Beethoven: The 32 Piano Sonatas: Recent Episodes
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Beethoven: The 32 Piano Sonatas
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Beethoven: Sonata No.1 in F Minor, Op.2 No.1 (Kovacevich, Lewis, Buchbinder) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
So if someday extraterrestrials visit Earth, and (inexplicably) ask about Sonata Form – what it is and how it works – there’d be a very short list of candidate sonatas you could probably put together to use as model examples of “perfect” sonatas, and this one, B.’s very first, would have to be high up the list. It’s not a radically innovative sonata, and displays few of the boundary-busting tendencies that are already apparent in the very next sonata he writes, but it is by any standard an incredibly powerful work that does not come into shame even if set down beside B.’s last 5 sonatas (after all, what makes a sonata “new” is only a function of when it was written, not how well it works, musically, on its own terms).
You’ve got that taut, beautifully precise Mvt 1, where Themes 1 & 2 are woven out of the same motivic cloth, the development already has a muscularity (and crunchy syncopation) that tugs a little at the boundaries of the classical idiom, and not a single note is wasted on superfluous movement. Mvt 2 is a wonderful thing that combines B.’s natural terseness in motif-construction with Mozartean ease of expression. The Menuetto has mysterious outer sections (interspersed with birdcalls) flanking an affectionate Trio that features some lovely texturing and contrapuntal writing. The final movement is where you get an idea of the sort of soundscapes B. will come to explore in the later sonatas: white-hot and swarming with notes, with moments of Schubertian drama punctuating the fury: 10:52.
Kovacevich: 00:00 – Mvt 1 03:04 – Mvt 2 07:20 – Mvt 3 10:16 – Mvt 4 Lewis: 14:55 – Mvt 1 19:22 – Mvt 2 24:00 – Mvt 3 27:32 – Mvt 4 Buchbinder: 32:44 – Mvt 1 36:14 – Mvt 2 41:44 – Mvt 3 44:40 – Mvt 4
Kovacevich has a hyper-intense, uncompromising approach to this sonata – those outer movements a something of a shock to the system, especially if you’ve heard this sonata played in practice-rooms a couple too many times. Lewis is the polar opposite of Kovacevich: his approach is lyrical and measured, with Mvt 2 and the Trio being particularly attractive. In the outer movements there is a kind of menace where Kovacevich generates pure fury. Buchbinder occupies a middle ground between Kovacevich and Lewis, expressively speaking, but his playing is characterized by clean textures and wonderful clarity: his Mvt 2 sounds right out of Mozart, and the final movement is especially incisive.
MVT I, Allegro EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1. Motif (a) = rising arpeggio, (b) = turn 00:08 – Transition, using (a) in C min, +(b) 00:19 – Theme 2, rhythmically nearly identical to T1. (a) is reversed in direction, as is (b) 00:37 – Cadence-theme DEVELOPMENT 01:27 – Theme 1, in Ab, moving towards V of Bb min 01:33 – Theme 2, in Bb min, moving toward V of C min. From 1:44 T2 continues in bass, before at 1:49 being reduced into a syncopated outline 01:56 – Dominant preparation. At 2:08 (b) enters in RH RECAPITULATION 02:14 – T1 02:23 – Transition, with two bars added 02:33 – T2, now firmly in (F) min 02:50 – Cadence-theme, diverted at 2:56 into V of (iv) then V of (III) with syncopation, before close
MVT II, Adagio EXPOSITION 03:04 – Theme 1 04:11 – Transition 04:34 – Theme 2 RECAPITULATION 05:10 – T1 06:16 – T2 (no transition preceding it, except for short melodic link) 06:52 – The third repetition of T2’s melody becomes the Coda.
MVT III, Menuetto: allegro 07:20 – Minuet, Strain 1. S2 at 7:46, S3 at 8:00 08:36 – Trio, featuring some lovely counterpoint 09:35 – Minuet
MVT IV, Prestissimo EXPOSITION 10:16 – Theme Group 1, Theme 1, containing rhythmic motif (a) in RH 10:20 – Theme Group 1, Theme 2, using (a) 10:29 – Dominant preparation for C min, using (a) 10:38 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1 10:52 – Theme Group 2, Theme 2, again using (a) 11:09 – Cadence-theme = TG1, T1 DEVELOPMENT 12:18 – After closing chords echoed in V of Ab, developmental theme in Ab 13:16 – (a) reappears in 4-bar steps and interspersed with new motif, moving into home dominant 13:35 – Dominant preparation RECAPITULATION 13:46 – TG1 14:12 – TG2. The movement ends without a coda, and with a 4-bar group, where in the identical point in the exposition there was an (irregular) 3-bar group
Beethoven: Sonata No.2 in A Major, Op.2 No.2 (Blechacz, Kovacevich, Pletnev) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The general impression of the Op.2 No.2 is that it is a lithe, graceful, often lyrical thing. This belies, however, its radical (even parodic) tendencies, and huge technical difficulty: it’s clear that B. was determined to outdo his predecessors early on, and this sonata is already well beyond Mozart and Haydn.
