopes it will be pretty full. I did an interview with William from the West Australian who certainly knew the subject well and I enjoyed talking to him for an hour. I’m always aware that I probably talk too much but I enjoy talking about Beethoven and the film. Just as well! Pottered about in the hotel – had a great dinner of snacks in front of the TV..

DAY 31 THURSDAY 22ND OCTOBER, ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA

Just one radio interview today – nice community radio station, run by volunteers. Then bit of time to myself – so no blogging! Here’s three reviews from today instead:

Reviewed by Paul Byrnes The Sydney Morning Herald - Paul Byrnes

Grabsky's elegant film reveals that Beethoven shares many characteristics with some of our own doomed musical geniuses.
Rating stars-4
HE MAY search, but does he find? The British arts documentary veteran Phil Grabsky made the much-admired In Search of Mozart in 2006. Here he goes in search of another genius – arguably one more difficult to pin down.
Ludwig van Beethoven was so many things at once: deaf, drunk, dishevelled, a braggart, moralist, meddler and, at times, dishonest. He was also generous, romantic, lovelorn and some say companionable. He seems to have inspired great friendship and devotion among a select few closest to him. We get a sense of all these things from Grabsky's intriguing film, but there is still a gap. Where did a man so flawed and troubled by life, love and illness find the spiritual depth to write music that was so moving and even joyous? Where does the hope come from?
That is the problem with the biopic, whether fictionalised and Hollywooded or factualised and scholarly, like this one. The genius cannot be cracked open. It remains at the core, sealed and mysterious, so the biographer must circle and ponder, accumulating mere detail, but never really knowing.
Grabsky uses the only solution there is: talk to the people who have tried to know Beethoven by playing his notes, and see what they have found. The language is music, so he speaks to those who speak it. Thus, he visited some of the modern world's greatest musicians, filming them at home and at work, or in breaks from rehearsal. The style is informal, and often intimate. The Dutch pianist Ronald Brautigam (with wild Ludwigian hair) demonstrates the kind of music the boy would have grown up hearing from his court musician father in Bonn in the 1770s. The American pianist Emanuel Ax says he must have had large hands, because his fingering is so difficult to play. Ax believes some of it was his little joke, to annoy imitators.
Grabsky also films some great orchestras and ensembles across Europe and North America: the Salzburg Camerata with Sir Roger Norrington, the Vienna Symphony with Fabio Luisi, the Endellion String Quartet, Claudio Abbado conducting the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in a production of Fidelio. These interviews and performances are often intriguing in themselves. I could watch the French pianist Helene Grimaud talk for hours about Beethoven – or the weather. Some of them are quite poetic: talking about a passage in the 4th Symphony, the Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda says the allegro is like "the opening of a bottle of champagne".
Beethoven's problems with women punctuate the story. It's clear that the frustrated romances, the dashed hopes of marrying "up", the stifling Viennese rules about social intercourse, all had a big impact on his well-being and music. They seem to bring out his best and worst – the haunting beauty of the Moonlight Sonata and Fuer Elise, written for his objects of desire, versus the four years in which he fought his brother's widow for custody of her son, Karl. She was a slut, according to Ludwig. And yet, for the arrogant moralist he arguably became, he did not shy away from pursuit of married ladies. The man badly needed a wife.
The illnesses remain intriguing. Was it tinnitus, lead-poisoning, syphilis or typhus that damaged his hearing? Or all of the above? Did alcohol drag him down, as it did his father? "On the all-time list of composer drinkers, [Ludwig] would be near the top," says the musicologist Giovanni Bietti. In later life he so rarely changed his clothes that his friends used to replace them while he slept – that certainly sounds like the habits of a major drunk.
What becomes clear in Grabsky's elegant film is that Beethoven shares many characteristics with some of our own doomed and recently departed musical geniuses. We know he contemplated suicide, but decided he had too much music to get written. That shows a great degree of courage, as well as hubris. As good as the film is, Beethoven remains mysterious. He refuses to roll over, so to speak.

From THE AGE:
IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN (G) ★★★ (139 minutes)
Nova
Reviewer Philippa Hawker

FILMMAKER Phil Grabsky (The Boy who Played on the Buddhas of Bamiyan) has already made an intensive study of Mozart, and he structures his portrait of Beethoven in a similar fashion.
It's a combination of austerity and riches. Grabsky traces a chronology, shuns dramatised reconstructions and keeps his supporting images - of locations where the composer lived and worked - relatively simple. The vividness comes from a host of interviews with leading scholars, conductors and performers, supplemented by performances, brief, but exhilarating, of more than 50 pieces of music.
We hear vivid turns of phrase. Conductor Roger Norrington compares Mozart and Beethoven, saying they had one thing in common: they both wrote very fast. "But Mozart was writing for Saturday. Beethoven was writing for eternity."
And there are concrete demonstrations, as when pianist Emanuel Ax takes to the keyboard to make a point about the composer's virtuosity as a performer.
When it comes to the personal life, there are no startling revelations or glib speculations, but there are telling details - some light-hearted, some distressing. Beethoven's creative life, with all its achievements, cannot easily be reconciled with the image of a difficult, solitary figure, shadowed by depression. Grabsky, to his credit, doesn't try to make one life fit the other, but he manages to illuminate both.

DAY 30 WEDNESDAY 21ST OCTOBER, ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA



Up early for quick trip to the gym. Beautiful day. Pick up the national newspaper: The Australian. 4 new releases reviewed & thankfully one is ours. That’s almost more important than what they actually say. The review is a bit lukewarm but still very useful – and the opening line would sit nicely on any future press release or DVD cover:

A sensitive and meticulous documentary by Phil Grabsky about the life and work of the composer, with a moving emphasis on his encroaching deafness. Despite copious musical excerpts and a host of interviews with musical authorities (not all of them well known) the final effect is unenlightening, never quite matching the success of Grabsky’s 2006 documentary IN SEARCH OF MOZART. Evan Williams

‘sensitive and meticulous’ The Australian. Thank you – that will do nicely. And thanks for the Mozart plug – that will help DVD sales….

Head spinning with trying to keep up to date with the blog, notes, reviews, radio, press, publicity, cinema managers, and all the many emails for other stuff that I get daily – plus trying to start reading up about Haydn…Plus expenses, laundry, hotel bookings, photos for the blog, banking, trying to eat healthy and sneaking off to nearest golf courses… What day is this? I had to check: 30. A month. Right, enough – got to go for first radio i/v of the day.

DAY 29 TUESDAY 20TH OCTOBER, ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA

Woke up in Hobart
2 flights, one game of golf, one blog, 25 emails, one dinner and went to bed in Adelaide. That was Day 29

DAY 28 MONDAY 19TH OCTOBER, HOBART, AUSTRALIA






Took an early morning flight through an absolutely packed Melbourne airport. I’m hanging in there with all these flights but it’s a shame I lost my lounge access card as the peace and quiet (and the free snacks) of a lounge do hope ease the pain of travel. Once on board, I pulled my coat down over my head and slept the whole way there. I have never been to Tasmania before and from the air it is stunning. I didn’t connect with the person picking me up at first until I heard someone on the phone saying ‘yes, but I don’t know what he flipping-well looks like’ – that had to be for me. It was. John the owner of the one and only Hobart arthouse cinema had found me… He’s another one of these extremely hard-working folk who keep these wonderful cinemas going. He has even dug down into the ground under his cinema to create extra screens… He and his partner Jan seem to work their socks off to keep the cinema going and I hope the locals realise what a treasure it is. Apparently they do as some make long journeys to visit – and some, apparently, have even moved to Hobart from elsewhere in Tasmania just to be near the cinema. Hobart is a rather lovely place too – only 500,000 folk and a real sense of the past which has managed not to have been knocked down and replaced by bland skyscrapers. The evening was great – a complete sell out and, for the very first time, a standing ovation! Now I can only remember standing to applaud a film once (and that was quite recently in Prague for a great film called Anvil) and frankly I didn’t know where to look when the good folk of Hobart offered me the same honour… As always, the proof will be in the pudding and how long it justifies John keeping it in the cinema. It would be great to have a good run… The local radio and press really liked the film so that will help.

