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While there are more than 100 different recordings of the 9th Symphony, music editor Andy Glen says the 1996 Decca recording of Bernard Haitink conducting Amsterdam’s famed Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (formed in 1888) struck a chord with the director.
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Directed by Agnieszka Holland (“Secret Garden,” “Europa, Europa”), the film is a U.K./Hungary co-production produced by Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Film & Entertainment VIP 2 Medienfonds. Sidney Kimmel, and Michael Taylor are producing, with Marina Grasic, Andreas Schmid and Andreas Grosch executive producing. Written and produced by Stephen Rivele and Christopher Wikinson (“Ali,” “Nixon”), the film co-stars Matthew Goode (“Chasing Liberty,” ), Ralph Riach (TV’s “The Canterbury Tales”), and Bill Stewart (“Anna and the King”), and was shot on location in Hungary.
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An aspiring composer of humble means, 23-year-old Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) is seeking inspiration and career advancement in the world’s music capital, Vienna.
A student at the music conservatory, she is recommended for a position at a venerated publisher, and, in a fortuitous turn of events, orchestrates an opportunity to work beside the greatest, most mercurial artist alive – Ludwig van Beethoven (Ed Harris).
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While there are more than 100 different recordings of the 9th Symphony, music editor Andy Glen says the 1996 Decca recording of Bernard Haitink conducting Amsterdam’s famed Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (formed in 1888) struck a chord with the director.
“There are differences in the various recordings of the work, and Agnieszka wanted one with a faster tempo and a lot of guts and oomph,” says Glen. “We listened to and considered about half a dozen recording before selecting the Haitink version.”
Using a special computer program developed by Glen called “Spotting Notes,” the soundtrack is able to be played back from 80 exact reference points and bar measurements. There is also an original composition in the soundtrack that serves as “Anna’s Theme” (written by Antonin Gross Lazarkiewicz), and some of the music is performed with early 19th century instruments, which had different designs as well as lower standard tunings. Violin and cello bows, for example, had distinct curves, requiring a different playing technique than is used today.
Some of these period instruments are on stage in the Katona Jozsef Theater during the performance of the 9th. Built in 1895-96 by architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer, the theater is of the eclectic style with neo-Baroque ornamentations. The original audience capacity, 900, was reduced by 300 after a 1986 reconstruction.
For her part, Agnieszka says she tried to remain true to the spirit of the great composer while bringing his extraordinary music to both those who may already love his work, or those perhaps truly hearing it for the first time.
“The music is not an illusion in the film. We’re using it, as he did, to capture a period in history with contemporary popular flair. That’s Beethoven – his music was of his time, yet timeless.”
Reflecting on the many contradictions in Beethoven’s life, Agnieszka pondered how worsening deafness might have affected the composer’s music.
“It’s a paradox that makes one examine the source and notion of genius,” she says. “It didn’t seem to diminish his brilliance. He built a bridge from classical romanticism to modern music, then destroyed it so there would be no going back.”
“It might have caused him to escape contemporary influences and exist solely in his own world perhaps,” reflects Ed Harris. “He began to break molds and utterly change things.”
Ludwig van Beethoven died in Vienna on March 26, 1827. The impact of his music cannot be underestimated. His command of the piano as a means of expression sets the stage for the Romantic exploitation of the piano, making it second in importance only to the orchestra as a musical means of personal expression (Wold, p. 245). His Ninth Symphony opened the door to the Romantic era of 19th century music. He even changed the role of the conductor and the importance of rehearsal time.
Prior to the Ninth, the role of conductor was filled by the first violinist, but because the Ninth required so many changes of tempo and meter within the movements, there was a need for a conductor to keep everyone together. The difficulty and scope of the music required rehearsal time, unheard of previously. Beethoven made it clear that the expressive needs of the artist must take precedence over convention, no matter how time-honored or popular that convention may be. Beethoven founded the basic “anything goes” artistic tenet that still applies today. He changed forever the language of western music (Greenberg, lecture 7).
