Corrado Augias reveals Beethoven

A special thanks to danielescarpetti who gave us these videos of a great communicator, Corrado Augias!

Compliments!

Dear Daniele… an immense thank you for this report.

But above all because you are always so attentive to interesting Beethovenian things scattered across the web and the fact that you point them out to us.

You cannot imagine how much I appreciate this informative excursus by Augias on the Eroica.

Excellent is the contextualization he provides regarding the Napoleonic era.

It is great that he dares to make references to War and Peace, bringing his personal considerations and courageous comparisons.

For the sake of correctness, three errors must be noted:

1) Funeral March.

At the beginning of the funeral march, it is not the timpani imitating the drum roll (ta-ta-ta-tan) but the double basses alone; when at measure 8 the oboe takes over the melody, the “drum roll” is performed by the entire string section. The timpani merely punctuate the strong beat of the measure with a single stroke.

2) Fourth movement. Beginning.

To state that the Finale begins with "a great fugue of strings" is rather misleading. It is clear he meant to say that in mm. 1-11 the strings move in a swirling, vehement, rapacious figuration… and it might even be acceptable that the music seems to "flee" (fugge).

But in music, as we know, speaking of a 'fugue' means something else entirely.

3) Fourth movement. Sixth variation.

It is not in C major but in G minor.

It should also be noted that, speaking of the first movement, he identifies those descending three-note figurations (mm. 45-54) as the second theme, which Giovanni Bietti, in his episode of Music Lessons on the Eroica, identifies as the first of three modulating episodes leading to the second theme (the second theme, which Bietti identifies at mm. 83-90).

But there isn't too much to "get sick over" (as they say in Milan) regarding this… Della Seta, in his work on the Eroica, warns that there has never been much agreement on what the "true" second theme is. Could it be that theme—stunning, in E minor—that appears in the advanced stages (m. 284) of the development?... In effect, it is the only one that sounds like a true 'alter ego' of the first theme. If that were the case, it would be the very singular case of a second theme absent from the exposition. From Beethoven, you can expect even this…

But aside from these things, I find this lesson by Augias wonderful. Enthusiastic, for me…. We are grateful for it!

Yes Luca, everything you say is true. Just as it is true that we must be grateful that Corrado Augias—who is certainly not a musician, a musicologist, or anything else related to music, but is above all a very honest man with remarkable general culture—decided to dedicate this lecture to Beethoven and not to others. On the other hand, if you remember well, in his television program "I visionari" (The Visionaries), ten episodes dedicated to 10 greats, he dedicated one specifically to Beethoven: it is therefore evident on his part that there is a strong attention toward the composer from Bonn.

What once again disappointed me—but obviously did not surprise me—is observing, on the part of all the students, a complete ignorance regarding everything that Augias was explaining.