DAY 27 SUNDAY 18TH OCTOBER, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Up at 7am and went for nice run down to the river. There were hundreds of cyclists already there about to go on a sponsored bike raid – and what a lovely ride that must be. I don’t run that far as I need to prepare for the day before going to the cinema to watch a couple of films before my own screening. First up was a thoroughly decent film called Seraphine and the second was the excellent National Theatre performance (filmed and sent to Australia on tape) of All’s Well that Ends Well. Then it was Beethoven time. Pretty well sold out though only a 130 seater. The film went well – and one thing I am starting to notice is that members of the audience seem to have a more profound connection to Beethoven and his music, I have had quite a few on this trip telling me that Beethoven’s music helped them ‘out of a hole’ or through some life crisis or other. More people are certainly moved through the film too – again, more than one has been so emotional after the film that they have found it hard to talk to me. Maybe there is something deeper about Beethoven. I have my views on this but I’m still reserving judgement a little until I have had more screenings. After this one, I went for quick snack with Carol – from the local radio station, who hosted the Q&A, Trent who works for the distributor and the lovely Teri who was publicist on Mozart and now works for a group of lawyers attempting to bring the world closer to being nuclear weapon-free. Good luck on that one, teri!

DAY 26 SATURDAY 17TH OCTOBER, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Body still hyper I guess. Woke before 7am and was soon tapping away on the computer, trying to get my email in-box back to single figures…No chance…
Another packed press day. Dashing around Melbourne to various radio stations. As I said yesterday, it’s extremely impressive how many radio stations there are and how each of them had done their homework on the film and had a full list of questions they wanted to ask. I thought I might have to adjust my responses depending on whether the channel was a classical radio station, indy music station or a gay & lesbian radio station but in fact all asked broadly similar, intelligent questions that in the UK you might get from only one or two stations. It’s another day passed in a car or radio station but I guess that’s why I’m here. I certainly hope it helps… Certainly the interviewers could not have been more enthusiastic about the film and all essentially insisted their audience come see the film! In the evening I had dinner with some wonderful friends of mine who, truth be told, I so wanted to see again after the last trip to Australia (for IN SEARCH OF MOZART) that I never hesitated for second in any plans to set up this press tour. I’m not sure I should embarrass them by describing them too much but what I will say is that John was the first person I met on the Mozart film. He was absolutely Day 1 (of three years) and the fact that I can now stay at his house in Australia or vice versa – he and his fabulous wife Janet – are welcome to stay with us in the UK any time is illustrative of what a wonderful world the classical music world is. Others may have had different experiences but I have made more friends – some of whom are the world’s best musicians – in the course of these two projects than probably all the 100 or 200 films I made previously. Got to be late again – 1am. Alarm is off: I’m sure to sleep in.

oh, and a little poem:

There once were two mice
Called Ella & Billy
Known for being,
Well, really, quite silly
They lived in my pocket
And ate all my snacks
They really are cheeky
And live life to the max!

DAY 25 FRIDAY 16TH OCTOBER, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Flight at 7am from Sydney to Melbourne. Finally managed to get my baggage down to 23k so no excess baggage at $10/Kilo. Though it did mean my rucksack was stuffed full of books and golf balls… Quick flight to Melbourne and taxi straight to SBS radio for an interview for French folk (done in French) then German folk (done in English). No rest..need coffee…off to ABC radio for national interview. I came here in 2006 but have no memory of the building at all – which is a bit spooky. One struggles to get any radio in the UK but here there’s loads – indeed I did two more and a TV spot until at 3pm I said that’s it – enough’s enough. I suppose I should have had a nap at this point but I dashed off to a nice public golf course instead. Short course and I just managed to finish 18 holes as it got dark. Walked straight to the cinema (where Beethoven showing tomorrow) and went in to see Quentin Tarantino’s latest film – set in WW2. I have never felt the need to rush out of a cinema and go get a shower after watching most of this film. It was so, so disgusting on so many levels – normally I just want to persuade people to watch Beethoven now I want to chain them to their cinema seats and forcing anyone who was thinking of see Tarantino’s film or has had the misfortune to see it – to watch a film that contains hope, optimism, love, genius. Because Tarantino’s is almost sickness, violence, hate. Of course his film will be seen by tens of millions and mine won’t. On that, a 21-hour day came to an end.

October 22nd 2009
DAY 24 THURSDAY 15th OCTOBER, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

A sunny day in Sydney – such a great city. I dashed around doing radio interviews – I don’t have any trouble keeping enthusiastic about the film or Beethoven; indeed I enjoy the challenge of being articulate, funny, and a good salesperson. The one question that always trips me up though is ‘So, Phil, who is better? Mozart or Beethoven?’ So, which are your two kids do you prefer? Do you like your left leg more than your right one? No time to enjoy Sydney though – too many emails to keep on top of forthcoming screenings. I did manage to meet a local author called Agnes Selby who wrote a great book on Constanze Mozart. She and he husband Theo invited me for pancakes. And thoroughly nice they were too. Though I am always amazed at the short-sighted stinginess of some restaurants. The pancakes were advertised to come with fruit. They turn up with two strawberries and an inch of banana. Can I have more banana please? Yes, sir, but we’ll charge. Before I can respond in an appropriately Beethovian way, Theo says that will be fine. The waitress reappears with another inch of banana….
After lunch I had a meeting at ABC Australia – great guy works there called Ian who is keeping them honest. Ultimately it comes down the individuals who work in organisation – hopefully they’ll keep Ian on for a good while yet. Especially as he wants more of my films!
Rushed over to AVIS and picked up a hire car and then Linda the publicist and I headed north to a screening at Avoca Beach. It was a two hour drive (through lovely landscapes) and a pretty small cinema but as far as I am concerned Avoca Beach is the absolute model for small, community-based, well-run, fabulously programmed cinemas. Digital had changed everything so one day it’s Beethoven then it’s a live concert from Sydney, a Shakespeare play from London even a Robbie Williams concert. Plus a strong array of films. Good coffee, good cake, a bar, comfy chairs in and out, and cinema owners who know many of their clients by name. And what a great evening we had. A string quartet played on the lawn – with the sea only metres away – and then the film was tremendously well received. Terribly enthusiastic Q&A – lots of laughs too. Linda and I didn’t get to leave until 11pm and then we had to drive back to Sydney. We couldn’t find a cab anywhere for Linda – who is tremendous fun and extremely nice but started to lose her smile by 1am and no way home from the airport (where I was staying). Sorted it in the end. I got to bed in a dingy prison cell of a room – a Formule Un (which can be OK in France) – but a bed’s a bed. I seriously considered not bothering to get undressed as I have to be up in 4 hours..

DAY 23 WEDNESDAY 14th OCTOBER, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Up at 4.30 to drive to Gold Coast airport and then flew to Sydney. I was met by the film’s Sydney publicist and we started a mad day of press. First there was SBS TV at the hotel then ABC national radio followed by 3 other radio stations. It’s really noticeable how many radio stations they have here – BBC Radio is a national treasure back in England but we don’t have the range of radio stations. Great screening at Cremorne Orpheum (where Mozart did so well) – a truly great cinema run by a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable manager. After a very good Q&A I rushed back to the hotel to watch the important ABC TV movie show. Their review really does have an impact and we got a great one!

In Search Of Beethoven
Rated G
Review by Margaret Pomeranz

Phil Grabsky’s examination of some of the world’s great composers continues with his film IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN. His approach, as with IN SEARCH OF MOZART, is to bring some of the world’s experts in various fields to tell Beethoven’s story. But this is not just a history; it’s an exploration of the man and his music.

It’s fascinating to discover just how revolutionary Beethoven’s music was, and the film gives great insight into the humanism at its heart.

This is really an excellent documentary. For lovers of classical music it will be a must-see but for people who want to learn about Beethoven I don’t think you could get any better introduction than this film. The music is sublime, the experts knowledgeable, the musicians themselves give a real understanding of the playing of his pieces, the music is dissected so cleverly.

The film is long, over two and a quarter hours, but there’s depth and intelligence in it. This is not a superficial journey and you end up with enormous gratitude for having taken it.

Further comments

MARGARET: David?

DAVID: I don't think I can add much to what you've said, Margaret, because I completely agree. I mean, one of the things that fascinated me about the film was to learn really what a sad life Beethoven had. The fact that he wasn't able to marry, for one reason or another, and, of course, his increasing deafness and disability and so on, while at the same time creating this sublime music. And also very interesting too is the political background at the time, which the film makes very clear.

MARGARET: Yes.