The most striking fact feature of this sonata is its way with key: it changes in unexpected and often extremely modern-sounding ways: see what happens in the second theme group at 00:47, where it moves in intervals of a minor third, the use of C and (extended) F major in the development of the 1st movement, Bb in the 2nd (11:45), G# min in the 3rd (14:16), and F + Bb major in the last section of the 4th. It’s incredible that something so graceful moves with such modulatory aggressiveness, but the colour B. generates with these sorts of shifts shows why the Romantics couldn’t get enough of their modulations to bVII or bVI or III.
There’s also the textures B. deploys here, which were previously unheard-of in pianoforte literature. In the 1st movement, parodic extensions of rise-and-fall melodic shapes so common in the classical period, with white-hot scales thrown in, as well as some magical 3-part textures at 4:06; in the 2nd, gorgeous Brahmsian textures (7:40) and pizzicato plucking in the lowest registers against sustained middle tones, and in the 4th an absurd operatic downward leap, together with deliberately overinvolved mimicry of a motif borrowed from the 1st movement – the rising A arpeggio.
Lastly, it’s worth noting that the defining features of B.’s style are already in abundance: lots of clever motivic manipulation in the 1st movement, and (by classical standards) an unusually long movement.
MVT I, Allegro vivace EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme Group 1, Theme 1. Note Motif (A), the opening descending 4th, the related long octave descending on m.4 (A), and Motif (B), the quick downward run in m.1. 00:06 – Theme Group 1, Theme 2. TG1, T1 returns after. 00:25 – Theme Group 1, Theme 3. Containing (C), rapid rising scale, and slower descent (D). (Note connections to TG1, T1.) 00:32 – Dominant preparation 00:47 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1. A beautiful and incredibly modern-sounding series of enharmonic modulations, each raising the tonality by a minor 3rd. 01:01 – (B) returns. (Also the rhythm of (A) interspersed). At 1:08, cadence-theme 1 01:14 – (C)+(D) return 01:24 – Cadence-theme 2 DEVELOPMENT 03:16 – After closing chords in E min, TG1, T1 in C 03:22 – In Ab, (A)+(B)+(A), moving into dominant of F 03:50 – TG1, T2 in F. Repeats itself, led by bass 04:06 – TG1, T2 developed in close 3-part imitation moving around the circle of fourths. At 4:12 (A) appears, together with scalar fragment from TG1, T2. Process repeated twice. 04:23 – Dominant preparation, extensively using TG1, T2 RECAPITULATION 04:41 – TG1. The counter-statement of TG1, T1 is absent. 05:21 – TG2, leading straight into closing cadence without coda.
MVT II, Largo appassionato 06:15 – Theme. The 20 seconds after 7:40 count as one of the most moving things B. ever wrote (and are already radically unlike anything Mozart or Haydn could have dreamt of, sounding like they came straight out of Brahms). 08:01 – Episode 1 09:12 – Theme 10:55 – Episode 2, beginning like a coda. At 11:35 theme returns suddenly in D min in ff, moving into Bb and home dominant 12:31 – Theme, in higher register, with delicately articulated accompaniment 13:11 – Coda
MVT III, Allegretto 13:51 – Scherzo. At 14:16, second melody in G# min 15:16 – Trio, in A min 16:01 – Scherzo
MVT IV, Grazioso 16:47 – Theme (Note the opening arpeggio extends the figure from TG1 T2) 17:17 – Transition 17:33 – Episode 1 18:00 – Theme 18:30 – Episode 2 20:11 – Theme 20:42 – Transition, in tonic 20:56 – Episode 1 21:18 – Theme/Coda (can also be read as Theme + Episode 2 + Theme, giving the movement an ABACABACA structure). At 21:28 – sudden enharmonic diversion into F, where the theme hovers for 5 bars. At 21:45 the theme is developed into the bass into tonic-dominant swing. At 21:56 the portamento from the theme is deployed in what looks like a final cadence that suddenly moves using an enharmonic switch (D#=Eb) into Bb. At 22:09 – Episode 2’s theme recurs in Bb, and at 22:31 the Theme returns one last time, richly ornamented and diverted at 22:46 into the final tonic-dominant swing.
