beethoven's 32 piano sonatas robert silverman - Music on Main

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Sonata No. 7 in D Major, Op. 10/3 composed 1797-98, published 1798 This sonata is generally acknowledged to be Beethoven’s first masterpiece. Each movement is a gem, with a strongly delineated profile and not a wasted note or gesture. The first movement sparkles with energy, its sense of breathlessness conveyed via mad dashes toward silences, double-takes and a surprise sudden jolt into the key of B flat major at the beginning of the Development section. Moreover, with virtually every theme based on the first four descending notes, it is as economical as any piece Beethoven composed. A sly reference to B-flat major also occurs at the very end of the movement, with a quotation from the opening of Mozart’s Piano Concerto, K. 450, which also is in that key. The Largo was to remain Beethoven’s most tragic creation for <strong>piano</strong> until the appearance of the slow movement of the Hammerklavier, Op. 106. According to his biographer cum flunkey, Anton Schindler, Beethoven had deliberately set out to convey the state of mind of someone who had fallen prey to melancholia. With its desolate opening, anguished climaxes, and devastating ending, he succeeded unconditionally. I often wonder what passed through his mind when he completed this work. The Minuet begins elegantly, with a hint of sweetness. Then the surprises begin: a sudden rush in the bass is taken up by the other voices, before the music dissolves into a return of the opening theme. Finally, after a few more small jolts, it concludes with the same graciousness with which it began. The Trio resonates with the good humour that pervades the opening and closing movements, with its clumsy Landler, or peasant waltz. As an experiment, I once attempted to follow the Largo with minuets and scherzos (appropriately transcribed) Beethoven had composed for other <strong>sonatas</strong>. None—including the one from the Pastorale Sonata, which is also in D major—provided the proper emotional release from the mood of despair. Some were too serious, others far too jocular. In trying to determine why this particular one works so well, I discovered a slight thematic connection between the close of the Minuet theme and the opening theme of the Largo, but quickly realized that this was not a valid explanation. One hallmark of a great composer is his ability to provide not merely thematic continuity in a piece of music, but for lack of a better word, psychological continuity. Beethoven’s genius in that regard is unparalleled. The final movement is an exercise in both frugality and light-hearted comedy. The entire piece derives from only three notes, and the humour lies in that motif’s vain efforts to develop into a full-blown theme or melody. It never succeeds: its efforts are met with frustration at every turn. Later, it throws a brief tantrum, furious 1 at being thwarted so continually. However, rage is not its essential nature, and the mood soon dissipates. During the motif’s adventures, it had previously encountered a simple chromatic scale accompanied in the bass by “Chopsticks”-like chords. The sonata concludes with these two musical figures flying off together somewhere, silently… 1 Beethoven’s incredible brain always lurks in the background, even in his most farcical moments. Consider that the tantrum is in B flat major, the key that plays an important role in the first movement. <strong>Music</strong> on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 – April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. © Robert Silverman
Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13 “Grande Sonate Pathétique” composed 1798, published 1799 In 1793, the German poet, Friedrich Schiller, wrote an essay entitled Über das Pathetische. <strong>Music</strong>ologist William Kinderman, in his book, Beethoven, lucidly states Schiller’s thesis: “Pathos or tragedy arises when unblinkered awareness of suffering is counter-balanced by the capacity of reason to resist these feelings.” Beethoven’s understanding of this affect was undoubtedly close to Schiller’s. Defiance of suffering and a single-minded determination to surmount it lie at the heart of virtually all his C minor compositions. By the late 18th century, that key’s strong association with a sense of tragic drama was firmly established: Mozart had cast several of his most dramatic works in that key, while Beethoven had recently composed the first of three dramatic C minor <strong>sonatas</strong> (Op. 10/1). However, the “C minor as pathos” identification probably was cemented with the “Grande Sonate Pathétique,” one of only two <strong>sonatas</strong> whose nickname was actually provided by Beethoven. This trait is found most obviously in the first movement, with its conflict between the solemn Grave, which is so reminiscent of the opening of Bach’s C minor Partita, and the hugely defiant Allegro. Only four of the <strong>sonatas</strong> have an introduction, and this, his first, is the lengthiest and most elaborate. It does far more than merely set the mood: it is heavily integrated with the rest of the movement. A famous point of dispute between musicians occurs in the opening movement: some early editions of this sonata seem to indicate that the Introduction as well as the Allegro be repeated. The late Rudolf Serkin performed the sonata in this manner, as does at least one of his former students. I sympathize with anyone's desire to hear (or play) the introduction a second time. However, the overwhelming momentum of the Allegro suffers by the resulting interruption, and the devastating shock of the return to the introduction in G minor at the outset of the Development is completely lost. More importantly, how are we to handle Beethoven’s contemporaneous Piano Quartet/Quintet, Op. 16, with its even longer introduction and identical ambiguity about the repeat? In that work, repeating the introduction sounds ludicrous. Doing so in the Pathétique is equally wrong. Was the famous slow movement consciously or unconsciously influenced by the very similar middle section of the slow movement of Mozart’s C minor sonata? Was it deliberately echoed, in turn, by Beethoven himself in the Adagio of his Ninth Symphony? We can never know such things: When someone pointed out to Brahms the resemblance between the finale of his first symphony and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, he responded “Any idiot knows that.” However, when I intrepidly asked Aaron Copland about a striking kinship between the closing measures of The Cat and the Mouse and the introduction to Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, he acknowledged the resemblance, but then added that he’d never heard the Dukas piece when he’d composed his own work as a young man. Like so many of Beethoven’s adagios, this one has a troubled inner section in the minor key. His <strong>piano</strong> <strong>sonatas</strong> often contained textures associated with string quartet writing; here, one can easily envision a duet between the first violin and cello, accompanied by the nervous triplets in the second violin and viola parts. It is also characteristic of the composer’s slow movements that some aspect of the contrasting middle section—in this case the triplet figures—remain present when the song-like opening theme returns. The Finale may be the lightest of the three movements, but its thematic connections to the rest of the sonata run deep. The rhythm of the main theme is identical to that of the second theme in the opening movement. The middle section contains two links to the second movement: not only do they share the key of A flat major, but the melodic skeleton of Adagio is also maintained. Throughout the movement Beethoven also plays a teasing game with us: on four occasions there occurs a brilliant descending scale, beginning from the topmost F of the keyboard as he knew it. However, only in the last measure does he finally resolve it in the home key of C minor. <strong>Music</strong> on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 – April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. © Robert Silverman
Page 1 and 2: Programme notes BEETHOVEN’S <stro
Page 3 and 4: Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2/2 co
Page 5 and 6: Sonata No. 4 in E flat, Op. 7 compo
Page 7: Sonata No. 6 in F Major, Op. 10/2 c
Page 11 and 12: Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 14/2
Page 13 and 14: Sonata No. 12 in A flat Major, Op.
Page 15 and 16: Sonata No. 14 “quasi una Fantasia
Page 17 and 18: Sonata No. 16 in G Major, Op. 31/1
Page 19 and 20: Sonata No. 18 in E flat Major, Op.
Page 21 and 22: Sonata No. 21 in C, Op. 53 “Walds
Page 23 and 24: Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57
Page 25 and 26: Sonata No. 25 in G Major, Op. 79 co
Page 27 and 28: Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90 co
Page 29 and 30: Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, Op.
Page 31 and 32: Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 c
Page 33: Sonata No. 32 in C

beethoven's 32 piano sonatas robert silverman - Music on Main

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