LDV78.9

26 BEETHOVEN The French school – if it can be called that – tends to restrain the role of gestures in performance. However, should we refrain from translating the expressive violence contained in Beethoven’s writing into gestures? It may be interesting if not relevant to associate violence of gesture and violence of sound. However, this dimension should be handled with caution to avoid any risk of excess. Dmitry Sitkovetsky told me that during a performance of Beethoven’s Sonata for piano and violin no.4 by Sviatoslav Richter and David Oistrakh, Richter made a particularly violent gesture at a key moment in the work. It caused a real shock in the audience, but a visual shock justified by the dramatisation of the music. Do you also sense a specific dimension of silence in Beethoven’s music? Beethoven uses it very effectively even in early works – as in the slow movements of op.7 and op.10 no.3. Such was not the case with Mozart, who was too attached to life in all its manifestations, from happiness to death. Schubert remains the undisputed master of silence. The more we enter the so-called ‘Romantic’ period, the more silence asserts its presence.