Beethoven: Sonata No.3 in C Major, Op.2 No.3 (Jumppanen, Biret) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The third of the Op.2 Sonatas is the virtuoso showpiece of the set: it’s brilliant, extroverted, and gently humorous, filled with striking, motivic themes of the sort that are easily bent to developmental treatment. Its textures are distinctly concertante in nature: there are many passages that mimic orchestral tutti (0:19) or quartets (1:10), and there are Emperor-concerto-esque cadenzas at two points in the first movement (4:51; 8:00). The humour can be broad, as at 4:10 and 8:43, or subtle, as in the opening run of the 4th movement, the dissonances in the 3rd, or the false D major recapitulation and sudden harmonic changes in the 1st. Also notable about this sonata is the diversity of textures and figuration it contains: the 1st movement is symphonic, the 2nd Bachian (10:27), the 3rd delicate, with biting accents, and the 4th alternately impish and lyrical.
MVT I, Allegro con brio 00:00 – Theme Group 1, Theme 1. The first 2 measures contain M1 in RH 00:19 – Theme Group 1, Theme 2. Like an orchestral tutti 00:31 – Theme Group 1, Theme 3 00:40 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1. G min/D min/A min 00:57 – Sequential move to G min 01:09 – Theme Group 2, Theme 2 01:32 – TG1, T2 interrupts, with new closing material 01:56 – Theme Group 2, Theme 3 (cadential theme), closing with broken octaves reminiscent of TG1, T2 DEVELOPMENT 04:39 – TG2, T3, moving into C min, F min, then reaches 04:51 – Cadenza beginning on dominant 7th of Eb. Bass rises by semitones, bringing us though remote harmonies 05:08 – TG1, T1 (in Ebb maj, but might as well call it D) 05:16 – Development of M1 05:40 – Dominant preparation, still using M1 RECAPITULATION 05:57 – TG1. At 6:10 the tail of M1 is developed in octaves with syncopation 06:32 – TG2 CODA 08:00 – Cadenza, moving from Ab to a C 6/4 08:38 – More development of M1, followed by typical cadential trill 08:46 – Return of TG1 T1. At 8:52 the tail of M1 is developed 09:14 – The movement ends using TG2 T3, much as the exposition did.
MVT II, Adagio 09:26 – Main Theme 10:27 – Episode, Theme 1 11:03 – Episode, Theme 2 11:36 – Episode T1, repeat 12:26 – Episode T2, repeat (preparation for return of MT) 12:57 – Main Theme 13:57 – Bridge with main theme in C maj 14:09 – Episode, T1 14:30 – Episode, T2 15:10 – Main Theme 16:13 – Coda
MVT III, Scherzo: allegro 16:57 – Scherzo, Strain 1 17:15 – Scherzo, Strain 2, ending with dominant preparation 17:29 – Scherzo, Strain 3, with codetta at 17:38 18:14 – Trio 18:47 – Scherzo 20:04 – Coda, with some delicious dissonances
MVT IV, Allegro assai 20:22 – Theme, with 3 main ideas: (a), a rising scale, (b), the rocking figure (F-E-F-E-D) immediately after, and (c), a rapid semiquaver theme 20:39 – Transition, using the main theme 20:48 – Episode 1. At 21:12 dominant preparation, ending with (a) in dialogue 21:23 – Theme 21:30 – Transition. (a)+(b) in bass, moving into (ii), then (iii). At 21:39 the initial RH accompaniment is developed in a way that recalls (a) and (b). 21:53 – Episode 2. The second strain enters at 22:09. The return of the first strain at 22:31 harmonically rapidly diverges from the original, before dominant preparation using the second strain is reached at 22:53, ending with quotations of (a) 23:04 – Theme. At 23:11 it looks like the modulation will be repeated, but now the theme stays firmly in the same key throughout. 23:36 – Episode 1, in C. A brief foray into C min is followed by a sequence which rises instead of falling as it did earlier. 24:14 – Theme/Coda. Theme enters in LH, beneath trill. (b) is repeated thrice. 24:22 – Chromatic descent based on (b), followed by rising figure and further scales = (a), then lengthy dominant trill which is doubled and tripled as (a) decorates 24:48 – Theme in A, then re-attempted in A min, diverted to dominant, then (a) in LH answered by RH.