DAVID: The Napoleonic wars that were going on and the occupation of Vienna, where he lived, of course, and so on.

MARGARET: Yeah.

DAVID: I think this...

MARGARET: Well, I mean, the Heroica.

DAVID: Yeah. Yeah. So, look, I think this is an exemplary film. I'm going to give it four out of five.

MARGARET: I think it's sublime, this film. I'm giving it four and a half.

This could really help….

DAY 22 TUESDAY DAY 13th OCTOBER, BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA

Ah, the joys of being back in a country that can make coffee. Up bright & breezy and had coffee and a biscuit or two at a local café. Spent the morning with Gil and his colleague Peta and we worked through schedules and what-not. Did a radio interview then picked up a car hire and drove to the wonderful seaside town of Byron Bay – though actually drove a little past it to see a good friend Oren Siedler (and her partner Tony). I met Oren in Toronto back in 2003 when I was raising funds for The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan. She made a great film – now an excellent book – called Bruce and Me. Thoroughly recommend reading it. Their house is in the rain forest and is fantastic.

DAY 21 MONDAY 12th OCTOBER, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND to BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA

Half-way through the tour now. Energy levels still good. New York seems a long time ago though…I kind of hope that Hong Kong comes a bit faster. Anyway, I took an early flight from Wellington to Sydney, then had a four hour stop-over in Sydney (where I worked on my computer) and then caught a plane to Brisbane. Arrived to a beautiful hot sunny day…the kind of day that really should be a holiday. Met by my distributor Gil Scrine and we headed off to Noosa Heads for tonight’s screening. It’s a couple of hours drive north of Brisbane and, Gil being Gil, first things first on arrival: a swim in the sea. These ozzies can’t help it – they are irresistibly drawn to the sea like bees to honey. I have to agree it was great to play in the waves for 30 minutes or so… Then, drying off in the car park as best I could, it was dressed and off to the local cinema. Lovely multi-screen cinema showing a much broader mix of films than our multiplexes do. Well, that’s illustrated by my presence. Screening went well – back to full crowds which is a relief after NZ. Late night drive back to an apartment hotel in Brisbane.

DAY 20 SUNDAY 11th OCTOBER, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

Blast! It’s a beautiful sunny day – their first in 3 weeks. That won’t help… I spent all morning not in the sun but indoors on emails – that really is a theme of this trip. Anyway, headed out at lunchtime for the cinema and another double-bill. I was still expecting a good audience. After all, this very cinema played In Search of Mozart for 6 – yes, six! – months…. I am extremely disappointed to see only 10 people have turned up in a 450 seat cinema. That is awful. But I can learn from this and there are definitely changes to how this whole thing will be done next time. Too many links in the chain and, as they say, you are only as good as the weakest link. Evening ended a bit better with a snack and quick driving tour of Wellington with a very good local film-maker Jennifer Bush-Daumec. After that, I packed and prepared for tomorrow’s flight to the next country: Australia.

DAY 20 SUNDAY 11th OCTOBER, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

Blast! It’s a beautiful sunny day – their first in 3 weeks. That won’t help… I spent all morning not in the sun but indoors on emails – that really is a theme of this trip. Anyway, headed out at lunchtime for the cinema and another double-bill. I was still expecting a good audience. After all, this very cinema played In Search of Mozart for 6 – yes, six! – months…. I am extremely disappointed to see only 10 people have turned up in a 450 seat cinema. That is awful. But I can learn from this and there are definitely changes to how this whole thing will be done next time. Too many links in the chain and, as they say, you are only as good as the weakest link. Evening ended a bit better with a snack and quick driving tour of Wellington with a very good local film-maker Jennifer Bush-Daumec. After that, I packed and prepared for tomorrow’s flight to the next country: Australia.

DAY 19 SATURDAY 10th OCTOBER, AUCKLAND & WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

Woke early and went for a jog up the road to a nice park called The Domain. Should of and could of run further but soon seemed to find myself in a café bar buying a spot of breakfast. Looking forward to Australia and some nice runs in the sun. I spent the majority of the day with the distributor friend from last night who took me to some gorgeous spots on the coast west of Auckland. What a stunning country – I will have to come back one day with the family and hire a campervan and explore…
In the afternoon, I took a flight to Wellington. $10/kilo for excess baggage! The airlines really are squeezing every buck these days…
Wellington is grey, wet & cold. My mood not helped by another crummy hotel in the middle of nowhere. I had to dash for a pre-arranged seat at the NZ Opera Company presentation of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Apparently it’s relatively rare to have opera in NZ – maybe twice a year. The place was packed – everyone was very scrubbed and brushed for a night out. I have to say that, fine performance though it was, it wasn’t Beethoven. Hurried back to hotel for a good night’s sleep. Hope it’s wet tomorrow – that will encourage punters to the show.

DAY 18 FRIDAY 9th OCTOBER, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

I have to say that the Qantas flight was great. Love to fly with them again. I also had a funny experience of the guy next to me putting on the in-flight entertainment and choosing one of my films! Meanwhile I watched one of the worst films I have ever seen: Angels & Demons. It was so awful on so many levels…I couldn’t stop watching it it was so bad…So maybe that was the idea.
I arrived in Auckland at 0830am and checked into a crummy hotel in a pretty dismal part of Auckland. My mood wasn’t helped by my arrival at the cinema at 10.30 for the start of a special double bill of Mozart & Beethoven. It seems that there has been a real paucity of advertising – the cinema is only half, maybe a third, full. Considering how well IN SEARCH OF MOZART did in Auckland, I am very disappointed. My mood was improved only by the positive reaction of those who did come, a very nice cinema manager who said she’d love to show more of my films, and a very nice dinner with a local distributor (mainly DVD these days) and his wife & friends.

DAY 17 THURSDAY 8th OCTOBER, somewhere over the Pacific...

This day never existed….or did it? Or was it just very short? Flying west and crossing the date line just confuses me….

DAY 16 WEDNESDAY 7th OCTOBER, VANCOUVER, CANADA

Up at 7am for a quick trip to the gym with my brother – then a quick breakfast before he headed off. It took me a while to answer emails and pack and then I headed off to see a film about a young boy in India. I expect it was very good but the standard of the audio was poor and, to be honest, hurt my ears and I left. Then I went to see a film that a friend of mine, Christina Daniels, had a lot to do with – ONLY WHEN I DANCE. I had been asked to work with a new producer called Giorgia and an experienced producer called Paul Webster. They wanted to make a film in Brazil with me – and I brought Christina into the mix. After a few months I felt it best I withdraw – I just wasn’t sure there was a need or desire for another favela in Rio film. Well, good luck to them all – they persevered and persevered and have made an absolutely wonderful film about two young dancers. Beadie Finzie is the director and I have to say she did better job that I would have. She – they – absolutely nailed the story and the emotional roller coaster you want to take your audience on. People around me were clapping and groaning at key moments. I am particularly pleased for Christina who, like so many, has worked so hard for so little but she has not given up. She worked with me in Brazil and Angola and I look forward to working with her again – though she may be hard to book now. Mind you, she still owes me for lending her my camera for free for months in Brazil…. After that, it was off to the airport and a flight to LAX (they’re still grumpy) and then onto Qantas for a midnight flight to the next continent, the next country: New Zealand.

DAY 15 TUESDAY 6th OCTOBER, VANCOUVER, CANADA

A typical film festival day for me. Loads of emails, and sending packages, posters, flyers and postcards around. Great that my brother here to help me. We both then went for a run in the beautiful Stanley Park before heading over for a screening of a film we wanted to see about Laos. A first time feature by a nice Irish woman. Well shot and interesting. She had to tough it out with no real funding until the Irish Film Board stepped in at the end with completion funds. This was her first international screening and I wish her well. She’s the type of film-maker broadcasters should support….
My film was on at 3pm and went very well again. After that my bro and I headed for dinner and then another film about Tibet. I lasted two minutes before falling asleep. Went back to the hotel to go to sleep. I woke when my brother came in and we worked & talked until 2am. Then I really did need to go to bed….

