A concert titled CSI: Beethoven—Inside Ludwig’s Head conjures an image of Medical Examiner Al Robbins and his menacing little circular saw, cutting across Beethoven’s prominent forehead, removing the top of his skull like someone lifting the lid on a cookie jar, and sliding his gloved hands down the inner surface of his cranium in order to pry loose the maestro’s brain.

Or maybe a point-of-view shot which zooms in on Beethoven’s head, focuses on his lips, flies inside past his teeth and tongue (accompanied by a loud FSSSSSSHHH sound), does a last-minute dodge around the uvula (WHOOSH!), goes up through his sinus cavity, smashes through a wall of crusty boogers (blinding flash of white light accompanied by BOOM!), shoots out his nose (FSSSSSHHHH)—quick glance of his hands and his piano keys—then swoops up and back into his ear (FSSSSHHHH), coming to a sickening halt before a sclerotic tympanic membrane.

Or else one of those grainy blue-tinged shots where the characters are stretched out like Gumby and listing a few degrees starboard: Beethoven is seen lurching through a field carrying a limp body in his arms, and we hear Captain Brass in a voiceover, “So after you poisoned Mozart, you had to get rid of the body. You carried him out to the field later that night, took the shovel off your back, and dug a hole.” (Later in the episode Beethoven’s alibi checks out, and the real murderer, Antonio Salieri, is apprehended).

Or how about an image of Catherine Willows, hair perfectly coiffed, puffy lips glistening with lipstick, the neckline of her blouse plunging down to tantalizingly reveal a half-inch of visible cleavage—not that she has anything to do with Beethoven, but it’s nice to think about, isn’t it?

Orchestra Nova’s program Friday night at St. Paul’s had none of those things, but it did have Beethoven’s music, and it did have a forensic chemist from San Diego County, Jennifer Shen, to testify—er, I mean to speak to the audience—about drug and toxicity tests conducted on Beethoven’s hair.

Now I know what you’re thinking—what sick bastard would dig up Beethoven’s corpse to obtain that hair? But that’s not where it came from. Well, it did come from his corpse—but before it was buried. A teenage fan cut off a lock of Beethoven’s hair the day after he died. Over the centuries, that hair made its way from Vienna to the Beethoven Center in San Jose.

Prompted by questions from conductor Jung-Ho Pak, Shen related how Beethoven’s hair was tested (it was remarkably well preserved). No evidence of drugs were found (laudanum or other opium derivatives would have been used at the time as painkillers), suggesting that Beethoven wished to remain clear-headed so he could compose until the day he died.

The hair was also free of mercury traces. As mercury was used to treat syphilis at the time, this suggests that Beethoven did not have the disease.

What the hair tests did disclose were abnormally high levels of lead, enough to cause poisoning. How Beethoven absorbed the lead is open to conjecture—lead water pipes in Vienna; utensils and goblets made of lead compounds; or preservatives used in wine.

Shen discussed all this with Pak in an informal question-and-answer format; she was a genial and convincing speaker.

Several years ago a Viennese forensics expert put forth the theory that Beethoven’s doctor provided Beethoven with a lead-based cure, but his theory remains controversial, and was not mentioned at the concert.

How all of this ties into more traditional historical research on Beethoven’s death also was not discussed. Contemporary reports of Beethoven’s illness and death note that he was jaundiced and suffered from ascites (fluid in the peritoneal cavity). Beethoven’s autopsy revealed cirrhosis which doctors attributed to either hepatitis or alcoholism. So what killed Beethoven? We may never know, but we do have his music, some of the greatest works ever written, to thrill us in 2010.

Astute readers will note that the concert had the subtitle of Inside Ludwig’s Head, and that hair was outside Ludwig’s head. Pak provided some insight into the workings of Beethoven’s creative process with the help of Ludwig himself. By playing the entire Leonore Overture no. 3, and the complete Fidelio Overture, and by selectively playing excerpts from Leonore Overtures 1 (which was actually written after no. 3) and 2, Pak was able to illustrate how Beethoven reshaped the four different overtures he composed for Fidelio.

Pak has a gift for speaking from the podium, and he was able to fully exercise it in the first half of this concert. What about his other podium work—conducting? The orchestra sounded more disciplined here (and in earlier concerts this year) than they have in past years. The tempos which Pak chose were convincing.

On the other hand, Beethoven is a composer whose early and middle period music pretty much plays itself. Musicians need only hit the right notes and play the dynamics and articulations which Beethoven provided, and the music will speak clearly to listeners. How much of the successful playing was due to Pak’s guidance, and how much to the orchestra’s skill, is a question that, like the cause of Beethoven’s death, may not be easily answered.

St. Paul’s is not an ideal space for Beethoven—the reverberation is too long, and those passages with rapid contrasts and exchanges of instruments are not as clear there. I sat 14 rows back from the musicians, where the reverb added a significant component to their sound. In loud tuttis (such as the coda of Leonore no. 3), it was difficult to separate out musical strands from the wall of sound with which I had to contend.

The upper strings regrettably had brief intonation problems throughout the evening (the second half was devoted to an otherwise rousing rendition of the 4^th Symphony). When in tune, they sounded quite enjoyable in the cathedral’s space.

There were plenty of well-played solos on both halves. The trumpet work by John Wilds in Leonore no. 3 was noteworthy for its consistency of tone at loud levels. The flute and bassoon work was nice in the development section of Leonore no. 3, and Frank Renk’s clarinet playing in the second movement of the 4^th Symphony was expressive and secure.

If you hadn’t already had your fill of Beethoven after the San Diego Symphony’s festival, this was a nice extra portion. An overdose of lead may be fatal, but fortunately Beethoven may be enjoyed in great quantities without fear of illness or fatigue.

For a copy of the program, click here.