Considered among the greatest music ever composed, Beethoven’s string quartets span his entire career. They are unsurpassed in sheer invention, thematic treatment and heart-rending expressiveness (Kamien, p. 260). The last years of Beethoven’s life were dedicated to writing his late String Quartets: #12 in E flat Major, Op. 127; #13 in B flat Major, Op. 130; #14 in C sharp Minor, Op. 131; #15 in A Minor, Op. 132; #16 in F Major, Op. 135; and the Grosse Fugue in B flat Major, Op. 133. With these quartets, Beethoven throws away once and for all any pretense of traditional thematic development.
Written in 1824, immediately after the premier of the Ninth, the first of Beethoven’s last quartets is the #12 in E flat Major, Op. 127. It is difficult to understand because its structure is more like a suite than a traditional quartet. It is both symphonic and operatic in scope, with a type of lyricism, dramatic conflict and tension that is more commonly found in opera than a simple string quartet (Greenberg, 2001, lecture 8).
When Beethoven was writing his String Quartet #13 in B flat Major, Op. 130, he decided that the final movement was too huge, too much of a virtuosic fugue to be just a movement within a quartet, so he removed it from #13 to stand alone as the Grosse Fugue in B flat Major, Op. 133. Beethoven’s last completed piece was the new final movement of his String Quartet #13, Op. 130, written in November of 1825. When the quartet is played today, the Grosse Fugue is typically played as the sixth movement, as an encore to the 13th (Greenberg, lecture 8).
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Directed by Agnieszka Holland (“Secret Garden,” “Europa, Europa”), the film is a U.K./Hungary co-production produced by Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Film & Entertainment VIP 2 Medienfonds. Sidney Kimmel, and Michael Taylor are producing, with Marina Grasic, Andreas Schmid and Andreas Grosch executive producing. Written and produced by Stephen Rivele and Christopher Wikinson (“Ali,” “Nixon”), the film co-stars Matthew Goode (“Chasing Liberty,” ), Ralph Riach (TV’s “The Canterbury Tales”), and Bill Stewart (“Anna and the King”), and was shot on location in Hungary.
Filmmakers include SKE producer Victor Teran, line producer Ronaldo Vasconcellos (“Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels”), director of photography Ashley Rowe (“Alfie”), production designer Caroline Amies (“Carrington,” “Name of the Father”) and costume designer Jany Termime (“Harry Potter” films).
Filming began on “Copying Beethoven” on April 5, 2005, in woods outside Budapest, Hungary, in an intense scene where Beethoven, Anna and two others arrive in a frantic rush by carriage to search for Karl van Beethoven. Played by young British actor Joe Anderson, Karl is a troubled soul overwhelmed by his uncle’s expectations that he follow, impossibly, in his footsteps.
On the following day, the production moved to interior soundstages at Mal Film Studios in Budapest for more than three weeks shooting, on the constructed sets of Beethoven’s Vienna apartment. Dark, cluttered, and rich in tone, the sets are where much of the storyline and interaction between Beethoven and Anna occur.
“The structure of the story is somewhat similar to a stage play,” remarks director Agnieszka Holland, “with the characters actively moving in and around the apartment.”
To provide actors walking space and create an environment that allows different looks with each camera angle, production designer Caroline Amies designed a “labyrinth structure where we could cheat reality a bit to create an interesting place for the characters to go on small journeys. We don’t want the room, or the film, to look like a museum piece, but are striving to capture a spirit of time and color. We created a very tight palette, rich and muted, utilizing only materials available at that time—no vinyl or plastic—and brought in highly skilled craftsmen who know how to handle them.”
The four-roomed apartment is cluttered with unwashed dishes, scattered papers, instruments, two pianos, and numerous other items that have not been properly stored.
“Beethoven was very messy -- his mind was always on music, not cleaning, and he went through many housekeepers,” says Amies. “I was surprised to learn that he stayed in as many as 50 different apartments during his lifetime in Vienna. Often he moved just to escape from housekeepers, of whom he was very suspicious. He checked all the bills meticulously, always suspecting he was being cheated.”
“I began to fall in love with him as I started to find out more about his life,” she says. “He had a very structured routine…arising at the same time, making his own coffee--60 beans, exactly--working regular hours, taking meals at the same place and time, and then usually in bed by 9 pm to read Goethe or Schiller.