DAY 14 MONDAY 5th OCTOBER, VANCOUVER, CANADA

My brother has come up by bus from Seattle. I don’t see him enough so any chance to hook up is great. And I’ll need his help at the screenings today and tomorrow. We spent some time together today which was great – actually we rushed off for a game of golf. It was gorgeous – with a backdrop of mountains. The standard of our golf wasn’t quite as attractive… Rushed back to downtown Vancouver for a very nerve-wracking moment: an interview with Radio Canada……..in French! Somehow I managed to get through it but I’m not telling you the link to any recording…. I have to say though that I am chuffed to bits to have done it. 6pm and a festival screening of Beethoven. One never knows how many will come so I’m delighted to see an almost full house of 300+. Apart from a problem with their screen, the projection and audio are great and, although I had intended to rush back to the hotel to do emails, once I started watching the film I couldn’t leave. I think it’s the best I’ve seen it – and I really enjoyed it. So did the audience – they had a great time, laughing and some crying at all the right moments. A very warm round of applause at the end and a good Q&A. All a bit hectic afterwards with lots of people wanting to ask questions. After all this mayhem – and meeting some really nice folk (some of whom remembered me from the Mozart screening two years ago) – my brother and I went to dinner with Marc Destrube and his wife Anna. He is one of the musicians from the Orchestra of the 18th Century who feature so prominently in both films. He is in fact often the Concert Master or First Violinist. He – like all the musicians in that wonderful orchestra – is extremely nice and the fact that I have become friends with a good number of the musicians and conductors that I interviewed is a huge bonus and joy to me. I have actually been skiing with Marc and I remember being terrified that he’d fall over and hurt his hands! I had to apologise to Marc after the film – most of the time in the film we only see his fingers….

DAY 13 SUNDAY 4th OCTOBER, VANCOUVER, CANADA

Up at 4.30am to get to the airport for a flight to Vancouver. I love Canada and I love Vancouver so I’m really looking forward to this leg of the trip. I have been to Canada many times and have never had anything but the most fantastic times. And when IN SEARCH OF MOZART showed at the Vancouver Film Festival 2 years ago it was a big success. Showing Beethoven at the Film Festival should be fun. Mind you, the journey wasn’t much fun to start with..on arrival at the airport I was gruffly informed that the flight was
cancelled. I’m sorry but US airports can be rough old places and I guess the staff there has developed a defense mechanism which entails that they don’t look at you, smile or seem to care much. Obstinacy comes in useful at times like this…and though they offered me a flight 4 hours later I refused and demanded an earlier flight on a different airline. This was agreed and I had only a couple of hours wait for a United flight which was actually pretty good. Especially as they made a mistake (which I kind of encouraged) and put me in business! A delight to arrive in Vancouver – such a beautiful spot. Sad not to be arriving with my family though. Arrived about midday at the festival hotel – and it’s a lovely hotel, the Sutton Place. It really does help on these trips to be in a nice hotel and this one fits the bill. I check in with the festival – they have some great films and I hope I get the chance to see a few. There are about 2000 festivals I believe and one has to choose very carefully which ones you enter and why. Some are useful for seeking distributors, some for press, some to reach an audience, some to enter competition and maybe win an award, some just because the location is nice and you’ve been invited. Vancouver is a good one because of location, the range of films you can see (lots of Asian ones because of Vancouver’s relation with Asia), and a very enthusiastic audience – some watching 5 films a day! I wish we filmmakers could take a share of the box office but festivals struggle like everyone else. I guess every year they have to rely on sponsors – and in this day and age there is nothing guaranteed about them. Anyway, I managed to see a film in the afternoon about the pianist Glenn Gould. Nicely made by people who clearly thought he was a great pianist though I’d liked to have heard from musicians telling me why he was – or indeed was not – so ‘great’. Great archive – that’s often the key to films. I do daydream about a film about Mozart or Beethoven using imaginary DV archive – can you imagine if someone had some home video of Mozart playing billiards or Beethoven joking around in a local bar…

DAY 12 SATURDAY 3rd OCTOBER, LOS ANGELES, USA

Busy day…an interview in the hotel with the biggest radio station in LA and apparently the biggest metropolitan radio station in the USA. I’d have tidied my hotel room if I’d have known that’s where he wanted to conduct the interview… Then rushed off for lunch with a local distributor. Mitchell Block is a stalwart of the documentary world and knows that world inside out. He’s been involved in many Oscar-winning docs but the world is changing, has changed, and it doesn’t get any easier for him. He distributes a series of mine called The Great Commanders, which I made almost 15 years ago, so I hope he continues to find success. I then went straight from lunch to a screening of the film at the George Lucas building at the University of Southern California. A new building that cost millions (did someone say $140m?) at & for the school of cinematic arts. Wow. Mind you I spoke to one student studying animation – her three year course would leave her $200,000 in debt! Anyway, a well-attended screening; half students and half opera-goers who regularly come to the cinema for Live from the Met screenings. Then a quick dash back to West Hollywood to meet a fine critic Jules Brenner. He used to be a camera operator and has some fine stories to tell of the old Hollywood – an Hollywood that is probably long-dead. Barely had time to finish eating before dashing to the cinema. Bit disappointed again that audience stubbornly sits at 50 or 60 – in a 250-seater. I can only hope for word-of-mouth but I’m not sure I have reason to be confident. The last show wasn’t any busier either – though, as always, the audience were extremely enthusiastic for the film. I’d rather that than a full house of slightly bored or disappointed punters.

US TOUR - IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN

DAY 11 FRIDAY 2nd OCTOBER, LOS ANGELES, USA

Flew in to LAX and just had time to drop my bags off at the hotel before heading off for a radio interview at KPFK. Thought it would take 10 minutes but it took 40 and $40 too. Just to get from West Hollywood to North Hollywood…crazy city. Good interview though – except it was a pre-record and might not go out until next week which frankly won’t help keep the film in the one cinema it is playing in LA. Still, the interviewer was extremely keen on the Afghan film I am working on and promised to really get behind that when we release it in 2011. The trick is keeping all these offers of help in store and not to forget them… Organisation, organisation, organisation – you can’t overstate how important it is. After a lovely lunch with an old mate from Brighton, I had a meeting with a top (and I mean top) manager to the stars. I felt like I was in Curb Your Enthusiasm (and if you don’t watch that series you are missing one of the great TV series – again, something the Americans do so, so well – The Wire. Sopranos, American Office, etc… I was just meeting this guy to say hi and leave him some DVDs of work. A friend had set it up and who knows…maybe one day, someone will talk to someone about someone else who wants to make a film about so-and-so and they’ll remember this English guy who passed through town with a film on Beethoven… Extremely pleasant guy that I met – when you think of the battles he must face dealing with top stars, top studios, top distributors, etc, I was impressed by his charm and attention. After that meeting – and with my feet still firmly on the ground – I hurried off to the cinema where Beethoven is premiering in LA tonight. Well, I had a little moment of feeling the loneliness of the long distance runner. The cinema was deathly quiet. Yes, the film’s name was up in lights outside and there was a poster or two but in a city where no-one walks and an hour before the cinema opens, there was literally no-one around. I had no sense if anyone would come to the first 5pm screening. We’d had a good review though in the LA Times:

An ode to joy for Beethoven fans

With "In Search of Beethoven," documentarian Phil Grabsky has created a splendid work that will be a revelation to the uninitiated and a joy to music lovers. As with his previous "In Search of Mozart," Grabsky has gathered an array of major musicians and scholars to explore the dynamic relationship between Beethoven's life and art. Excerpts of key Beethoven works are performed by various European orchestras, punctuating the narrative of the composer's tumultuous life, which was expressed so boldly and passionately in his music.

Described as being a "rude, forthright, impatient" young man, Beethoven soon concluded that he could be better than reigning composers Mozart, whom he may or may not have met, and Haydn, who became a mentor. Beethoven enjoyed acclaim and even financial security. But by age 30, he had begun to lose his hearing, which would eventually become total. He fought back suicidal despair, crediting his urge to compose for saving his life. His health would fail and he would sink into poverty, yet he continued to compose, no matter what.

Every source Grabsky interviews for his film enlarges both the viewer's appreciation of Beethoven's genius -- his soaring originality, complexity and variety -- and how his music so richly reveals his ideas, thoughts and state of mind at the time of its composition. The range and influence of his work were so great it is completely understandable why one of Grabsky's commentators proclaims, "Beethoven is the greatest composer who ever lived."

