Ian's Place: Beethoven, J S Bach and Eisenach

My path to Eisenach, a charmimg old town in Thuringia, began years ago, when I was lent some old vinyl LP's of Bach's The Well Tempered Clavier, and Partitas 1 & 2. The former was a harpsichord version by Helmut Walcha, something entirely new to me. I was captivated by Rosalyn Tureck's rendering of the little Partitas -- short dance pieces, popular at that period. The harpsichord music intrigued me, it was an instrument unknown to me until then; it wasn't exactly dissonant (if that's the right word), but sounded a bit "tinny", a tone disliked by some people.

Until then I'd not taken much imterest in Bach: we had an old recording of the Brandenburg Concerti, which I may have tried but found boring, or they just passsed over my young radar. Beethoven's nine magisterial symphonies were the favourite, and I had discovered Mozart's piano concerti, they were the "greats" in my youthful opinion (they remain so, but read on!).

In 1995 I decided to visit Austria en route to see friends in Zug, Swtzerland. Unsuccessful in getting to see the Beethovenhaus in Heiligenstadt -- a suburb of Vienna, I stopped over for a day inSalzburg, and spent a morning Mozart's birthplace museum in the Getreidegasse: fascinating, they had his original fortepiano , a small instrument having a couple of octaves less than a modern concert grand, and a slightly thinner sound, to the novice somewhat strange; in the hands of an experienced pianist the fortepiano's lighter sound is beguiling.

In the ensuing years I formed a resolve to to see the birthplace museum of Beethoven in Bonn, and my discovery of the baroque music website (link is below) led me to Eisenach, Thuringia, the home of generations of the Bach family, most of them musicians. The baroque music website is comprehensive, and through it I found links to further material, another link taking me to Bach's church, the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Further research introduced me to Gottfried Silbermann, master organ builder of the baroque, and thence to old Freiberg and the Silbermann museum in Frauenstein.

In spring 2007 I at last had the opportunity to make a musical tour. A fast train took me from frankfurt-am Main west to Bonn, where I found the unassuming Beethovenhaus in a narrow street, one of a row of terraced 16th or 17th century houses. The museum is excellent, the old German house has a secluded garden at the rear; in a small room at the top of the house is the revered "Birth Room", and a bust of the impetuous, and sometimes angry, composer himself. For people interested in instruments, the most satisfying part is a display of original string quartet instruments -- violins, viola and violincello. Beethoven's two grand pianos stand back to back: I've forgotten the makers' names, one was an English piano-maker, the other an unfamiliarGerman or Austrian company, possibly now defunct. One can purchase souvenir CD's recorded on the original instruments, one disc of string quartets, the other of some of the lighter (if one is permitted to use that word about the Maestro) piano pieces. Ideal souvenirs for the enthusiast, they will evoke memories of that narrow house with uneven floors.

Next I travelled on the ICE train through Frankfurt, and on into Thuringia. We crossed the former Iron Curtain at the border of Thuringia, but no visible sign of that tragic division remains. I liked the Deutsche Bahn ICE trains, wafting you along at 160km/hour. Rail is my mode of travel in Europe, much less hassle than flying.

The house at Frauenplan 21 was secured by the Neue Bach Gesellschaft in 1906, for the establishment of a Bach birthplace museum and memorial.

A handsome bronze statue of J S Bach stands opposite the museum, on the upper side of the Frauenplan. At the foot of the monument the city gardeners have created a bed of multi-coloured flowers, which in spring prents a delightful foreground. The Bachhaus was badly damaged in World War 2, and it has been well restored painted an attractive ochre colour, with a multi-coloured tile roof.Behind the house is an immaculately kept 18th century garden. In early June it looked magnificent. On my 2007 visit the builders were finishing off a new extension to the museum, more than doubling its size. The

architects chose not to copy the 18th century style, the extension is in contemporary style, clad in stone-coloured tiles. The whole first floor is large listening room, with various technical displays, artwork, listening facilities and a gallery of the various known portraits of Bach -- none are the same likeness but expert opinion expresses a prefernence for the Haussmann portrait (at the head of this post).