TV/MUSIC REVIEW : PETER USTINOV NARRATES ‘IMMORTAL BEETHOVEN’

The life of Ludwig van Beethoven, like his music, was far from dull. Pity, then, that an inescapable sense of stodginess should weigh down the ambitious documentary “The Immortal Beethoven” (tonight on Channel 24 at 8, Channels 15 and 50 at 9; Friday on Channel 28 at 9 p.m.).

The central problem with this two-hour program is the dominating presence of Peter Ustinov, who doesn’t so much recite Israela Margalit’s purple narration as overact it. Time and again, we are subjected to his embarrassing attempts at characterization and his cloying sense of awe for the composer.

Ustinov stands at the base of the stairs in Beethoven’s home where, he tells us in reverent tones, the young composer-to-be “must have fallen and hurt his knees like all small boys.” Such worshipfulness in presenting the image of just another regular guy seems the height of contradiction.

One is never clear who this program is designed to enlighten. If it is meant to serve as an introduction to Beethoven, why put off inquisitive viewers with a pompous host, a parade of uninteresting paintings, and stiffly played and shot performance sequences?

If the intended audience is assumed to be knowledgeable, why bore viewers with a stream of well-worn anecdotes? At one point, Ustinov tells us in dramatically measured words that Beethoven went deaf! Similarly, he recounts the familiar tales--perhaps apocryphal, perhaps not--of the composer snubbing royalty.

Fortunately, the two hours manage to offer a good deal of that incomparable music--albeit in frustrating snippets. Generally, the performances are above average, despite only a sprinkling of major-league musicians.

Only briefly do we glimpse Vladimir Ashkenazy in a dazzling reading of the “Hammerklavier” Sonata, Leonard Bernstein leading “Fidelio,” with Rene Kollo and Gundula Janowitz, Neville Marriner conducting the Ninth Symphony and Henryk Szeryng playing the Violin Concerto.

There are longer segments with the program’s author, pianist Israela Margalit, and with such non-household names as the Cherubini Quartet, Thomas Zehetmair, Yaron Winmueller and Valerij Afanassiev.

Beethoven nonetheless triumphs over such scattershot music-making and self-conscious adulation, fascinating us as a creator of earthy ditties and heaven-bound melodies, as a man of inner beauty and outer vulgarity.