-- Kevin Thomas

Don’t come much better but how many people read the LA Times, how many want to go immediately that afternoon to see a film? Bizarrely, people have been saying that LA is not a great movie-going city. Someone even told me that 80% of an arthouse film’s income can sometimes come from New York alone. I instinctively would doubt such a statistic but it suggests something, doesn’t it? 4.30pm – still quiet. I’m nervous: believe me, it took a lot of work to get the film booked here, then $1500 on a small ad in the LA Times, endless expense in other forms of publicity, endless hours by my colleagues in Brighton, and of course the time, effort and expense for me to get here. And, what?, no-one turns up… Horrible. 4.45…no-one. I want to walk off. I’m starting to look forward to Vancouver on Monday where I know I’ll have a large crowd. 4.46..someone arrives. Then an elderly couple…I listen eagerly as they say ‘2 tickets for Beethoven’, then 2 more, 1 more, 2 more, 4 more…We reach 10..ok, it won’t be empty. 15…not a disaster. 20..not too bad..and eventually 30 people. No avalanche, nothing to shake the arthouse world but it’s OK. The Q&A goes well and I really go on the offensive and push hard that people tell their friends. I really could enter politics after all this one-man hustling from the front. If I pushed any hard, I could have them singing and swaying and chanting ‘Ludwig! Ludwig!’…but that might be going a little far! I do love these Q&As though – and I really don’t mind answering the same questions and so forth – such lovely people – and who can be bored meeting, albeit briefly, nice people who are enthusiastic for the same things as you. I finish the Q&A just as the second sitting arrives…5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 – I know it doesn’t read as being too many but it still means a pretty consistent flow of people in..35, 40.. Well, it’s a 250-seater and we reach 50 people. 20% - doesn’t look great, I know but in a city with hundreds of attractions, a Friday night, a cinema not near any freeways so pretty much only attracting the Beverly Hills inhabitants, I’m not ashamed of 50. I would like to crack 100 so we haven’t managed that but let’s see how we do tomorrow. My voice is really rough by the time I do the last Q&A and I’m ready for bed. Then the last person to ask me questions outside the screen turns out to be a journalist who’d like to interview me there and then. I warm to her immediately – she likes to write considered, intelligent criticism of arthouse films (and there isn’t enough of that) so I agree to get a coffee with her, despite it being midnight. We struggle to find a coffee bar or deli where there’s parking but eventually at half past 12 in the morning, I find myself drinking tea and honey (to save my voice) sharing some cheesecake and pronouncing about the difficulties of making documentary films… While we record this interview to tape, all around us are people having a night out – no-one bats an eye at us though. It’s probably entirely normal for LA. Like earlier in the day, you wouldn’t believe how many guys were reading scripts while drinking their coffee at Starbucks – I wondered if it was a set-up for a TV show…. I’m bushed…that’s 23 hours and I promised my wife only today that I’d get enough sleep. I cut the interview short and go back to the hotel. I turn the TV on but I don’t know why; I’m asleep in minutes.

DAY 10 THURSDAY 1st OCTOBER, KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, USA


Wow, Day 10 – one quarter through my 40 day trip… Early ride out to Cleveland airport (it’s way too far to drive to Kansas) and a quick flight into Kansas City. I am met by an expert in the world of music – a guy called John Tibbetts. He has broadcast and written on many of the same musicians that are in the film and it’s nice to have an hour in the car and then a spot of lunch to talk to him. We are met at lunch by the man who runs the arthouse cinema in Kansas and we bemoan the difficulties in getting folk to see films such as mine but more to the point all those wonderful arthouse movies – which, let’s not beat about the bush, are worth a whole lot more than the mainstream run-of-the-mill output that makes up so much of the chains’ product. Jerry, the manager of the cinema, has been fighting this battle for 20-odd years and is clearly such an important element of Kansas City culture – I just hope they appreciate him. Anyway, after lunch I dashed to his cinema to see a Jane Campion film about Keats but I didn’t last the course (well, not all arthouse films keep me gripped!) and I returned to my hotel to catch up. Jerry wasn’t sure how we’d do for numbers but it was pretty well attended and the Q&A went well. He’s showing Beethoven for one week and Mozart for another so hopefully word-of-mouth will keep numbers steady. Good reviews in the local press and a couple of positive radio interviews is about as much as I could do – so, as always, it’s in the hands of luck, fate, and who knows what? Having spent all day emailing and just keeping on top of the needs of the tour I asked Jerry to give me a quick drive around downtown Kansas city. Another city that is very quiet at night – I guess they are so big, so stretched out, that people just don’t wander – they drive from spot to spot, park in the back, walk straight in. I really enjoyed talking to Jerry – he is one of a breed of Americans that sometimes don’t get seen much on TV abroad – we see the brash, the aggressive side more often – clips of Fox News, or the Congressman from so-and-so demanding a pre-emptive strike against Iran or Syria. But Jerry also represents a huge number of Americans who are smart, funny, articulate, extremely hospitable and just downright nice. So, a quick one-day trip to his city but I thoroughly enjoyed it –and I’d never seen the Missouri River before either….


DAY 9 - WEDNESDAY 29TH SEPTEMBER – CLEVELAND, OHIO, USA



After the excitement of last night, a new day and back to earth…
Emails
Ironing
Emails
Coffee
Radio interview with Kansas
Emails
FEDEX
Email
Phone calls
Emails
Then a radio interview in downtown studio Cleveland. I was interviewed by a wonderful lady by the name of Dee Perry. What a voice! Check her out on-line on WCPN. We had a nice 20 minute chat and luckily I really do not find it hard to be enthusiastic about Beethoven or the film. These radio stations – especially as the print media is in such decline and financial trouble – are absolutely essential. And as I said yesterday it’s folks like these who should be top of every government officials’ budget list. I am not going to write a long essay on this but those kids beating each other up at school and the struggles of people in the cultural spheres – they are connected. It all starts at home and at school. Those kids in France, Germany, Holland who find it normal to learn an instrument, go to concerts, go to the theatre – they, with a rare exception, are not holding up drug stores with sawn-off shotguns. OK, speech over but in the one local newspaper store I went into there were more gun magazines than cultural ones.
After the radio show, John and I hurried off to the first screening. He has never ever scheduled a film at 2pm but did so as I was here. He was worried no one would show- but in fact there was an acceptable 23 people. One of whom had just caught the radio show and rushed across town. The cinema, by the way, is in the university district and pretty much somewhere to drive to. After I had done my introduction I went back to the hotel and finally got the Skype working and spent a lovely 90’ chatting to my family on the webcam. My idea is to have remote dinner with them on Saturday: we all eat in front of the camera and chat as if it were a normal dinner. Weird & wonderful…what a world.
Nice Q&A after the film though I can tell I’m losing my voice. Quick intro for next one then back to hotel. Watched another documentary called The End of the Line. I know some of the people involved and had missed it when it had its one day multi cinema screening in the UK. It’s a powerful film which essentially makes a strong case for the disaster we are committing to the seas and the fish within. They had rather ‘over-scored’ it by which I mean the orchestral score was very emotional and really wasn’t needed. The facts were strong enough; I didn’t need the music to tell me how to feel. That apart, a powerful film that should be seen and acted upon. Indeed, all credit to the film-makers: it had a real impact in the UK on its release and shows the power of a film backed up with enormous commitment and sheer hard work. Various outlets and restaurants have, it seems, already changed their policy on which fish they buy and serve. Great: TV & films are such powerful media and should be used for the common good. Oops, watch out..stop myself before another rant begins…
My second screening of the day went well too. 40 or 50 people (which doesn’t sound much – and indeed could have been more) but on a wet day wasn’t too shabby. And they were very receptive and the Q&A went well. One gentleman I talked to after the show is writing a book that shows Beethoven (and Haydn too) had black fathers… I do like to engage with folk in the audience but I had to ask what evidence could he possibly have to back this up: apparently Malcolm X had mentioned it in a speech in 1963. Well, TV is always asking me what’s new to say about Beethoven so that would be new….
Feeling pretty weary now; hotel room service was shut and so dinner was (a pretty decent) chicken and fruit salad from a nearby coffee shop. Watched Operation Filmmaker by Nina Davenport. One of those docs that you hear about –and all credit to her for that. I certainly could see she had put the effort & time & money in to get the material – the hard-to-capture actuality of a story. Those real moments. Worth checking out.
Despite best efforts, couldn’t clear in-box of emails to under 30…(and don’t even ask about my 'Pending' box and ‘To Read’ box)… Couldn’t sleep – perhaps too much coffee during the day..1am, 2am – and I have to be up at 6 to catch a plane…

