Listening to Beethoven differently
The concert in the photo took place in the Klokgebouw, a former factory hall at Strijp-S in Eindhoven. Philharmonie zuidnederland performed Beethoven's fourth symphony there.
The orchestra collaborated with experimental technology company CREW and sound artist Christoph De Boeck. Upon entering the large room we were asked to take off our shoes and put on white slippers. The orchestra sat on chairs, but for the public there were none. We were divided into three groups, each directed to a different part of the room.
My group came across an arrangement of hanging metal plates. After the orchestra started playing, CREW staff handed us headphones and told us to put our foreheads against the records to experience the vibrations of the music. Through the headphones we could listen to the adaptations that De Boeck's computer made of the live music. In another group, people could stand against a vertical bed that was slowly tilted so that they could literally feel Beethoven in their spine. Still others had the opportunity to lie down at the feet of conductor Kristiina Poska, right in front of the orchestra, to listen with their eyes closed.
What would have Beethoven thought? He lived at the intersection of two style periods, classical and romantic, a time when the way people listened to music changed radically. While the string quartets of his teacher Haydn could still be heard in the background during an evening with guests at the Esterházy castle, Beethoven's late string quartets were considered timeless and brilliant masterpieces that had to be listened to in silence and with full attention. Concert halls became temples to an art that flourishes in perfect acoustics.
This romantic listening still determines how performances of, for example, Beethoven's Fourth are organised. In that former factory hall, a different kind of listening was tried, in which the experience of physical immersion in the music was central. I myself found myself so preoccupied with the technique that I experienced Beethoven's notes as an afterthought. Still, it was a good concert, because it wanted to explore whether there are other ways of listening to Beethoven than the romantic ones. This research is conducted not only at the philharmonie zuidnederlandd, but also at orchestras, conservatories and universities in and outside the Netherlands. The MCICM is mapping out this research and is experimenting with new concert situations together with the philharmonie zuidnederland. Because if you want to innovate the practice of classical music, you need to know how people listen to it.
Peter Peters
Director MCICM
Klokgebouw Eindhoven