It is the second week of 2021, and Covid-19 is still very much making our lives miserable.
In a time when the government begs you not to go to work and your grandma begs you not to come and visit her, you can see how the inherent logic of the world has turned on itself. We have gotten used to things we never thought possible.
Same with routines. We have unconsciously added little habits into our daily lives to adapt to this surreal situation. Checking the news every morning for the number of Covid cases, hanging a mask next to your keys, putting a sanitizer at your doorstep…all these little things have become part of our lives, and we don’t really think too much about how absurd they are anymore.
But do these habits help lighten your mood? Do they help reduce some of the pressure the outside world is giving you? During such times when a country can go from nothing to national lockdown overnight, the small details can really help you stabilize yourself.
And this is why I recommend introducing Beethoven into your pandemic routine.
If you think I’m just some loser with no right to promote Beethoven as a product, you’re probably right. This is why I am introducing Boris Giltburg to back me up and give me credibility.
Boris Giltburg and his Beethoven 32 Project
You may ask: Boris Johnson I know. He has made me lose faith in the name Boris. But who is this bloke Boris Giltburg?
Well, Boris Giltburg is an Israeli pianist who caught the musical world’s attention in 2020 with his ambitious Beethoven 32 Project, where he attempted to learn and record all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas chronologically to honour the 250th anniversary of the mighty composer’s birth.
To put things into context, learning all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas is like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, or cycling from London to Cape Town (I don’t know, probably!). It’s not impossible, but it’s not exactly a pop to the shops.
I first heard Boris when I was still a young (and innocent) kid. It was 2012, and his performance at the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv (which was livestreamed on YouTube) had me glued to the screen. He won 2nd prize that year, next to Daniil Trifonov.
Then he kind of dropped off my radar for a bit, but at the beginning of the pandemic he started doing livestreams, and then he announced his Beethoven 32 project. That piqued my interest, so I subscribed to him on YouTube.
Why you need Beethoven, specifically Boris’ Beethoven
As I said before, playing the whole cycle of Beethoven sonatas is no mean feat. Nevertheless, it has been achieved by many pianists in the past. Artur Schnabel, Alfred Brendel, Claudio Arrau…to name just a few. In fact, in 2019, Igor Levit released his own recording of the complete Beethoven sonatas (and it is dazzling!).
So what makes Boris’ project unique?
Firstly, it is quite fortunate for us that Boris not only enjoys playing music (like me), he also enjoys writing about music (like me!). Each YouTube video of the Beethoven sonata contains so-called “programme notes” written by Boris himself in the description, but I hesitate to call them programme notes because he doesn’t extensively use musical jargon like “tonic” and “dominant”, nor does he describe the music like a mathematical formula: “the winds take on the tune and pass it on to the brass section, which amplifies it by swelling to a forte before transforming it into a milder second subject” blah blah blah. Instead, he enjoys talking about how the music feels, and one gets a sense that he is not copy-and-pasting from Wikipedia. He really has his own ideas about the music. And the good news is, he can pin down exactly what the music is about!
Secondly, he releases these sonatas one by one as YouTube videos. Not only does he record these sonatas one by one, he also learns them one by one throughout the year! Following his progress is therefore like being on a journey with him. In a CD or album, where all the tracks are released at once, the listener gets less of the sense that he is part of the process. He is simply the consumer of a perfected product. Maybe the performer has had years to learn the pieces and hone the recordings, who knows? But with Boris, it’s different. In fact, in this interview with Tiffany Poon, Boris tells her that he had to learn and record 9 sonatas in 13 days! How on earth do you do that?! But knowing that Boris is learning about Beethoven along with us feels like the gap between is performer and listener is closed, you know? It’s cliché, but it’s also the truth.
Finally, this is what Boris himself says about Beethoven’s music:
“For me, as I was working my way through the cycle of 32 sonatas, the greatest discovery – which very quickly became a real source of mental support – was the unshakeable, unstoppable life energy I began sensing in everything Beethoven wrote. No matter the mood, no matter the emotional colour, there was life and warmth underlying every note I played or listened to. His music pulses with it. I must have felt it before, but have either not paid it enough attention, or more likely took it for granted. In 2020, it was unmistakable and vastly reassuring.”
Boris Giltburg writing for the Guardian, link here. An article that I really enjoyed reading.
Why I love Boris’ playing
It’s not just Beethoven’s piano sonatas; all Beethoven’s music carries this “unstoppable life energy” which Boris talks about. And it’s not just Beethoven, it’s Boris too. His playing carries immense energy which, matched with the single-take filming, really travels through the screen. Each movement is taken in one go, with only one camera angle. Somehow that makes the performance feel raw and not contrived, and I feel as if I’m there experiencing the music in the moment with Boris.
Energy does not mean being loud or thunderous or ragey, words Beethoven is often associated with (okay, maybe not the last one). The filming gives the listener a chance to literally sit on Boris’ lap and watch the pianist in action. The musical communication is intimate but no less intense. Energy takes on a deeper meaning in Boris’ playing; it’s not just fast fingers and loud chords. Watch his performance and you’ll see what I mean.
Yes, he may not have the boldest interpretation, or the fastest one, or the most grand. But what Boris has managed to achieve in this project is communicate the love he has not just for Beethoven’s music, but for music-making.
And maybe that’s all we need it times like these.
How to add Beethoven to your pandemic routine
If you’re just starting out and taking on 32 full-length sonata recordings seems pretty daunting to you, I’d honestly just recommend you put Boris on one of your Google tabs while you work on your proposal or CV or excel documentation or visa application or tax payments. The whole playlist is on YouTube so you can listen to one by one (he’s up to No. 21 at the moment). One is bound to catch your attention and before you know it you’ll have watched a 20-minute YouTube video without realizing it.
Or put it on as you’re making your morning coffee, instead of scrolling through Instagram AGAIN.
If you’re feeling more classy or tasteful, why not pour yourself a glass of red wine and listen to one (pick any number between 1 to 21) before bed? Then you can tell your friends you’re still cultured and classy even in bed (wink wink).
I do not profess to have finished listening to all 21 (at the time of writing), but this is my favourite:
You can watch all of Boris’ video recordings on YouTube, Apple Music or his own website, accompanied by his own writing, here:
Literally Left-handed 
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