Page 53 - Coverage Book_Aurora Orchestra Autumn 2020

converse with him by writing down comments or questions. In one of them, dated 1823,
Beethoven tantalisingly scribbled that he had “fairly preserved my left ear” by avoiding ear

trumpets.

You might legitimately ask why any of this matters when Beethoven wrote music of such

astonishing genius (whether he could hear it properly or not). Today artists argue that his status

as a disabled artist needs reinforcing, reclaiming. “In the past there have been so many stigmas

attached to deafness,” Collon says. “Beethoven talks about this — how he could barely bring

himself to mention to his friends that this was his issue.” In Beethoven Can Hear You, written by
Timothy X Atack, the visitor played by Stone tries to get across to the composer how important

he is as an inspiration for deaf musicians and composers. But Beethoven himself, in a state of

denial, is nonplussed. It is, says Coleman, “a contemporary perspective that’s not been heard

before.”

Preparing to write his new work, Ayres was as interested in Beethoven’s other struggles as his
deafness. The composer often cut a cussed, irascible figure, but behind the troubled personality

were deeper malaises, including the legacy of an abusive father. “He had a truly dysfunctional

family,” Ayres says. “You’d have to say he was mentally unstable as well. He’s a damaged

person.” What inspires Ayres the most about Beethoven is how he carried on as an artist in spite

of all that. “It’s the will to keep going and create something extraordinary that stands out. It
makes me feel very small.”

Ayres accepts that by going public about his condition he is taking a risk. “Totally. Now I think
no one’s going to commission me because they think I won’t be able to do my job properly.”

Yet with medical aid and various technological gizmos he says his creativity won’t be stymied.

“People will have to decide what they think. For me it changes nothing, because I can do

composition at home, in my head, with headphones, on the piano. That’s the easy part. The

problem comes in the rehearsal room when someone says, ‘Are those high violins too loud?’
and I say, ‘Well, I can’t actually hear them’. But then I just get someone to help.” The finer

points of the Proms premiere will have to be worked out at a distance anyway because Ayres is

stuck in the Netherlands, where he lives. But this is workable too.

Have Ayres’s hearing problems even made him a better composer? “Yes, I think so. Hiding

away from stuff doesn’t make you a better artist. It’s transcending these troubles, or