DAY 8 - TUESDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER – CLEVELAND, OHIO, USA

First of all, a message to a good friend of mine, Allan in France. He’s a great guy and a big fan of Beethoven and I wish him a speedy recovery. Like Beethoven, Allan will work his fingers to the bone whether he feels well or not. It’s such a burden to be ill; I think all of us who, today, feel hearty and healthy should thank our lucky stars and make the best of it. Anyway, Allan, it is pouring with rain here in Cleveland – the coffee is awful and the pastries worse. I wish I was down at the La Bascule with you having my café & croissant… See you soon I hope.
Yes, it is really very wet here and I am definitely stuck on the computer in my room. I can’t go out anyway as I’m waiting for FedEx to come and take some tapes that have to go to LA. This is a much nicer hotel than the one in New York and half the price. Very comfortable room. The front desk is a bit funny though. They answer the phone as follows: ‘Expect the Unexpected. This is the [X] Hotel. This is Melanie. How may I help you or direct your call this morning’ by which time any caller has forgotten why they are calling. And what on earth does ‘Expect the unexpected’ mean? I asked one of the women at the desk and then immediately realised she didn’t know as it would be unexpected… I guess I expected drinkable coffee, fruit with taste, oatmeal that was warm, orange juice that was fresh and eggs that were real…and I received the unexpected by getting none of those. Still, mustn’t grumble, eh? Had so much to do today that it made no difference that it was a grey as slate and pouring with rain. I was shooting off emails like an English archer shooting arrows at Agincourt. Late afternoon, I drove the car across town to the Avis car lot ($280 for 2 days hire including the different city drop-off – I have to sell 100 tickets to cover that). There I was met by John from the Museum of Art / Cinemateque. He and people like him are like gold-dust. They work against all sorts of odds to deliver a rich, valuable programme of films including classics and new discoveries. These guys are underpaid and undervalued – and frankly it shows in our society. No offence bankers but it’s guys like John who deserve the bonuses… It’s so obvious to me that culture is absolutely essential to society – it’s a bedrock of all that is decent and good – and yet I know no cultural sphere that doesn’t struggle for funds. Think of the financial waste in local government and then think of how much someone like John deserves $20,000 here or $30,000 there so at least he could have an assistant and wouldn’t have to do everything from picking the films, doing the deals, pushing the press, taxi-ing filmmakers from the airport, turning on the projector, introducing the guests, etc, etc. I really enjoyed my time with him and couldn’t stop myself from borrowing 5 documentaries that I watched in my room. Of those, one called ‘Mother Courage’ (with Meryl Streep) was excellent. But the highlight of the day was a trip not to the cinema but to the theatre… By the wildest, craziest, whackiest chance there was a play at the nearby Cleveland Playhouse called ‘Beethoven, as I knew him’. Now on a recent trip to Chicago I had been told about this wonderful actor, writer, concert pianist called Hershey Felder who had done one-man shows about Gershwin and also Chopin and was about to do Beethoven. Actually I’m not sure if I was told he was doing Beethoven…anyway, I made a mental note but never thought to try and contact him. Lo and behold, he is here and my friend in Chicago effected an introduction. The wonders of Facebook: I swear that 10 minutes after I had sent a message to the guy in Chicago I receive an email from Hershey which says he absolutely, I mean ABSOLUTELY loved In Search of Mozart (which he bought at Mozart’s house in Vienna) and had watched it 5 or 6 times and would love for me to come to the show and meet him afterwards. How great! So that’s what I did. The show, I am pleased to say, was fabulous! Do see it if you ever get the chance or buy the DVD which might well be out next year. Essentially the theatrical equivalent of my film – extracts of letters and pieces of music (which Hershey plays on a Steinway and plays very well). I’m obviously a bit sniffy about other work on Beethoven – I just don’t rate very highly anything I have watched – but this was great. Then, to my surprise and slight embarrassment, at the end of the play, during a great question and answer that Hershey does with the audience, he showered me with praise and told everyone to go see my film playing tomorrow! Afterwards, we had a drink and all I’ll say is that if half of the suggestions Hershey put forward to help me with the Mozart and Beethoven films come to fruition….well, the trip may have been worth it for that alone. And you know what, sometimes you know someone is either a bit over-excited and suggesting things that actually they can’t secure or they are enjoying making themselves seem important by telling you what they can do for you – but I’m not a bad judge of character and I reckon Hershey was down-the-middle genuine. As a deeply creative soul himself, he really did seem to have been taken by the creativity of the my – and my team’s – films and I think – if time permits him – he really will help. Fabulous: I still can’t quite get over the serendipity of it all…

DAY 7 - MONDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER

American breakfast coffee is awful.
Left my hotel and drove from 8am to 3pm to get to Cleveland. Some observations:
1 - the radio stations have NOT changed in 30 years: Sammy Hagar, Led Zepellin, Free, Bad Company, Van Halen, Bachman Turner Overdrive, yes, they are all there… Great: I loved it…except…
2 – yes, except, you can’t really listen to that music and crawl along the freeway. But cops everywhere (not that I advocate speeding but 65MPH?? Please). Worse are those drivers that send me mad who sit in the overtaking lane doing 55 when the inside lanes are empty. Who taught these people to drive – don’t they have any idea at all?
3 – Pennsylvania is gorgeous
4 – I drove off the freeway to stop at random in a town. I was shocked. A main street that had barely changed since 1880. That in itself isn’t the end of the world but so many shops boarded up. Others selling second hand stuff or just rubbish. I saw one delivery and it was piles of boxes freshly in from China (and that’s part of the problem). I stopped to look at one nice old building and the owner within two minutes asked me if I wanted to buy it. This is indeed the famous ‘Main Street not Wall Street’ that Obama promised to help. We’ll see – but compared to practically any town or village that you might stop into in France and my word they are worlds apart. There is so much to love about the USA but the problems they have are huge. Still, at least lunch was only $5.
Arrived at my hotel in Cleveland – in the very pleasant university district and decide to walk to Downtown and the Lake (Erie). Oops, it was 7 miles and took my one and a half hours and I swear I passed only two (2!) people on the sidewalk the whole time… What is that all about? Downtown was very quiet but interesting. I caught a taxi back and worked till 2am (with a background of some great classic concerts on VH1) when I was hoping to ring the kids at home but no-one answered and then I was simply too tired.


DAY 6 – SUNDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER

Worked all morning on emails in my hotel – with a brief hurried rush to buy some oatmeal (again) from Starbucks…
Went down to the cinema at for the 1pm screening – pretty good crowd. I know I should make more of New York but I just have so much to do (and it’s raining) so I carry on with emails until the first Q&A at 3.20. I really should remember to introduce the films too because, despite posters everywhere saying there will be Q&As, people always seem surprised. Anyway, the crowd were very energetic for a Sunday midday so that was good. I collected a few emails, handed out some flyers, and saw the 3.45 lot going in. Again, pretty busy. Then I headed off for a really nice two hours with three very fine friends from New York. It was actually quite a relief to be talking about something other than Beethoven… Headed back for the 6pm Q&A and then decided to have a bit of exercise so made a run for the Golf Range at Chelsea Piers. When I got there, I choose to do a simulator which I haven’t done before. Pretty amazing machine – you hit an actual ball that crosses two lines and then hits a toughened screen. So the speed is measured by the time taken to cross those lines and the direction is marked by where you hit the screen…. To be honest, it doesn’t match a proper game at all but it was OK. But even that was interrupted by a phone-in radio interview I did. I left it a bit late and literally had to jog back to the cinema so the Q&A was conducted by a very sweaty Brit… Again a terribly nice and enthusiastic audience, all promising to spread the word. We’ll see. I then had to dash off to Avis to pick up a hire car, return to the hotel for my bags and head through the Lincoln Tunnel and towards the 1-80 and Cleveland. I surprised myself by not feeling tired but I had chosen to drive partly to see the country so not much point driving in the dark. Stopped at a motel: dinner was Salsa dip, Carrots and an Orange & grapefruit juice…it was the only stuff in a nearby garage that looked like it was less than a million calories a bite… Watched a bit of ladies golf and feel asleep….

