Beethoven Pathétique
BEETHOVEN, A REVOLUTIONARY
It is generally agreed that Beethoven was an important innovator of Western musical language. In fact, his posterity is unthinkable without him.
So what does his musical renewal consist of? In this lecture, Håkon Austbø will try to show one important aspect of it: his motivical work. Every note in any of his works relates to a few basic ideas (motifs), that generate the themes as well as the form and dramatic content of the work.
This principle was already established in his opus 13, where all thematic material is presented in the first couple of bars. The lecture aims to clarify how the progression of the sonata springs from this material.
His publisher might as well have called it Sonate révolutionnaire, would it not have been considered politically subversive in the Vienna of 1797.
Håkon Austbø
Piano
Håkon Austbø has been active as a pianist for over 60 years. His first performance with an orchestra in Bergen in 1963, and his first recital in Oslo in 1964, earned him much acclaim at an early age.
In 1974 the Daily Telegraph, London, characterised Håkon Austbø as the "possessor of towering talent worthy of international recognition". Since then critics from the Carnegie Hall, New York, to the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, have given him rave reviews. Due to his unusual versatility and the originality of his repertoire, Håkon Austbø has held a coveted position in the world of music.
He is particularly renowned for his work on Messiaen’s music. His personal contact with the composer made him one of the bearers of an authentic tradition, confirmed by the first prize in the Messiaen competition at Royan in 1971, and by several other prizes for his Messiaen performances, such as the Edison prize, Amsterdam 1998.
Another focus of Austbø’s work has been the music of Skryabin. By coincidence, both these composers have combined colours and sounds, and Austbø has made this an important part of his work and studies. He realised the first authentic performance of the colour part of Skryabin’s Prométhée in the Netherlands in the 90s, and, more recently, visualisations of the colours in several of Messiaen’s works.
The latter was the subject of a research project at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo, in 2013. Austbø was subsequently engaged in a new project, The reflective musician, aiming at the unveiling of forces which lead to genuine and personal interpretations of classical and contemporary works. This implies looking with fresh eyes at well-known repertoire, free from the ballast of tradition. Austbø has always cherished this attitude and challenged the conformity of the music business, crossing borders well before this became mainstream. He has worked with poets, actors, choreographers, artists and jazz musicians and included unusual repertoire in his creative programming.