Beethoven: Sonata No.4 in Eb Major, Op.7 (Korstick, Lewis) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
If you had to name 2 sonatas to demonstrate B.’s mastery of the classical large-scale sonata, they would be this one and the Op.22 – both sonatas which are overlooked because, while original, they don’t have the sort of brazen, goggle-inducing originality we have come to associate with B. In fact, there are some ways in which the Op.7 is less tuneful and pianistic than its three brilliant predecessors, or even the Op.22 – but only because the Op.7 demonstrates B. for first time running right up against the limits of the classical sonata and feeling a bit unfulfilled or restless, imagining possibilities beyond what the instrument and form could achieve at the time.
For a start, Mvt 1 isn’t really written for the piano – it has become almost an archetype of orchestral writing for piano, with elements like an repeated Eb in the brass and themes (so, so many of them!) composed mostly of scales and arpeggios rather than melody over accompaniment. Mvt 2, with all its long pregnant pauses and high woodwinds (and an impossible crescendo written over a single held chord), has an orchestral feel but also a rather late-B. solemnity to it, and counts as one of the most moving things B. ever wrote. Mvt 3 is neither a proper scherzo nor minuet (it’s tuneful like the latter, but also playful and abruptly dramatic in the manner of the former), and B. coyly writes only “Allegro” at its beginning and “Minore” at the middle section. Mvt 4 is where the orchestral manner dies away fully, but neither is it a conventional rondo: there is a surprising amount of continuous motivic development and internal logic here, a wonderful “floating” passage at the end where a Bb ascends to a B, signalling a shift from Eb to E(!), and a coda whose feeling of warmth and generousness disguises the fact that it’s a modification of the stormy second episode.
MVT I, Allegro molto e con brio EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme Group 1, Theme 1. The opening figure in the RH (G-Eb) is M1 00:15 – TG1, T2 (imitative scales) 00:22 – Transition, using M1 00:30 – Dominant preparation 00:37 – TG2, T1 00:53 – TG2, T2. The opening legato figure is developed vigorously, eventually broken into descending quavers that lead into a diminished 7th that resolves abruptly into C 01:14 – TG2, T3 01:41 – TG2, T4, over tonic pedal coloured by minor 9th 01:57 – TG2, T5 (cadential theme) DEVELOPMENT 04:12 – M1 on V of (ii) 04:16 – TG1, T2, moving into F min 04:27 – TG2, T5, eventually reduced to just its rhythm 04:42 – M1 in A min, with a new ominous figure following. Moves into D min. M1 then announces the aug 6th chord, which also happens to be the dominant of Eb. RECAPITULATION 05:02 – TG1. T1 is now diverted into subdominant at 5:16, and a modified version of T2 follows 05:32 – TG2 CODA 06:58 – TG1, T1 07:08 – TG2, T2, eventually descending in bass 07:23 – TG2, T5 07:35 – Final cadence, using M1, but now the accent, where it was “wrongly” placed on M1’s first chord, has been shifted to the second.
MVT II, Lento con gran espressione 07:49 – Theme. Note the extensive use of dramatic pauses 10:41 – Middle Episode 13:37 – Theme 16:20 – Coda (with elements of recapitulation), using theme from Middle Episode which diverges quickly into a sequence. At 16:50, tonic-dominant swing, developing dotted figure from 2nd bar of the theme. At 17:20, new cadential theme is introduced, after which bass descends chromatically while the Theme above closes.
MVT III, Allegro 18:10 – Scherzo, which continuously recycles motifs from its first 4 bars’ RH. (See 18:23, the middle strain, 19:29). The return of the first strain moves into B maj, surprising harmonic territory. 20:46 – Trio. At 21:31, codetta, ending with a rare ppp mark 21:41 – Scherzo
MVT IV, Poco allegretto e grazioso 23:00 – Theme, containing M2 at 23:17 (demisemiquaver arpeggio, then Eb-D tail) 23:33 – Transition, using M1. The tail of M2 is developed and isolated, turning eventually into another figure in the bass at 23:48, and dominating the texture that follows. 24:09 – Episode 1 24:35 – Theme 25:03 – Episode 2. The LH accompaniment (which eventually reaches the RH) and the initial RH chordal theme constitute M3 and M4 respectively. 26:41 – Theme 27:14 – Transition into (ii) instead of the earlier (vi) 27:52 – Episode 1 28:16 – Theme 28:44 – Coda. Home dominant raises a semitone (beautifully and misleadingly mimicking the transition into Episode 2 at 24:59) and then the main theme enters in E. The 3rd bar of the theme is repeated, ushering in a remarkable modulation back into Eb. At 29:06 Episode 2 is recalled, with M3 in the LH softened into arpeggios, while M4 in the RH develops into a gorgeous closing melody. The final bars contain an allusion to the tail of M2.