DAY 5 -SATURDAY 26th

An absolutely mad day of Q&As and running here and there. The audiences were good and there were four (even the midnight one) lively and positive discussions after each film. Had some more reviews come in too: this one was very erudite: http://boxoffice.com/reviews/2009/09/in-search-of-beethoven.php

In Search of Beethoven
by Matthew Nestel
posted September 25, 2009 8:30 AM

A valentine to the rock star of classical music

he straight story can be told in many octaves. Many minds, literati and artisan, chime in on music’s titan among titans. Composers, conductors, concert musicians, and historians deliver intimate interpretations of a genius whose muted mortality was no match for his talent—a talent he himself characterized as “heaven’s most precious gift.” In Search of Beethoven is a visual biography that employs scores of live performances reimagining the master’s infinite range—from raging to ethereal. The film, like the Flemish artist’s vast oeuvre, aims to strike an apotheosis by chronologically reciting Ludwig van Beethoven’s remarkable flight and plight. The clever movements should entreat a cultured base, like those who still read daily broadsheets and listen to classical records. The MP3 crowd won’t break their Urban Outfitters shopping spree for this affair but may catch glimpses once it jumps from big screen to small.

Afflicted with many physical ailments, Beethoven, the classical rock star who followed Mozart and his teacher Haydn’s footsteps to Vienna, was riddled with financial and female woes. He never married despite what appear to be many crushes, his purse was only moderately filled because manuscript royalties were sold as one-offs and he couldn’t tour because he was sick so often.

Despite his reputation as a harsh hermit, the letters he penned reveal a wounded heart, and his piano concertos and string quartets exude unadulterated beauty, grace and fragility. These pieces are treated like scriptures for the musicians and aficionados dedicating their lives to cracking them. Concert pianist Emanuel Ax admits some of the virtuosic measure are impossible to play and says Beethoven “was less concerned with human beings in the flesh and more concerned with humanity as an ideal.” It was with this that his work lasted longer than the so-called masters of the Baroque period before him. Roger Norrington, a conductor, believes that Beethoven was thinking on a grander stage when comparing him to Mozart. “Mozart was writing for Saturday. Beethoven was beginning to write for eternity. That was one of the conversations he had with his Creator. He wanted to be a great composer, I think.”

The opuses are performed in rich and buttery manners and played as we see paintings, illustrations and composites of the epoch. The narration is quite unobtrusive and touches on elements succinctly, thus letting the thinkers, doers and instruments carry the doc’s tune. Letters are orally recited and in the message you gather that Beethoven was a wounded soul but also determined to make his mark with impunity. To one muse named Josephine he wrote: “You have conquered me. I love you as clearly as you do not love me.” He would write a sonata in her honor (as he did with many women) when smitten. At other times he was wallowing in the depths of despair. “I have dragged on this miserable existence.” But there’s also some sardonic wit from the key master when recounting tension with the help: “My servant has been quite difficult since I threw those books at her head.”

The film permits Beethoven’s story to unfold without too much tinkering. Any stylizing or seasoning would ruin it. And director Phil Grabsky is well aware of this, having made a sister film about Mozart before. The intention, one must believe, is to go deeper into the bowels and cerebellum of this creator who fought deafness and so many other maladies both physical and spiritual, but managed to leave the world an unrivaled legacy. Beethoven’s canon is an eternally living, breathing organism charming and wounding billions and billions in just a couple of strokes.

I had to post the whole thing because it’s pretty impressive – I hadn’t realised I was going deep into the bowels and cerebellum of Beethoven – I think I best go wash.

Oh, I managed to get a massage today. The masseuse walked all over my back – that was a first and my word I thought I’d had deep tissue massage before (even a Turkish guy in an Istanbul Hammam) but this was so deep she was massaging back and front at the same time… She said my muscles were so tight I needed to come back soon. I nodded politely as I stumbled back onto the Manhattan streets…

Walked home in the rain at 1am….watching all the revellers…maybe feeling a bit sorry for myself…

DAY 4: Friday 25th September

It must be the air conditioning (which is a nightmare in hotels like this) but I am awake at 5.20am. Decide to email for an hour than try sleeping again. Colleagues are shooting Tim Marlow on the Turner Exhibition in a few days and I have a few notes to send them. SkyArts saved that show when Channel Five bailed out of the arts and I am so pleased they did – they are such nice and also valuable shows. Why is it so hard to find space on UK TV for 24 minutes about, in this case, one of Britain’s greatest ever artists. If I wanted to make 100 hours entitled ‘Pets Falling Over’ I’d be commissioned in a shot – now what does that say about us? So all credit to SkyArts – I know it’s all about selling set-top boxes but if the most commercial channel there is sees there is an audience why don’t the terrestrials? Anyways, that’s how it is,

8am and I’m at the Printing & Copying store Kinkos picking up 5000 flyers that I spent half of yesterday designing and ordering. I have decided that audiences at Cinema Village are simply not good enough. We have had across-the-board excellent reviews but have people seen them? And it is my belief that you need to hit peoples’ consciousness five or six times before it sinks in…so 5000 flyers in two heavy boxes.

At 9.30 outside the Lincoln centre, the two guys I have hired from the Cinema and I start handing our flyers to passers-by and also folk going in to an early morning Brahms concert. Amazingly everyone takes one as soon as we say the magic word ‘Beethoven’…you can see that they would otherwise have walked by. I feel like Mozart and Beethoven actually – having to employ people to hand out flyers for my ‘concerts’….Nothing’s changed really has it in 20 years. The trouble with New York is that there is SO much choice, that getting anyone into your cinema is a task, an art, a miracle! I left the two guys at it (one of them had last handed out flyers for Barack Obama and he said it was nice to be handing out flyers and not be told it was a disgraceful hippy… or worse). I rushed off to the Marriot (where I left some flyers of course) to pick up a suitcase of another 150 Mozart DVDs that my brother had brought into the country last week on a business trip. I have to sell these things – like some itinerant vacuum cleaner salesmen or encyclopaedia salesmen of past – to pay for the trip first and hopefully even start to pay back our investment (which was sizeable) in the film itself. So there I am, blazing heat, wheeling my heavy suitcase of wares through Manhattan. I dropped them off at the hotel and then ran for a 12.30 with another top doc exec – trying to persuade them that my forthcoming film about ten years in the life of a boy in Afghanistan is one they should invest in. She wasn’t disinterested…we’ll see. To me, I cannot imagine a more important film.

After the meeting, I made my way by train to Long Island where I was having a special one-off screening a delightful cinema in Huntington. Cliff Eisen – one of the leading authorities on Mozart and Beethoven – lives close by so we were co-appearing as guests for an after-film Q&A. The film was very well attended and everyone really seemed to enjoy it. It was nice to see a packed cinema after the quarter-full screen at Cinema Village. But also nice to meet so many nice people (and so many musicians) who were simply delighted to see the film. They were all made SVP (Senior Vice President – everyone in business in the US is a SVP) of verbal distribution. Most, when I told them that, simply thought I was strange…and looked at me as though I was speaking Chinese. But anyway a very pleasant night – excellent to spend time with Cliff and his wife Katy – and despite the 1am train ride back to Manhattan and then having to walk my way through the cold night, filled with revellers and police cars screaming around, it was thoroughly worth it. Couldn’t sleep at first – think I drifted off about 2.30.

DAY 3 – Thursday 24th September

I’d hoped to sleep in but bang on 6am I wake. Can’t tell from looking out of my box window if it’s day or night. Doing emails by 6.01am… UK one way, Australia the other…Truly a global operation! OK, ok, no bread but surely I’m allowed banana pancakes… Go out and it’s blazing hot already which is bad news as I have a day of pounding the pavements from meetings, screenings and also trying to see other documentaries in other cinemas… First of all, of course, I check for new reviews. Time Out & Village Voice are in the shops:

Time out:
“If we had to pick ten things that are great about humanity, there would probably be several Beethoven works amongst them.” Sparked by that appraisal from an unseen authority, documentarian Phil Grabsky launches into an investigation of the composer’s life, providing insights into an audacious talent who could either delight or baffle his contemporaries. Beethoven’s painful insecurities and petty squabbles are deftly balanced with generous musical examples. Honorifics like the opening quotation liberally punctuate the film, but so do frank, even irreverent observations from scholars and musicians. The results do justice to a complex genius whose impact can scarcely be overstated.—Steve Smith

Village Voice
In Search of Beethoven plays like a good, if necessarily condensed critical biography. Drawing from archival letters, interviews with contemporary musicians and historians, and a generous selection of live music, Phil Grabsky's film takes us through the life and work of its imposing subject, moving from Beethoven's days as the "piano virtuoso of Vienna" in the 1790s through his establishment as that city's leading composer and his subsequent personal troubles and declining production. What's interesting about the film is not so much its re-creation of the man's life or its presentation of his character—which hew closely to romantic notions of the stubborn, increasingly erratic genius—but its consideration of just how revolutionary his body of music was compared to that of his predecessors. The film's real resource is its impressive array of talking heads, their intimate familiarity with the music, and their ability to impart graspable insight, as when two subjects offer different readings of the Ninth Symphony's seemingly incongruous ending. Only the angry outburst of one expert, who uses Beethoven's genius to deride contemporary art and "video clips" as comparative trash, imparts a sour elitist whiff to the proceedings.


