Macaroni with Parmesan cheese was expensive in Beethoven's day,  pasta costing three times more than rice and Parmesan cheese had to be imported from Italy. According to the website, Fine Dining Lovers, the macaroni and cheese Beethoven’s housekeeper would have served him would have been a simple combination of macaroni, drained and seasoned with salt, butter, pepper, and Grana Padano cheese.
When Beethoven was in the middle of one of his marathon composing sessions, he ordered his housekeepers not to disturb him with such trivialities as food and told them to leave his supper in the room for him to eat whenever he finished. After eating, he would go back to his piano and play until the small hours. 

O. G. Sonneck (ed., Beethoven: Impressions of Contemporaries, 1926)

The trio has one of the most difficult viola solos-I keep practising it, but the perfect version I’m imagining in my head proves elusive. It’s in E Major which is a difficult key technically as the hand needs to stretch out to catch the notes. The use of all strings, going up and down constantly, further adds to the level of stress. When the trio starts it feels just like a perfect Ländler, although the two violins introduce it, and they are playing sky-high, using the E string as a drone. As it carries on the first beat keeps getting moved around which makes you feel like you are floating up in the air, before bringing you back to earth with a bump.

100g fresh Basil

50g Pecorino

40g Parmesan

40g Pine Kernels, roasted

1 Glove Garlic

Good quality Olive Oil

Throw everything into the food processor (although I usually do the Basil first, in batches, as otherwise everything gets stuck), then scrape it all out into a bowl. Add  Olive Oil to your desired consistency.

I don’t measure the ingredients so the quantities are approximate.

Here, by way of sign-off, are two Beethoven anecdotes. Two, because the wine-related one was too sad to end on: apparently, a publisher gave the dying composer 12 bottles of wine as a gift, and Beethoven’s final words were: “Pity, pity, too late!” My favourite, though, was the great man’s response to receiving a New Year’s card on which his pompous brother had signed himself “Johann van Beethoven, Landowner”, which was to turn it over and write on the back, “Ludwig van Beethoven, Brain-owner”. Prost! 

Sekt is Germany’s sparkling wine, and while much of it is cheap and not very cheerful, the bottle-fermented versions by reputed producers are lovely. This estate in Pfalz, the land of sunshine, pork charcuterie and yes, wine (the Mosel Valley runs through the region), has been making wine since 1718 – so Beethoven could actually have tried it. 

WIRSCHING 2018 SCHEUREBE QBA DRY

This is the first unusual grape variety of two in this case – and this one is a cross, which means it was invented (in this case by a vine breeder named Scheu), by crossing other grape varieties. That’s not always a success, but here you get a racy, delicately fruited white that ripens more easily than Riesling. Hans Wirsching was the first to plant Scheurebe in Franconia and the family still make this lovely version, as tartly juicy as a grapefruit with a perfume of white flowers. 

DR HEGER 2016 WEISSBURGUNDER SONETT QBA DRY

Weissburgunder is Germany’s name for Pinot Blanc, and this lemony, refreshing dry PB, from the volcanic soils of Kaiserstuhl between the Rhine and the Black Forest, is made by a third-generation Heger whose vineyards are ploughed by a horse called Willi. This could wash down the mac ‘n’ cheese, for those who prefer a white. 

K. F. GROEBE 2019 ESTATE RIESLING DRY

There had to be a dry Riesling, if only to remind you all how wonderful Riesling fermented entirely dry can be: pure, polished and utterly unlike any other grape. Groebe, in Westhofen near Frankfurt, has been making his for eight generations. And practice, they say, makes perfect… 

BECKER 2016 "BECKER FAMILY" SPÄTBURGUNDER QBA DRY

This is Pinot Noir, given its German name, made in Schweigen, right on the French border, where clever Friedrich Becker noticed the similarity of his limestone soils to Burgundy’s and so planted Pinot – a move so economically unwise, in the 1960s, that he had to supplement his income with pig farming. Now the Beckers are famous for their Pinots, which are very different from their earthy cousins in Burgundy – but delicious, nonetheless. 

ALDINGER 2017 ESTATE LEMBERGER QBA DRY

This looks like a new variety… but actually, we’ve met it before, in Hungary, where it’s called Kékfrankos (it’s also sometimes known as Blaufränkisch. If we’re going to allow countries their own cuisine, I guess we have to let them name their own grapes, although it does make life more complicated… this is where music wins.) The Aldinger brothers, in Fellbach just outside of Stuttgart, can trace their lineage back to Bentz Aldinger planting the area’s first vines in 1492. They are proud of their balanced, perfumed yet powerful Lembergers, and I think they’re right to be. 

Fill and boil a kettle and get all your ingredients and equipment together. You need a large shallow pan with a lid.

Put the pasta into the pan. Quickly and roughly chop the tomatoes in half and throw them into the pan. Grate in the zest of both lemons and add the oil and salt. Add a litre of boiling water, put a lid on the pan and bring to the boil. As soon as it comes to the boil, remove the lid and simmer on a high heat for 6 minutes, using a pair of tongs to turn the pasta every 30 seconds or so as it cooks.

Meanwhile, remove any tough stalks from the kale or spinach and roughly tear the leaves. Once the pasta has had 6 minutes, add the kale and continue to cook for a further 2 minutes.

