''They Hate Any Man of Genius, He's Too Disturbing" - Michael Jayston as Beethoven - Clip - video Dailymotion

Dreamer

Clip from "Biography" (1970), episode 4 "Beethoven" (Michael Jayston) - Michael Jayston, Judy Parfitt, Edward Hardwicke.

Transcript

00:00Look.

00:02What is it? Yours, your work?

00:04Some of it's drafts, notes, that sort of thing.

00:06Yes, but what is there here?

00:07Two symphonies, some sonatas, a trio,

00:10piano concertos, a lot of other stuff.

00:12I have no idea.

00:14All of it unperformed.

00:15Oh, no. Some of it's what you've heard already, but most of it.

00:20I showed some to Haydn.

00:22What happened?

00:23Oh, he didn't like it.

00:25You know the terrifying thing about Haydn?

00:27In his day, he was a musical revolution.

00:30A daring innovator.

00:31Now look at him.

00:33The year I studied under Josef Haydn was the most boring of my life.

00:36I don't know how I survived.

00:37The same goes for all those other teachers.

00:39Albrechtsberger, Horster, Schenk.

00:41Doll.

00:42Doll.

00:43A lot of them.

00:44Still, that's Vienna for you.

00:45And the Viennese.

00:46Horrible place.

00:48What are you laughing at?

00:49Nothing.

00:51Mind you, there's no risk of them ever joining the revolution.

00:54Not why they can stuff themselves on black ale and sausage.

00:57Though they might cut up nasty if they're right short of ice cream.

01:00But you're not going to give up performing.

01:06What?

01:07I was only...

01:08I can't keep up with you.

01:10Are you well?

01:11No.

01:12No, I'm not.

01:13What is it?

01:14Headache.

01:15Bowels.

01:16But it's not that.

01:16Are you eating properly?

01:20Here.

01:23Over there.

01:24I didn't understand.

01:42Again.

01:42Oh, wait.

01:48Now.

01:49Again.

02:04Again.

02:05Again.

02:05What?

02:14But surely...

02:15I'd be grateful if you could find out the names of the best physicians in Vienna for the year.

02:20I've been unable to bring myself to do so.

02:22But you've not seen anybody about this?

02:24Not since Bonn.

02:25And it's getting worse.

02:27Month by month.

02:29There's a reason, you see.

02:32There must be a thing like this.

02:35It's not an accident.

02:38You won't tell anyone about this.

02:40I have enemies.

02:40The deaf musician.

02:46The deaf musician.

03:10Mozart.

03:37Yes.

03:38The greatest musician that has ever lived.

03:43He gave me lessons, you know, when I was 17.

03:45And Vienna, which he enriched so much with his genius, let him die in dingy poverty.

03:49And buried him in a common pauper's pit.

03:52I went looking for his grave when I came back.

03:54There's nothing to be seen.

03:56Nothing.

03:58It's not even a very good likeness.

04:01It's a death mask.

04:02Yes.

04:02My husband took it.

04:04And there's the clothes he dyed in.

04:05And they come and see this, now he's dead.

04:08In their hundreds.

04:10Sublime Mozart.

04:12They hate any man of genius.

04:14He's too disturbing.

04:15And he shows up their own mediocrity too clearly.

04:18They're appreciative to you.

04:19At the moment.

04:21Look at the thing.

04:23It's pretty.

04:24Genius isn't pretty.

04:27It's squealing in a trap.

04:32A sheer, naked defenselessness, inconceivable to other men.

04:36There's no will, no choice in it.

04:38You lie stretched out between what humanity is and what it could become.

04:42Twisted and racked between those two things.

04:44Singing out.

04:45Oh, the greatest wisdom.

04:47Like he did.

04:49He gave us.

04:51Music.

04:53And then when you're barely 35.

04:5535.

04:57Just beginning.

05:01Of course it's not at all like that, really.

05:04It's bloody hard work.

05:06Your husband.

05:08Your husband must have been a remarkable man.

05:10Oh, he made a lot of money abroad, making casts and things, and put it all into this.

05:14He married me partly to try to slip back into his social plane.

05:18But they wouldn't have us.

05:20It's the children I feel sorry for.

05:22Yes.

05:22Though now he's dead, they are being accepted, slowly.

05:25And you?

05:26I dare say that will come.

05:28He.

05:29He will alter all that.

05:30Bonaparte.

05:31When he takes Vienna.

05:33Our moribund social order.

05:36Though anyone who spends their evenings in the company of Genghis Khan, Charlemagne, Marie Antoinette.

05:41And Pius IV in the larder.

05:43Pretty well connected.

05:45Not doing at all badly.

''They Hate Any Man of Genius, He's Too Disturbing" - Michael Jayston as Beethoven - Clip

Category

Transcript

Recommended