Beethoven: Sonata No.5 in C Minor, Op.10 No.1 (Jumppanen, Jando, Korstick) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
This is one of B.’s most approachable sonatas – it’s not that difficult to play (unless you are absolutely determined to take the last movement at tempo), and comes close to matching the Pathetique for dramatic power (rhetorical silences, material presented in unison, dynamic contrasts). Like the other Op.10 sonatas, the first movement’s development section is largely built around new material. The second movement one of B.’s prettiest slow movements, built around an ABAB “sonatina” form, and the last movement is (again, common to all the Op.10 sonatas) especially enjoyable. It’s a surprising blend of fizzy nervousness and humour: you’ve got that cavalier, almost-bathetic ending, the accented landings on wrong harmonies in the second theme, frenetic tremolos, big dynamic swings, and a pretty menacing main theme – all presented at breakneck speed.
MVT I, Allegro molto e con brio EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 00:26 – Transition Theme 00:47 – Theme 2. Its closing quotes the opening of Theme 1 01:13 – Cadential Theme DEVELOPMENT 02:49 – Theme 1 in C = V of (iv) 03:00 – Development Theme. Containing motif (x) – C/B/Db/C/Bb/G – at 3:02. 03:14 – Sequential development of (x), which drifts into the LH. 03:31 – Dominant preparation RECAPITULATION 03:38 – Theme 1 04:00 – Transition Theme, starting on extremely remote key of Gb. 04:20 – Theme 2, in F. At 4:30 extra bars wrench it into C min 04:59 – Cadential Theme
MVT II, Adagio molto EXPOSITION 05:15 – Theme 1 06:18 – Transition 06:46 – Theme 2 RECAPITULATION 08:22 – Theme 1, with new ornamentation 09:23 – Transition, which moves into 6/4 of Fb, necessitating extra bars to return to home dominant 10:01 – Theme 2 11:26 – Coda. Theme 1 with gentle accompaniment, with tender new 4-bar clause. Then alternation between tonic/dominant, closing on 5 bars of tonic
MVT III, Finale: Prestissimo EXPOSITION 13:04 – Theme 1, opening with M1 13:25 – Theme 2. At 13:38 cadential theme enters with M1 in LH DEVELOPMENT 14:54 – M1, closely developed. Arrives at V of (iv), then eventually the home dominant diminished 7th RECAPITULATION 15:08 – T1 15:30 – T2, in C. At 15:41 it suddenly moves into minor, which it never leaves again. The cadential theme at 15:43 now enters without tremolos, with M1 in RH. CODA 16:02 – The closing cadence-figure moves into Db, where T2 is presented in the form of a slow melody. Pause on the local dominant 16:24 – Diminished 7th, turning into C min (this passage is heavily reminiscent of the Tempest) 16:34 – T2 + T1 combined in final passage with subdominant color. At its close the sonata simply evaporates.
Beethoven: Sonata No.6 in F Major, Op.10 No.2 (Lortie, Jando) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
For some reason (probably its diminutive proportions?) the 6th sonata has acquired a reputation as one of B.’s less important sonatas, when any reasonably objective look will show that it really is one of his best. For a start, the first movement bursts with innovative touches: the lush lyrical sonority of the first theme of the second theme group (which implies maj7 harmony), the really unexpected harmonic turns (at 0:17 we get a really abrupt transition from F to E, and then, this time completely without preparation, we move from E to C – a pretty radical treatment of the usual transition between two theme groups), a development section which doggedly avoids all connection with the exposition with the exception of a microscopic ending phrase, and a recapitulation that begins in D(!), a key so far removed from F that it sounds like a lot of the tonal tension that ought to be in the development has decided to accrete there.
The second movement continues this sonata’s typifying feature of experimentation with sonority: it’s technically a kind of minuet/trio, but texturally is something more like a doleful bagatelle, again with beautiful textures at the return of the minuet. The last movement is just one of the best things B. ever wrote – a roguish, scampering, hyper-orchestral thing that never becomes anything like properly fugal yet sounds a lot like a fugue, and which contains sudden windows of translucent, luminous color: see 11:54 and 12:26, for instance. I find this final movement kind of earwormish, in fact, but that might be just me.
