Maazel and his colleagues John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Georg Solti and Sir Roger Norrington turn their attention to another controversial topic, the presence of imagery, or programs, in Beethoven's music. Departing from the basic four-note motif at the beginning of the concerto, Maazel notes that its dramatic presentation has long inspired commentators to find various meanings in it. That slow movement is an extraordinary pictorial image of Orpheus and the Furies. You could make up a dozen stories, it doesn't really matter. Whether music is programmatic, whether there is a legend or story or literary subject connected to it, this is of secondary importance.
All music is drama.
Wary of standard editions, Norrington goes to the sources, studies them in detail and arrives at a fresh and exhilarating view of the work. While Norrington's exceptionally vivid rehearsal is interspersed with comments and recorded excerpts from colleagues such as Gardiner, Muti and Maazel, his eloquence and the images used to describe his visions remain engraved in one's mind. Some people even want it dead on arrival, they want it gift-wrapped.