BEETHOVEN AT WORK

Press, 29 September 1979, Page 17

BEETHOVEN AT WORK

Two Beethoven Sketchbooks. By Gustav Nottebohm, translated by Jonathan Katz. Gollancz, 1979. 130 pp. $13.40.

(Reviewed by John Ritchie)

Perusing these eminently readable translations of Nottebohm’s commentaries on the 1802 and 1803 sketchbooks of Beethoven is to be reminded of student days. Whenever we undergraduates had a prescribed work by the master it seldom seemed to figure prominently in that part of the sketchbook which was reasonably accessible. Whenever the urge to consider the great man’s creative processes came upon us the translations, such as tl.ey were, or the lack of them, provided a frustrating impediment of discouraging proportions. Incidentally, one was

quite likely to find the original German version withdrawn from the library by some eager scientist for, in those days, scientists enjoyed talking in a loud voice about men with “first class minds,” some of them even maintaining that Beethoven’s sketchbooks provided evidence if just

how a first class mind worked. The good old days? This edition . clarifies without pretension. It contains (a) nearly 400 pages of Beethoven’s composing sketches type-set so that we can see all, (b) Nottebohm’s original commentary in translation, and (c) brief and self-effacing notes from the translator. The reader’s freedom to make judgments raw on evidence is one of the features of an intriguing little volume. Others are Nottebohm’s

personal qualities as a great and objective scholar. Beethoven’s capacity to take ages to get where he wants to, to he pedestrian and to act intuitively on the same day; and (students will be encouraged to learn) to omit accidentals. We know Mozart’s incredibly quick mental work process; the other end of the scale is well demonstrated here.