“He enjoyed a little red wine, and occasionally went out, but his deafness caused him to retreat into himself more and more, which is perhaps why his music was so unique: he was not influenced by what was going on around him.”
One of the most noticeable contraptions inside the maestro’s apartment is a metal configuration seen strapped around his head, which helps funnel sound to his ears. There is no exact record of the many things he experimented with to amplify sound, Amies says, but there are indications of certain instruments he altered to aid his hearing.
The composer’s deafness is evident during scenes filmed at the beautiful Budapest Ethnographic Museum, site of two days shooting, where the rehearsal of Beethoven’s innovative Grosse Fugue leaves the Archduke (Nicholas Jones) wondering if the mighty genius has finally lost it all together. The Museum also serves as the location for a startling confrontation between Beethoven and Martin Bauer, with Anna looking on in shock. As with Joe Anderson, Matthew Goode’s most intense scene occurred on his first day of work, in this scene.
“It served the story well, I think,” says Goode, “having to face the intimidating screen persona of Ed Harris for the first time at the same moment my character is also meeting Beethoven. Ed is a generous and considerate man, quite lovely, really, but when he comes strolling across the room and glares at you in character it’s quite easy to forget all that and allow a little nervousness to set in.”
After completing scenes at the museum, the company moved to an old castle in the district of Zichy, on the Buda side of the Danube, where interior sets of Schlemmer’s print shop and office, along with Kresnski’s Tavern (Beethoven’s favorite ale house) were constructed.
“The building had become rundown, and was once used as an army barracks,” says Caroline Amies. “Schlemmer’s private office contains a day bed surrounded by musical instruments, including a replica spinet and an original period table piano, both of which he plays during a scene with Anna.”
In that sequence, Schlemmer laments the beautiful melodies Beethoven once composed, expressing bewilderment over the dissonant sounds of his new compositions.
Diane Kruger says, “Anna, as well, fails to grasp Beethoven’s new works until one night she is returning to Vienna after visiting her ailing father and the music suddenly clicks in her head. It gives voice to all the feelings and emotions she’s having.”
Adjacent to Schlemmer’s office is a print shop, occupied with original or replica book printers and presses. Explains Amies, “In those times, Vienna was inundated with composers and there was a demand for people who could hand copy original scores, which quite often were messy and confusing. These hand drawn copies would be engraved and printed, then stitched together and pressed.”
As separate scores would be required for each instrument, an orchestra might need up to 100 scores for a performance.
“I had to learn the entire process of copper plate printing, which employs acids, beeswax varnish, chalk, and heated gratings,” says Amies. “The process hasn’t changed to this day.”
Schlemmer’s print shop set is visually linked, by a single panel, to a corridor set. As the film begins, Anna is viewed walking down this corridor on her approach to Schlemmer’s office. Heavy paneled and lined with archives, the corridor is actually located in a 300-year-old civic building in the historic town center of Sopron, near the Austrian border. The structure holds countless municipal records of the people and noteworthy events of the region, centuries-old books, and documents. Through the magic of production design, Anna walks the length of this corridor and then is seen entering Schlemmer’s office – a seamless transition between two sets 150 miles apart.
Originating as a Roman colony, Sopron features a medieval quarter replete with beautiful spires and cobblestone streets leading to churches and synagogues dating to the 12th century. This area serves as the location for one of the film’s biggest scenes, involving hundreds of extras, where Anna is seen wandering the busy streets of Vienna.
“The town doubles nicely for Vienna because of a similar architecture and the proximity to, and influence of, Austria,” says Agnieszka Holland. “As dual parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the countries share a history and some common culture.”
Other principal sets dressed in Sopron include Martin Bauer’s apartment, and the concert hall exterior where a rousing reception greets Beethoven after the premiere of the 9th Symphony. The monumental task of filming portions of the symphony itself, however, occurred in the town of Kecskemet, Hungary, in the Katona Jozsef Theater.
