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Ludwig Van Beethoven 1770–1827 Compact Disc 1 Piano Sonata No.14 in C sharp minor Op.27 No.2 ‘Moonlight’ 1 I. Adagio sostenuto 2 II. Allegretto 3 III. Presto agitato Piano Sonata No.8 in C minor Op.13 ‘Pathétique’ 4 I. Grave – Allegro di molto e con brio 5 II. Adagio cantabile 6 III. Rondo: Allegro Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor Op.57 ‘Appassionata’ 7 I. Allegro assai 8 II. Andante con moto 9 III. Allegro ma non troppo
1 2 3 4
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59’31
6’01 2’18 7’37
9’08 5’44 4’16
9’41 6’15 8’08
Compact Disc 2
58’18
Piano Sonata No.29 in B flat Op.106 ‘Hammerklavier’ I. Allegro II. Scherzo: Assai vivace III. Adagio sostenuto IV. Largo – Allegro risoluto
11’09 2’38 16’50 12’34
Piano Sonata No.26 in E flat Op.81a ‘Les Adieux’ 5 I. Les Adieux: Adagio – Allegro 6 II. L’Absence: Andante espressivo 7 III. Le Retour: Vivacissimamente
Compact Disc 3 Piano Sonata No.17 in D minor Op.31 No.2 ‘Tempest’ 1 I. Largo – Allegro – Adagio 2 II. Adagio 3 III. Allegretto Piano Sonata No.21 in C Op.53 ‘Waldstein’ 4 I. Allegro con brio 5 II. Introduzione: Adagio molto 6 III. Rondo: Allegretto moderato – Prestissimo Piano Sonata No.15 in D Op.28 ‘Pastorale’ 7 I. Allegro 8 II. Andante 9 III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace – Trio IV. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo
6’14 3’09 5’37
71’06
7’47 7’45 5’53
11’10 3’44 9’46
9’56 7’30 7’28
Alfred Brendel piano
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Beethoven: Favourite Piano Sonatas In any contest of popularity, the Moonlight, Pathètique and Appassionata sonatas would come top of the 32 works in this genre that Beethoven composed; and the other ‘titled’ sonatas, such as the Tempest, Waldstein, or Les Adieux, are not far behind them in audience appeal.) Pathétique; Moonlight; Appassionata – these sobriquets may ultimately have attached themselves to fairly superficial aspects of the music, yet they seem to give listeners an important way to understand these works, independent of the ‘abstract’ technical and formal processes of Beethoven’s ongoing development within sonata forms. And they acknowledge, too, that quality of emotional and evocative intensity in his music which seems always to transcend mere mastery of form and content, dramatic and expressive though that attainment always is in itself. At least the title Pathétique for the Sonata No.8 in C minor Op.13 comes from Beethoven himself – or at any rate, he assented to the work being printed with the title Grande Sonate Pathétique, which his publisher suggested because he considered nothing in pianoforte music had been so powerful and so full of tragic passion. This notable work is a production of Beethoven’s early years in Vienna, completed in 1797 or 1798, and the published version appeared at the end of 1799 with a dedication to the composer’s friend Prince Carl Lichnowsky. The Sonata is a classic expression of Beethoven’s temperamental affinity for the key of C minor, a tonality he used to express urgency, dynamic drive, the inevitable force of fate and the individual’s resistance to it. The ‘genre pathétique’ had already been recognized as a province of musical drama by the early 18th century, especially in France and Italy, and was generally associated with slow tempi employed to evoke strong passions and especially sadness or grief. But there were no actual rules or technical features that defined such ‘pathetic’ expression, which was more to be sensed in the overall character of a piece. Rousseau, in 1768, had written that ‘the true pathétique lies in the passionate stress, not determined by rules, which genius finds and the heart feels, although Art can in no way provide a law’. Beethoven’s C minor Sonata would seem a vindication of Rousseau’s definition. The two piano sonatas which comprise his Opus 27 both bear the designation ‘quasi una fantasia’ (like a fantasia), but it is the Sonata No.14 in C sharp minor Op.27 No.2, 4
composed in 1801, that is incomparably the better known of the two: indeed it may well be the most famous piano sonata ever written. In this case the name Moonlight (in German, Mondenschein) has nothing to do with Beethoven: in 1836, nine years after the composer’s death, the poet and critic Ludwig Rellstab wrote that the sonata’s first movement reminded him of a boat visiting the wild places on Lake Lucerne by night, with moonlight reflected off the waters, and this description rapidly caught on and gave rise to the unofficial title. It is safe to say that Beethoven had no such image in mind, though on the other hand the work may well have had some intimately personal association for him. It has also been suggested that the first movement’s low sonorities, the quiet dynamics (piano or softer) and the sad tolling of the main melody might represent Beethoven’s already impaired hearing and his feeling of desolation at his approaching deafness. It is certainly an extremely expressive work, and one of unorthodox design. Both the Op.27 sonatas have three movements, but their overall shape is unusual. The less well known Op.27 No.1 has a central scherzo, and ends with a slow movement; the Moonlight begins with a slow movement and has not so much a scherzo as a formal dance as the bridge to the finale. In the Sonata No.15 in D Op.28 of 1801, Beethoven harks back to Classical models and Classical language, with four textbook movements in the key of D (the slow movement in the minor, but with a major-key central episode). It is the preponderance of repeated or sustained notes and pedal-points, creating a rustic or bucolic impression, that earned the sonata the name Pastorale. The opening movement is a sonata-form Allegro of palpable calm and serenity. This sense of