Then back to my hotel room to phone in a long interview with WBIA radio – that should help. It’s NY’s public radio station and I’ve found that radio is really important in attracting the classical music audience. I’ve done so many interviews about Mozart and Beethoven now but, because I love the subjects so much, I always feel – and thus sound – truly enthusiastic. Probably I also like sounding off too! After the interview, although I would have loved to walked around Manhattan, I simply had no time to do anything but answer emails. But around midday I headed off north to a meeting at the Museum of Modern Art. I have both filmed there in the past and also shown films there. It’s an extraordinary place and to have anything to do with it is a bit of an honour really. I also love the fact it is always so busy – again illustrating that the audience is there for art and most TV channels just don’t get it. After a good meeting – though my cold is really getting on my nerves; I cannot shift it – I scampered off to a friend’s apartment: she had kindly allowed us to use it as an address to send 300 DVDs….I just about had time to leave them at the hotel before having to walk downtown to the Cinema Village for the first Question and Answer session of the day. Today is really the day a film normally opens and when some of our press said we were opening so I’m keen to see how we do today. Bums on seats…

1.45am..well, four Q&As later…I’m Phil Grabsky and this is my film… I have to say it went extremely well. The numbers were average – 20, 30 people per screening (although the other 2 films in the cinema had 2 or 3 people only) but those 20 or 30 absolutely loved the film and were very animated about it and very enthusiastic to go tell their friends. Some people were genuinely moved; others stunned by so much music from so many top musicians. Many were highly critical that you wouldn’t see something like this on US television. Questions tended to be on the hows and wherefores of making something like this. Not one comment about me missing something out. And no comments about the Immortal Beloved which often gets people very heated. Not that it matters really who she was. A really busy day as I managed to squeeze in a very important meeting with a Commissioning Editor of documentaries of a leading channel, and also managed to see Michael Moore’s latest film: Capitalism: A Love Story. Now, despite the fact that on Rotten Tomatoes my film is scoring 92% (!) and his only 70%, I do consider him a deity of the film-making world. No documentary film-maker can deny how significant he has been to opening up the cinemas to docs. Nor do I for a moment deny that it is so wonderful to have an alternate voice poking at the otherwise hidden wounds of modern society…but, frankly, as a film, this one was a bit weak. It makes some shocking ‘needs to be said’ points about Wall Street but it’s too polemical, too ham-fisted at times, to score points with anyone but an already converted audience. That said, I hope it is watched by millions of people around the world. OK…almost 2am and I’m calling time on today.


DAY 2
Can't sleep. Could be nerves - more likely this crummy hotel where the window opens onto a dark narrow infinitely long shaft of some sort and the room is so small I can just about get past the bed to the bathroom or the front door...And �200/night - breakfast is extra! Anyway, allows me to crack on with my emails. Sometimes that is like trying to hold back the tide by lying flat on the beach...it's impossible! Went for a 5 mile run at dawn along a new jog & cycle track along the Hudson River. Not as nice as Chicago�s shoreside but good enough... and better than trying to jog in Manhattan with that grid system....
Met Marjorie my NY publicity agent... She is super and knows her stuff. Tells me this is one of the worst weeks to open : there are 30 films out this week including the Almighty Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore (to whom all documentary filmmakers owe an enormous debt) with his new film. She says it is a testimony to the Beethoven film that we have been getting such good press - indeed reviews at all - in such a packed marketplace. And there is a free screening in Central Park tonight of a film about US National parks...and the UN are in town blocking everywhere....and so on and so on. I decide to walk 50 blocks north to see the press people at the Neue Gallerie and the Metropolitan Gallery of Art. We filmed there last year for an interview show (on SkyArts) called Marlow Meets and I want to be sure they got the DVDs we sent them. The city is packed as always - how do I get these folk to the screenings??? The police are everywhere blocking streets for the fleets and fleets of fancy cars for the UN meeting - and right now clearly it's time for lunch as fancy restaurants are being cordoned off. All seems a little perverse... Manage to get to Met where, guess what, it's been shut for the day to allow for visiting dignitaries to have special tours - I guess they don't want the hoi polloi in there...Gosh, no wonder these leader of the world lose touch....Anyway checked that the press departments at the Met and Neue Gallerie had received their DVD of Marlow Meets and then caught a cab down to the cinema. Not alone - an elderly lady from Washington was at the Neue Gallerie upset as that was closed too (in their case they close on Tuesdays and Wednesdays). 'Want to see a great film? ' 'Sure...' So I kidnapped her....well, escorted her, downtown. At least there would be one person at the 3.45 screening...

'I'm Phil Grabsky, I directed this film, does anyone have any questions' - four times I did that today - after the 1pm, 3.45, 6.30 and 9.30pm performances. It's now 1.30am and so what the result? Not great in terms of numbers - too many empty seats but at least those that were there were VERY enthusiastic and promised to tell friends and colleagues. We can't afford the millions Moore spends on TV ads and posters so we can only rely on word-of-mouth, radio and press reviews and support and a dose of good luck. The Cinema Village is lovely - the projection is excellent - they are offering a run if we get bums on seats so let's see. Bed by 1.30am

DAY 1
The Wilderness World Tour... well, it is 40 days after all. I haven't been away from home for so long since the kids were born and so it�s all a bit a risk. An expensive, extremely time-consuming and exhausting risk - but it's no good making films if you don't get out there and sell them, get them seen. So USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong here I come. Never again will I underestimate how much effort goes into a rock tour. Combining cinemas across three continents and sorting out the travel, accommodation, press and who knows what else has taken a scorching amount of time. But here we are: it's Day 1, I'm packed and on the way to Gatwick airport near my home in Sussex. On suitcase is full of DVDs that I certainly hope to sell en route...and maybe fill with some new shirts as I haven't had time to shop for ages (and no doubt it shows!). But 40 days....the kids seem to grow even if I am away for a week... Well, as it is 40 days, I am going to try and abstain from something: and I have decided on two foods I'm quite fond of... bread & alcohol. I had a check-up yesterday and while the nurse said it's great I haven't put on more than a kilo in 9 years she thought maybe I could still lose one or two.... Oh well, at least I won't need to eat those dreadful BA sandwiches. (They do so much so well but the food still lets them down). Their in-flight entertainment, however, and I'd say their staff too, are second-to-none most of the time.

Caught up on some reading on the plane and before I knew it I was at JFK. Then in a taxi (bang! There goes $50) and at the hotel.

Evening in my room and first two reviews are in: the two keys ones actually and they are good!

NY TIMES:

'... jammed with prominent musicians and conductors, all striving to put across just how revolutionary Beethoven's works were. They don't just talk the usual documentary talk, they play the music to illustrate their points: expertise and passion combined... ...with an awfully high-class soundtrack'.

VARIETY:

'beautifully lensed, intelligently crafted ...The musical performances -- ranging from the aching melancholy of "Moonlight Sonata" to the sublime transcendence of Symphony No. 9 -- are impeccable. Grabsky infuses his storytelling with a compelling sense of drama and elicits more interesting observations from a select group of musicians (many of whom perform), historians and musicologists. "In Search of Beethoven" affectingly deals with the composer's increasing deafness and romantic disappointments. (Royal Shakespeare Company vet David Dawson reads passages from Beethoven's letters.) Just as important, however, the pic also finds elements of rich humor in Beethoven's life and art'.

I walk down to the cinema where Beethoven is to premiere - no posters! First problem... Back to hotel and endless emails.