Eroica Page #2

- Extraordinary.

- Otto, play it as written.

Let's go on, shall we?

I'm terribly sorry.

- Are you trying to wreck it?

- It didn't sound right.

- Didn't obey the rules?

- No.

Go over there. Go over there.

Piss off.

Gentlemen.

A Haydn would be over by now, sir,

wouldn't it?

He's buggered about

with the whole thing, hasn't he?

The shape of it and that.

Is it finished?

- Let's go straight on.

- That was quite superlative.

I thought of a battle. I thought of a general,

horse rearing, saber shining.

And columns of men

streaming through the mountains.

- I was meant to, wasn't I?

- If you like.

If it was a battle, we should have had

snare drum, surely.

Drums and fifes in march time.

I rather gained a picture

of a hero of antiquity.

A Greek, perhaps. Achilles.

I am so sorry. I'm forgetting.

May I present my cousin von Dietrichstein?

The Countess von Deym.

The Countess von Brunsvik.

How is your brother?

He's at Korompa Castle. Otherwise he

would be here. He adores these gatherings.

- He sends his love to you.

- Forgive us for missing the opening.

You didn't miss much. Tasteless intermarriage

of the diatonic and the chromatic.

Hardly worth hurrying for.

Well, what we heard was splendid.

Let's have it very, very softly.

The marking is sotto voce -

"under your breath".

That's absurd. That's a vocal marking.

I don't see any singers, do you?

It's a funeral march, Wranitsky.

Watch out for the crescendos.

They don't go all the way.

I can just see the death carts

in the boulevards, can't you, Therese?

Black plumes on the horses

and gold epaulettes.

But who has died?

Is it the hero?

That wasn't bad.

It's not a symphony, though.

You decide what is art?

Steady on. Steady on, young man.

I didn't say it wasn't art.

The symphony has a structure.

This is a formless mass.

A mere arrangement of noise.

A great piling up of colossal ideas.

It's very moving.

In parts, it has elements of the sublime.

But it is also full of discord.

And it lacks rounding out.

It is not what we call a symphony.

I don't think it's concluded yet. Is it?

My point entirely. It's lunchtime and we're

only halfway through. It has four movements?

Gerhardt.

Matthias.

You must admit, dear friend,

it is rather difficult.

That, Serene Highness, is the most lavish

praise that can be given to an artist.

Really? How paradoxical. Why?

Because difficult is good.

Difficult is beautiful.

Difficult is closer to the truth.

Yes, I see what you're getting at.

Well done, Louis.

So moving. So very...

How to put it?

- French.

- French?

It is new. It is bold. It is French.

The French are marauding thugs

and Bonaparte an ill-bred adventurer.

Louis doesn't think so, do you?

He is the champion of the poor.

Well, that's a good thing, I suppose.

I mean, somebody has to be.

He's a charlatan.

He doesn't give a fig for the poor.

He hasn't done half as much for them

as our Lobkowitz here.

He won't last long if he carries on like that.

He's only a musician employed by the prince.

You can't go insulting your employer.

He's not employed by the prince.

He's not a servant like Wranitsky.

He writes what he likes, when he likes.

But he can't talk to the nobility of Austria

and Hungary as if they were his equals.

He believes he is noble

by virtue of his talent.

He doesn't accept the inequality.

Those are dangerous sentiments, Herr Ries.

People have been hanged for less.

Right. This is for the players.

The gentlefolk will have proper food later on.

Beer, please. And you,

keep your hands off that ladies' maid.

Kirsten?

Hadn't given it a moment's thought.

What do you reckon to the band, then?

They've taken the symphony

to new heights.

Christ, have they?

Go on.

He's like a Roman hero.

He sweeps the old oligarchies before him.

He calls himself first consul,

but there are only three.

What's that if not an oligarchy?

If not the rule of the few?

- The people love Napoleon.

- The people will tire of war.

No. This war means

an end to oppression all over Europe.

I'd rather be oppressed than dead.

I lost my brother in '96.

- My father also served with the volunteers.

- I did.

- I did. And I got home alive.

- Thank God.

There were 60,000 of us,

but we still got thrashed.

You, sir, you wrote us a patriotic song.

We're all patriots here, Albrecht.

Yes. Some of us

are more patriotic than others.

The French came within

50 miles of the city in '96.

I'm damned if I'll ever let them

get that close again.

If Bonaparte is defeated,

we are back in the Dark Ages

and our ideas will go for nothing.

We won't be allowed to speak.

- Better that than be ruled by the French.

- France stands for freedom. I'm for it.

You, sir, what are you for?

I'll tell you what I'm against.

I'm against tyranny.

The truth is, that's what

Bonaparte's been fighting to overthrow.

- On that point, I'm with Otto.

- But will there be a revolution here?

Well, I think that...

That as long as your Viennese has his beer

and his sausage, he won't cause any trouble.

On the other hand, if he misses his breakfast,

he'll revolt. "To the barricades. I'm starving. "

Your Highness, if you don't feed them,

there's gonna be trouble.

I had in fact thought of that.

Sir, you were right about one thing.

Our prince's magnanimity

cannot be faulted.

It is in the nature of good government

to be charitable to the poor.

Yes. Presumably under the very best type

of government, the poor will disappear.

I don't think so, my friend.

I don't think so.

Louis, you're such a dreamer.

May we talk for a moment?

Sir, I am not impertinent, you know.

My crime is that I am hot-blooded. I am

not very good at concealing my emotions.

I don't mean any offence.

- So?

- It's going well, isn't it?

Apart from Ries, it's not going badly.

- I nearly didn't come.

- Josephine.

- My darling...

- If you hadn't come...

It's hard for me.

- Yes.

- It's only been a few months since...

Yes, it's very sudden, I know,

but soon you'll go back to Korompa Castle,

and then, if...

if I hadn't attempted to...

I know.

So I ventured.

And I don't know how it will turn out.

It'll turn out the best for everyone.

Do you remember when your mother

brought you for piano lessons?

I couldn't decide whether

to fall in love with you or your sister.

Thank God.

Thank God it was you.

- Maybe you would be happier with Therese.

- Impossible.

Maybe Therese would not have married

and given birth to four children.

- Maybe not.

- I did.

Von Deym was a good choice.

I understand that. A pragmatic choice.

But now,

sweet Josephine...

Ludwig, how do you think we would live?

Ah, no, no. Things are improving.

Very much so.

- I don't intend to be poor forever.

- You're going to be rich?

- It's inevitable.

- How? You can barely add and subtract.

I agree. I am a useless businessman

who's bad at arithmetic.

My brothers look after my interests.

They're not as financially incompetent as I.

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