Beethoven and the Drums

Donald Macleod is joined by Adrian Bending to explore Beethoven’s writing for timpani.

Throughout this week, Donald Macleod meets with different professional musicians to get a performer's eye view of Beethoven’s music and the challenges it presents.

During Beethoven’s life, great technical advances were being made to musical instruments such as the keyboard and the horn. It was also a period when virtuoso musicians of all kinds began to tour Europe and Beethoven was able to meet some of the greatest exponents of different instruments and learn from them. He was inspired to push the limits of his performers as never before, and his works continue to fascinate and challenge musicians today.

Today, Donald Macleod is joined by Adrian Bending to explore Beethoven from the perspective of a timpanist. Adrian shares his thoughts on regularly performing and teaching the music of Beethoven, how the composer placed greater demands upon his timpanists including widening the dynamic range of the instrument, and Adrian’s criteria for deciding whether to use period timpani or not. Donald and Adrian also explore the impact the timpanist Ignaz Manker had on the music of Beethoven.

Composer of the Week is returning to the story of Beethoven’s life and music throughout 2020 as part of Radio 3’s Beethoven Unleashed season marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

Violin Concerto in D, Op 61 (excerpt)
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
Deutsche Symphonie Orchestra, Berlin
Robin Ticciati, conductor

Symphony No 4 in B flat, Op 60 (Adagio – Allegro vivace)
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Joshua Bell, conductor

Symphony No 3 in E flat, Op 55 “Eroica” (Marcia funebre)
The London Classical Players
Sir Roger Norrington, conductor

Symphony No 5 in C minor, Op 67 (Allegro & Allegro - Presto)
Berlin Philharmonic
Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

Produced by Luke Whitlock for BBC Wales.