Once almost all the water has evaporated, take the pan off the heat and tangle into 4 bowls. If you like, top with a little parmesan.
From A Modern Way to Cook by Anna Jones (4th Estate, £26)

4 german sausages
16-20 small salad potatoes 4-5 per person, depending on size 
1 ¼ cups sauerkraut rinsed and drained
2 tbsp white wine
1 tsp caraway seeds optional
2 large handfuls about 3 cups arugula, baby gems or mizuna greens
2 tbsp thinly sliced red onion
3 medium radishes sliced

2 large shallots peeled and minced finely
1 tsp fresh thyme finely chopped
1 small garlic clove finely grated or minced
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp grainy mustard
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp water
½ tsp coarse salt
¼ tsp freshly cracked black pepper

Place the sausages into large pot or saucepan and fill with enough cold water to just cover the sausages.
Put the pot on the stove, turn the heat to medium-high, and cook jut until the water reaches a gentle simmer – that should take about 6-8 minutes.
Turn off the heat and get those sausages out of the pot. The sausages are now cooked through, tender, and ready for step two, grilling.
Let them cool down. Carefully, using a sharp serrated knife, slice them in half lengthwise.
Set aside on a platter.
To prepare the Potatoes
Place the potatoes into a pot of well salted water. Cover. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium, keeping a rolling simmer. Leaving cover slightly ajar, cook for about 10 minutes, or until a knife just slides easily into a potato.
Remove from heat, drain and set aside to cool a bit.
When cooled down, using 4 metal skewers, skewer 4-5 onto each skewer, leaving enough room to grip the end with. Place these on the platter with the sausages.

Place the rinsed and drained sauerkraut into a medium sized pot, with just enough water to cover it, and add the white wine.
Bring to a boil, cover and then reduce to a low simmer. Simmer for a good 10 minutes to soften the cabbage. Drain well and add caraway seed (if using) and fresh cracked pepper. Set aside to come to room temperature.

Preheat your grill to 400F or medium high (alternatively you can use a grill pan on the stove top).
When heated through, place the sausages interior side down onto the grill.
Place the skewers of potatoes alongside the sausages.
Turn after 5 or so minutes, checking the underside carefully to ensure that the grill marks are there. The potato skins should be just starting to get burnished.
Once both sides of the sausages are grilled, remove from the heat.
Turn the potatoes till each side is browned and crisped. Remove from heat and add to the sausages.

Cut the sausages in half (only if you want, not necessary).
Cut the potatoes into thirds or 4 slices (if larger) and place in a bowl. Dress with about 3 tbsp of vinaigrette. Toss. This will give the potatoes a head start in soaking up the flavours of the vinaigrette.
Place the rinsed and dried greens you are using into a large platter. Scatter the sauerkraut over this.
Place the sausages over the sauerkraut, and then scatter the potatoes over everything.
Scatter red onion slices over these.
Dress everything with another 1/4-1/3 cup of vinaigrette (as much as you see fit!)
Garnish with radishes and dill. Add another generous grinding of fresh black pepper over everything.

The dressing can be made well in advance and stored in the fridge. Remove from the fridge a good half hour before you need it to allow the olive oil to get it up to room temperature. The dressing makes enough for several salads, or for any salads you will be throwing together in the week. It will keep a good month in the fridge.

 

 
When I first began to discover this piece it was as if whispers of characters started appearing on a film roll in my imagination.  First ghosts of an emotion - anxiety, hope and wonder all flashing through my veins within the course of a few bars of music. Then they started to take shape, the ghosts, as if feeding off my practising, my searches, my ideas. They began to fill out into actual characters,  actual people who, even now, if I start to sing the first movement’s main theme I can see. They anxiously wander the streets trying to find some respite from their human anguish, or, in the slow movement, the peaceful, wise, understanding person giving thanks and praise for their life.  I can see the young man, off to war in the March, bravely putting on his uniform and smiling to his mother and sister as he walks out of the door, only allowing his anguish and worry to come to the surface in the recitative section before the last movement.  And then, the last movement.  This for me is so much about the human spirit trying to find solace, trying to not be alone in life. Struggling against the inevitability that we all face day in day out and yet we all try to turn the other way, hoping that maybe it won’t happen to us.  This movement, for me, finds our hero in the wastelands of war or in purgatory, trying to find a way out and yet stuck in an ever swirling waltz with the devil until, finally, when it seems like he is on the way to madness, he is taken somewhere else. There is sunshine, warmth. The violin and cello partner up and they are not alone anymore.  They rise together in the hope that we are not alone. That though we are born alone and die alone we have people, friends, love, food, wine, music. Everything that makes the ineveitable bearable. Above all, the ending is of hope.  

So, after this year of aloneness, it seems utterly fitting that we can present this to you all. You, who have made our year less alone, and reminded us every month why we love life and music and people.  

As with everything, I am sure in a week, a month, a year, these ideas about this piece will seem outdated, ridiculous, I may find a whole other story within these notes but that it the point.  This performance is now, for you and for us. Next time it will be different and probably, instead of taking a path up the mountain we will take a different path around it, always seeing new and beautiful things.