{"id":103445,"date":"2024-04-18T14:30:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T18:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=103445"},"modified":"2024-04-19T08:00:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T12:00:01","slug":"interview-larry-weinstein-talks-film-beethovens-nine-ode-humanity-premiering-hot-docs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/04\/18\/interview-larry-weinstein-talks-film-beethovens-nine-ode-humanity-premiering-hot-docs\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Larry Weinstein Talks About His Film Beethoven\u2019s Nine: Ode To Humanity, Premiering At Hot Docs"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_103448\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-103448\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-103448\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-13.jpg\" alt=\"Conductor Keri Lynn Wilson and the Ukraine Freedom Orchestra (Photo courtesy of Larry Weinstein) \" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-13.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-13-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-13-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-13-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-103448\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Conductor Keri Lynn Wilson and the Ukraine Freedom Orchestra (Photo courtesy of Larry Weinstein)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Beethoven\u2019s Nine \u2014 it naturally refers to the composer\u2019s iconic last symphony, with the 200th anniversary of its first performance in Vienna looming on May 7. In Larry Weinstein\u2019s new documentary, though, it also refers to the nine people who comment on the work and its philosophical context throughout the film.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, it\u2019s about the renewal of hope, and keeping that concept alive even in the darkest of times.<\/p>\n<p>But, the film \u2014 and the filmmaker \u2014 take a meandering journey through history, ideas, and current events to get there.<\/p>\n<p>Oscar-nominated writer and director Larry Weinstein is known for his work in the fields of both music and war, among other topics. In a commentary that begins the film, he notes simply that the story came out differently than he\u2019d imagined.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, history caught up with the project, enveloping Weinstein in his own work. Larry acts as writer and director, with producers Jason Charters, Bernhard von H\u00fclsen, Liam Romalis and Maria Willer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oEN58UPuzwk?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>The nine people who comment on various aspects of the work, including the Enlightenment philosophy that the composer believed in strongly include Ukrainian-Canadian conductor <strong>Keri-Lynn Wilson<\/strong>, the <strong>Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra<\/strong>, composer <strong>Gabriela Lena Frank<\/strong>, Polish rocker <strong>Monica Brodka<\/strong>, Harvard professor <strong>Steven Pinker<\/strong>, writer and intellectual <strong>Rebecca Newberger Goldstein<\/strong>, iconic cartoonist <strong>Charles M. Schulz<\/strong>, and conductor <strong>Leonard Bernstein<\/strong>, along with Larry himself.<\/p>\n<h3>Beethoven\u2019s Nine<\/h3>\n<p>Weinstein is a filmmaker known for works often revolving around themes of music and war \u2014 and there\u2019s been plenty of both recently, as he reminds in the movie, including Ukraine and the attacks of Oct 7.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn terms of its genesis, I was approached by ZDF.\u201d Larry had worked with the German public broadcaster on many prior occasions going back to 1990. \u201cThey asked me about doing a film on Beethoven\u2019s 9th.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was reluctant at first. There have been, as his research found, several other films with the specific focus of Beethoven&#8217;s 9th Symphony. He read Harvey Sach\u2019s book The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824, and was impressed by it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought that the beauty of that piece was the ideals it as based on,\u201d he says. Larry had already made a movie about Beethoven, though, and felt there wasn\u2019t much new to say. His initial answer was a no.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TRIzmsw4tA0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>\u201cI never particularly liked the melody to Ode to Joy anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In fact, he recalls the tedious piano practice that led him to abandon his lessons. But, about a year ago, in the spring of 2023 as the war in Ukraine was heating up, he began to think about the Enlightenment, and what it meant. The project began to take focus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was really moved,\u201d he says. \u201cWhy not do a piece that was about the ideals behind the [music]?\u201d Then, another idea. \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be amazing to get the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While he assumed their response would be negative, to his surprise, it was a thumb\u2019s up. The Polish Opera Theatre gave the orchestra the space to rehearse, a chorus and soloists to work with.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s where the film begins \u2014 with conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson and the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, and what appears to be a pretty straightforward film linking music and message.<\/p>\n<p>Backers weren\u2019t hard to find. \u201cThey loved the idea.\u201d The broadcasters wanted a bigger film, however, and to feature people other than the orchestra. \u201cWe just started assembling people,\u201d Larry says. \u201cWe had about eight of them, then October 7 happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Each of the people featured in the film offers a unique side of the story. For Harvard professor Steven Pinker and philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, it\u2019s about the lofty ideals of the Enlightenment, where European society began to turn away from the autocratic rule of the aristocracy and religious leaders, and towards human solutions to the problems of humanity.<\/p>\n<p>American composer Gabriela Lena Frank is also deaf, and lends her insight into the condition that plagued Beethoven. Was his music, with its drama, and arrangements that make the piano itself sing and vibrate, influenced by his deafness?<\/p>\n<p>She also points out the flip side of European Enlightenment, namely, the colonization of the Americas and the global south at the same time those ideals were being expressed.