George  Weinberg-Harter

San Diego Arts

Hershey Felder's "Beethoven, As I Knew Him" at the Old Globe

"Dooms menace from tumults."
By George  Weinberg-Harter
Posted on May 14 2008
Last updated May 15 2008

The most recent and presumably final installment in actor-pianist Hershey Felder’s current series of concert impressions of famous composers gives us Ludwig van Beethoven through the medium of a memoir. With his premiere of "Beethoven, As I Knew Him," Felder completes and adds what he calls the first movement to a trilogy entitled "Composer Sonata." The second and third "movements" of this are meant to be the other two other such shows which he has previously written and performed (and that he will again present at the Old Globe in June), "Monsieur Chopin" and "George Gershwin Alone."

Felder’s own long gaunt aquiline visage lent itself well to his impersonations of Gershwin and Chopin. But he bears no resemblance to Beethoven’s well-known compact, round, and usually scowling face. So this time around Felder takes on the rather desiccated character and Teutonic tones of Dr. Gerhard von Breuning, who wrote a memoir of his early acquaintance with Beethoven called "Aus dem Schwarzspanierhaus." – "From the Black Spaniard House," referring to a former monastery in Vienna where Beethoven had lodgings during his last years.

Von Breuning’s father was a friend of Beethoven, and so as a child Gerhard met the older composer, who often dined with the family. This provides a convenient hook for Felder to hang a nicely constructed selection of biographical details and personal anecdotes upon. And, as with his other concert-plays, much of the show consists of Felder performing generous and heartfelt portions of his subject’s music. He even sings a bits of the 9^th Symphony’s "Ode to Joy" and of the "Requiem" – and in a voice very like that of a composer. The well-known pieces that he plays are from movements of the "Moonlight" and "Pathetique" sonatas, from the Adagio of the Fifth Piano Concerto, and the ever-popular "Für Elise." Crowd-pleasers all.

As is not uncommon in narrating the lives of artists – but is more particularly appropriate with Beethoven than with many others – the theme of the corporeal versus the ethereal is prominent. The usual contrasts are stressed between the difficulties of Beethoven’s life – his prickly temperament, his vexed personal and family relations, his deafness, his domestic squalor, his illnesses – and the transcendent beauty of his music: its nobility, its emotionality, its personality, its joy, its spirituality. Despite the lack of physical resemblance, Felder does sometimes slip for a while into the Beethoven persona – most effectively during an excerpt from the deeply moving and revealing but unsent letter known as the Heiligenstadt Testament.

Directed by Joel Zwick, the show is gorgeously produced. The setting, designed by François-Pierre Couture, abstractly suggests a rather sumptuous 19^th century domestic interior. The lighting design by Richard Norwood gives a dim ambience of candlelight, sometimes enhanced by sketchy chalklike projections – the work of Andrew Wilder and Christopher Ash – against a black screen resembling a huge open book. Carole Boué designed Felder’s high-collared period costume. And Erik Carstensen’s sound design provides an unseen orchestra for the concerto excerpt.

As an original pianist-showman, one might say that Felder’s unique approach situates him someplace midway between Liberace, with his moods and candelabras, and Victor Borge, who sometimes hilariously masqueraded as Franz Liszt. A common denominator for all three artists, besides their piano playing, is a high degree of entertainment value.

Indeed, therein lies an idea! One may hope that this Beethoven-Chopin-Gershwin triptych will prove to be only the start of further series of composers portrayed by Hershey Felder. Might not a four-movment "Composer Symphony" be in the offing someday? Liszt – himself a legendary piano showman – would make an excellent subject, as well as being physically enough congruent with Felder. Likewise Serge Rachmaninov, as splendid a pianist as composer, and whose famous melancholy was said to be leavened with an uproarious sense of humor. Edvard Grieg, who composed oodles of gorgeous piano works, could make a third. And for the fourth might I suggest Charles-Valentin Alkan? Although Alkan’s music is not so very well known, he would provide a treasure trove of eccentric anecdotes, culminating with his surprising death underneath his collapsed bookcase. Encore, Mr. Felder, encore!

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About the author: George Weinberg-Harter George Weinberg-Harter has been active in San Diego theatre since childhood, appearing in many local stage productions as well as doing graphic art for them. He has helped start theatre companies, authored and co-authored a number of plays produced locally and is a co-founder of the Fellow Calligraphers of San Diego. He is a member of the Actors Alliance of San Diego, the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle, and the San Diego Press Club, which has presented him with its 2007 First Place Excellence in Journalism Award for Drawing or Illustration.
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Comments

Posted by Melinda	August 4, 2008
Is Felder's Beethoven coming to L.A.?

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