tranquillity persists through the slow movement. A light and fluent scherzo leads to a delightful finale in sonata-rondo form, the main theme having a definitely rustic tinge. The three Op.31 sonatas, all apparently productions of 1801–2, were the first example of Beethoven collecting several sonatas together under a single opus number since his Op.10. The Op.31 group is less concerned with proto-Romantic ideas of emotional pathos and compositional fantasy than with extending and enriching the Classical line along the principles already evoked in Op.28. They were contemporary with some of the most difficult years in Beethoven’s personal life, the years of encroaching deafness and emotional turmoil that brought forth the anguished ‘Heiligenstadt Testament’. But Sonata No.17 in D minor Op.31 No.2 is the only one of the three that even hints at the darkness of his thoughts at this time. This sonata is often referred to as the Tempest (Der Sturm in German), but on a fairly 5
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shaky basis. According to Beethoven’s friend and factotum Anton Schindler, he once asked the composer to explain what his intentions were in Op.31 No.2, to which Beethoven replied: ‘Just read Shakespeare’s Tempest’. Certainly Beethoven knew his Shakespeare very well – in translation – but the reply could as easily have been a way of fobbing Schindler off, while some later authorities have consigned the story to the category of things which Schindler might well have made up. After the first 20 sonatas, Beethoven recurred to the genre more rarely, but almost always in order to make an important utterance. Sonata No.21 in C major Op.53 (1803–4) is generally known as the Waldstein because of its dedication to Count Waldstein, but in France it is sometimes (and appropriately) called L’Aurore, perhaps for its almost orchestral range of colour. The opening Allegro con brio contrasts a theme of pulsing repeated chords with a hymn-like second subject, and modulates widely and unexpectedly, giving a sense of widening horizons. A very brief Adagio molto proves to be merely the preparation for the finale, an epic and visionary piece that breaks new harmonic ground while embodying a sense of surging confidence and majesty, rounded off by a coda of Prestissimo bravura. The Sonata No.23 in F minor Op.57 (1807) is conceived on an even larger scale than the Waldstein. There is nothing ‘fantasia-like’ about its construction, for the forms of its movements (sonata; theme with variations; sonata) are firmly Classical, and their succession of tempi (fast – slow – fast) orthodox. But Beethoven applies the forms in unusual ways that allow him to express a wide range of moods, some of extreme intensity. The sonata was dedicated to another aristocratic friend and admirer, Count Franz von Brunsvik. The title Appassionata was bestowed by its publisher; Beethoven claimed to dislike it, though he considered the music as such to be among the best things he had written for piano. Not the least interesting aspect of the work is that it was written at a time that the instrument was undergoing rapid technological change, of which Beethoven was well aware. In 1803 he had acquired a state-of-the-art Erard grand piano: both the Waldstein and the Appassionata were clearly written for the full range of sonority available on this new instrument, especially the extended high register. By choosing F minor as the key of Op.57, Beethoven was able to avail himself lavishly of the thunderous effect of the bottom F, the lowest note available to him on the keyboard. For the first time, a solo piano could emulate the power of a full orchestra,
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and this is the most innately ‘symphonic’ sonata he had yet composed, in fullness of tone and largeness of gesture. Piano Sonata No.26 in E flat Op.81a (1809–10) signals a new development in Beethoven’s view of the sonata, for its title Les Adieux and the German expression-markings imply an actual programmatic element. The Allegro first movement, prefaced by an anguished introduction, suggests the emotions aroused by the departure of a close friend. The middle movement, at walking pace, is pensive and melancholy, but such emotions are banished by the wanderer’s return in the exuberant Vivacissimo finale, brilliant and showy in its rejoicing though with an unexpected reminiscence of the second movement towards the end. The most monumental of all Beethoven’s sonatas, Sonata No.29 in B flat Op.106 was composed in 1817–19 and published as a ‘Große Sonate für das Hammerklavier’, indicating it required the largest and most modern kind of piano available (probably the quadruple-strung piano produced by the Viennese piano manufacturer Graf) – and the Hammerklavier Sonata is how it has been known ever since. At the time it was written it was the longest keyboard work in existence. Beethoven cast it in a symphonic sequence of four movements, with a brilliant sonata-allegro followed by a scherzo and a broadly conceived slow movement, finishing with an extraordinary finale in several sections, and exploited the entire possible repertoire of piano technique. The work is full of dramatic contrasts and conflicts, apparently resolved in the almost mystical but tragic Adagio sostenuto in F sharp minor, in which time seems suspended. Out of this evolves a strange introduction to the finale, which largely takes the form of a difficult, magisterial and ultimately awesome fugue that tests the skill and stamina of the player to the utmost and ends this incredible work with a profound display of compositional mastery. 훿 Malcolm MacDonald, 2011
Recording: 1962–4 Licensed from VOX, a division of SPJ Music Inc. 훿 2011 Brilliant Classics
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