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard Bernstein famously conducted the Ode to Joy on Christmas Day in 1989, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the archival footage clearly shows how moved he was by both the music and the occasion.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_103449\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-103449\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-103449\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Copy-of-CRITICS-PICKS-25.jpg\" alt=\"R-L (clockwise): Jean Schulz and filmmaker Larry Weinstein; Composer Gabriela Lena Frank (Photos courtesy of Larry Weinstein); Composer Gabriela Lena Frank \" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Copy-of-CRITICS-PICKS-25.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Copy-of-CRITICS-PICKS-25-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Copy-of-CRITICS-PICKS-25-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Copy-of-CRITICS-PICKS-25-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-103449\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">R-L (clockwise): Jean Schulz and filmmaker Larry Weinstein; Composer Gabriela Lena Frank (Photos courtesy of Larry Weinstein); Composer Gabriela Lena Frank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Tangents<\/h3>\n<p>The story goes off on tangents here and there as they arise. \u201cI like the film to reflect real life,\u201d says Larry. \u201cI like thinking of films as a journey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Charles Schulz\u2019s Beethoven-loving Schroeder makes an appearance to lighten the mood, with Schulz commenting in footage on how painstaking it was to transcribe the actual music notes for many of his comic strips.<\/p>\n<p>Rock singer-songwriter Monica Brodka is, on the surface, the unlikeliest of commentators, given her unfamiliarity with the music. \u201cThe reason I wanted her, [was] I was struggling with my own dislike of the melody of Ode to Joy,\u201d he explains. Monica\u2019s family background comes from the folk music of the Polish mountains, and she likens the very familiar melody of Ode to Joy to that kind of simple yet catchy quality. \u201c[I think] he was trying to achieve a kind of timeless folk music quality,\u201d he says of the composer\u2019s intentions. \u201cI realized she embodied that whole element of Ode to Joy,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeethoven was the rock star of his day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As filming developed, events intervened. \u201cI mean October 7 happened precisely, to the day, between our first shoot and our last shoot,\u201d he notes. After an attack on their kibbutz, his sister and her husband, who had been shot, went missing.<\/p>\n<p>The events of October 7 left his family reeling, not knowing for months whether the couple was dead or being held hostage. It was his cameraman who persuaded Larry that his own story was not only relevant, but should be added to the film. It broke a 40-year practice of not appearing in his own work, but it made the search for hope personal, and sharply poignant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what to hope for,\u201d he admits on camera as he describes the situation.<\/p>\n<p>He doesn\u2019t shy away from the difficult aspects of the topic, like the colonialism of Beethoven\u2019s day, or the fact that both Hitler and the protesting students at Tianamen Square found inspiration in Beethoven\u2019s 9th \u2014 or the response of the IDF to terrorist acts in the present day.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s messy, but it\u2019s real, and the light of hope shines through both the music and the philosophy whose potential has yet to be truly realized.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got to be as honest as I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are three screenings as part of the Hot Docs Festival, with rush tickets only still available. Rush tickets are available in person only at the venue, with the line-up generally starting about an hour before the screening.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>More information available [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hotdocs.ca\/whats-on\/hot-docs-festival\/films\/2024\/beethovens-nine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/strong>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Are you looking to promote an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/advertising\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0e101a\"><u>event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? Have a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/masthead\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>news tip<\/u><\/a>? Need to know the best\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/events\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>events<\/u><\/a>\u00a0happening this weekend? Send us a\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"mailto:anya@ludwig-van.com?subject=Let's%20chat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em><u>note<\/u>.<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"western\"><em><b>#LUDWIGVAN<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n<p class=\"western\"><em>Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"western\"><em>Sign up for the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! \u2014 local classical music and opera news straight to your inbox <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/583e6ce0-dfd0-48be-8a33-61256b3c58e3.mlbtlr.com\/p2\/Fbd8jWoWQQ6CdBcLIvut3Q\/02E3cYaETqaj4Xm087cpSg?contactid=S3HHYfHY5rZv5f94S15MnA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/583e6ce0-dfd0-48be-8a33-61256b3c58e3.mlbtlr.com\/p2\/Fbd8jWoWQQ6CdBcLIvut3Q\/02E3cYaETqaj4Xm087cpSg?contactid%3DS3HHYfHY5rZv5f94S15MnA&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1695737525351000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0QTqKRwRJQFGK3KoJYigxX\">HERE<\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beethoven\u2019s Nine \u2014 it refers to the composer\u2019s iconic last symphony, its 200th anniversary looming on May 7, and a new documentary film by Larry Weinstein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":103448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40967,18,4967,23,29,63],"tags":[40116,1062,41160],"yst_prominent_words":[33883,8198],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-13.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-qUt","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103445"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103458,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103445\/revisions\/103458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103445"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=103445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}