There, over a four-day period, Ed Harris and Diane Kruger conducted the 55-member Kecskemet Symphony Orchestra and the acclaimed 60-member Chorus of Kecskemet in four different sections of the symphony – which will comprise about 10 minutes of screen time. Although the music that will actually heard in the film is from a 1996 Decca sound recording, the orchestra and chorus in Kecskemet sometimes played live to the playback. They needed to appear exactly on beat, which placed pressure on Harris to maintain the tempo. He did, brilliantly, says music consultant Piotr Kaminski.
“I was impressed--from what I saw, and the comments I heard from the musicians--by Ed’s ability to lead the orchestra through all these sections,” says Kaminski. “He was tremendous -- utterly convincing, as was Diane, who had to conduct from a difficult position in the floor pit.”
Standing before the orchestra, Ed Harris’ Beethoven is attired in what costume designer Jany Temime describes as “shabby chic. I wanted him to look like an aging pop star – someone who still has a sense of elegance but doesn’t care anymore.”
Temime made or fitted more than 650 period costumes for the film, finding inspiration in the portraits by the French master, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780 – 1867). All the costumes and fabrics came from London, including 100 evening dresses.
“The year 1824 was a transition period in women’s clothing,” remarks Temime, “in which the high-waistlines began coming down. I kept the high-waist, however, because it’s more easily identifiable with that period.”
For Anna Holtz, Temime designed simple dresses and coats that “Anna, being hard-working but without means, would have made by hand. She has only two dresses, which we designed from old patterns, and then treated and aged with hot iron and soap.”
Matthew Goode’s wardrobe, she says, “reflects refinement, money and elegance. A person like him would go to a fine tailor and take great care in his appearance.”
Taking equally great care, as “conductor” of the film, director Agnieszka Holland applied both an iron hand and velvet touch on set.
Says Kruger, “Agnieszka is the captain of the ship and she’s very determined. very prepared. She’s a great visual director and loves actors – even when she’s confronting us about elevating our performances.”
This is the third collaboration between Holland and Ed Harris, who remarks, “Agnieszka is a dear friend whom I’ve known for 20 years. She knows what she’s doing. We have so much to shoot each day, and somehow it’s getting done, and I just look at her and marvel. I’m proud to be working with her.”
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An aspiring composer of humble means, 23-year-old Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) is seeking inspiration and career advancement in the world’s music capital, Vienna.
A student at the music conservatory, she is recommended for a position at a venerated publisher, and, in a fortuitous turn of events, orchestrates an opportunity to work beside the greatest, most mercurial artist alive – Ludwig van Beethoven (Ed Harris).
When the skeptical Beethoven issues an impromptu challenge, Anna demonstrates her competence and musical insight. The maestro accepts Anna as his copyist, beginning a remarkable relationship that will transform both of their lives.
Featuring Harris’ remarkable incarnation as the celebrated composer, and a breakthrough performance by Kruger (“Troy,” “National Treasure”), “COPYING BEETHOVEN” centers on the last years of Beethoven’s life…a turbulent period in which his struggles with deafness, loneliness and family trauma provided profound inspiration for arguably the greatest symphony ever written, his astonishing Ninth.
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1. Beethoven: Grosse Fuge in B flat major, op.133
2. Beethoven/Lazarkiewicz: Seid umschlungen, Millionen
3. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.5 in C minor, op.10 no. 1 -
III Finale: Prestissimo
4. Beethoven: Symphony No.9 in D minor, op.125 “Choral” -
IV Presto
5. Lazarkiewicz: Anna’s Etude and Variations
6. Beethoven: Variations in C on a Waltz by Diabelli, op.120 -
Variation XXIX
7. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.32 in C minor, op.111 -
II Arietta: Adagio molto, semplice e cantabile
8. Beethoven: String Quartet No.9 in C major, op.59 no.3
“Razumovsky” - II Andante con moto, quasi allegretto
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ED HARRIS (Ludvig van Beethoven)
DIANE KRUGER (Anna Holz)
MATTHEW GOODE (Martin Bauer)
PYLLIDA LAW (Mother Canisius)
RALPH RIACH (Wenzel Schlemmer)
BILL STEWART (Rudy)
JOE ANDERSON (Carl van Beethoven)
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