Clive James, Beethoven

Finished Clive James last night. Fantastic book. Really defies any kind of capsule review. I can definitely see myself going back and re-reading individual essays with a notebook and a highlighter – something of which I, sadly, don't do nearly enough.

Also finally gave a good listen to the first sonata on the latest installment of Schiff's Beethoven cycle on ECM that came in last week. No. 12, in A-flat. Liked it a lot. Unusual structure – the first movement is theme and variations instead of the near-ubiquitous sonata form, and the “normal” order of the slow movement and the scherzo is reversed. The slow movement is marked Funeral March and subtitled “On the death of a hero,” but in the liner notes Schiff says that we shouldn't make too much of that, and he sure plays like he doesn't – quite fast, almost at Andante tempo. Just can't picture those pallbearers trotting along with the casket on their shoulders. But it sounds good, and doesn't really lose any of the gravitas to speed. The contrast between the plodding, almost hammered-out major-key passages and the lyricism of the minor-key sections works great. The closing Allegro is necessary, seeing how the Funeral March ends, anti-climactically, on a fermata, but it, too, just kind of stops without any fanfare.

Anyway, I have Canada to worry about, so here goes.