Beethoven Variations: Poems on a Life

"Yes, they do. These are absolutely gorgeous poems, beautifully written, individually written, full of the most wonderful imagery. This book of poems really delves into Beethoven’s imagination and his whole world in many ways. It’s come out very recently and it has certainly made me want to go and read all her other work as well because it’s so sensitive and so closely attuned to all sides of Beethoven, which she can just nail in a phrase or capture in a nutshell. When I read it I thought, ‘Oh God, why do I bother trying?’ “He wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament to his brothers, saying he was in such despair about losing his hearing that he’d even thought of taking his own life” She doesn’t restrict herself just to Beethoven and his life. She also relates it to her own experience of his music and of Vienna. So, there are poems where she’ll be describing something in Vienna or a journey to Vienna where she suddenly realizes that from such and such a house, the Nazis abducted and deported somebody. She has a marvellous way of surprising you with hindsight and atmospheres and context. I think it’s an absolute masterpiece. I love it to pieces. Yes. I’ve spent 32 years trying to do exactly that. I don’t know who said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture, but it’s totally true. Padel is writing not so much about Beethoven’s music but about him and his world. There’s a poem on page 71 called ‘India Dreams’ and it’s about Beethoven’s interest in Indian culture and music, which is quite underrated. It’s something I’ve been very interested to discover about him. And she just describes it so exquisitely, it’s absolutely perfect."