MVT I, Allegro 00:00 – Theme Group 1, containing two themes: the first short and angular, the second long and lyrical. The restatement of the first theme suddenly slips into E(!) maj. 00:21 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1, now blithely on C, which then modulates to G. At 0:34 dominant preparation, which is surprising as the key is already clear 00:42 – TG2, T2. Its closing uses the turn motif (M1) from the opening theme 01:02 – TG2, T3 (cadential theme). At 1:13 the closing three notes constitute M2 DEVELOPMENT 02:29 – M2, in A min, then in D min in bass with new counterpoint (x) above. Parts swap. 02:40 – Development Theme. D min – C min – Bb 03:00 – M2 + (x) RECAPITULATION 03:26 – TG1, in D(!), a key more remote than any reached in the development. The repeat at 3:42 moves wistfully in to G min, then into the home dominant. The turn motif now repeats several times before TG1, T2 enters in F 03:58 – TG2, T1. At 4:08 theme is extended in F min, then Ab. The point of the “purposeless” dominant preparation (0:34) in the exposition is now revealed, for it now enters to right the course of the sonata by insisting on C. 04:26 – TG2, T2 04:47 – TG2, T3 (cadential theme). Note how its closing segues seamless back into the beginning of the development
MVT II, Allegretto 07:37 – Menuet. Middle strain at 7:52, with imitative counterpoint 08:55 – Trio, with a surprising amount of development. Closes in bare octaves moving into dominant 10:30 – Menuet, with some particularly beautiful variation (primarily syncopation, some changes in melodic direction, and fuller LH). Note the close on forte, rather than the original piano.
MVT III, Presto EXPOSITION 11:17 – Theme 1. First two bars with M1, second two with M2. 11:32 – Theme 2 (Cadence). Note M1 in inner part DEVELOPMENT 12:02 – Compound of M1+M2, rising in Ab. At 12:04 T1 in Ab. 12:07 – T1, with LH following RH in 3rds. M2 is then developed imitatively. Bb min/F min 12:14 – M2 dialogue with itself in RH. C min/G min/D min. At 12:22 preparation on dominant of D min 12:26 – T2 in A, with its bass now prominently in upper voice. Descends sequentially to RECAPITULATION 12:39 – T1, with running counterpoint, and later diverted into G min/Bb/Bb min. at 12:58 sequence is initiated leading back into F 13:05 – T2 (extended into a kind of coda)
Beethoven: Sonata No.7 in D Major, Op.10 No.3 (Lortie, Jando) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
B.’s 7th Sonata, much like the 11th, is one of those that belongs firmly in the “total masterwork that no-one listens to” category, and is the last of the relatively experimental Op.10 sonatas. For a start: how about the motivic economy of this sonata? Just listen to how often the first 4 notes in the 1st mvt (a simple scalar descent offset by a single beat across a bar line) recur in drastically different guises, or the first 3 notes in the 4th mvt. There is also the sheer wealth of ideas contained in the movements: the first contains between 7 and 12 themes in the exposition alone (depending on how you count), with yet another theme emerging in the development section. The 2nd mvt is one of the most profound and heartbreaking things B. wrote, comparable to the huge glacier of the Hammerklavier’s 3rd and containing some beautiful textures. The 3rd mvt features a punchy trio and a minuet that’s alternately beautifully melodic and very contrapuntal, and the 4th mvt is a marvel of careful construction: it sounds like a movement in continuous development, so cleverly is the main theme (and its recurrent motif) treated, and yet it sounds almost improvisatory.
MVT I, Presto EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1, opening four-note descending motif (M1) The theme is repeated 4 times, the second time in the LH, the third in broken 6ths, and the fourth with syncopation. 00:20 – Transition Group. New melody in B minor, followed by sequential movement from (iii) to (V). 00:44 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1, opening with M1. 00:55 – Theme Group 2, Theme 2. Note M1 in bass. As the passages progresses M1 becomes more prominent and its inversion appears in the RH, leading to an exquisite modulating sequence where the accent is placed on the last beat of each bar. Bb is reached, and then at 1:10 a strong cadential close on A. 01:16 – Theme Group 2, Theme 3. Based on Theme 1 01:25 – Theme Group 2, Theme 4. 01:32 – Tonic-dominant dialogue on M1, strongly recalling TG2, T2 DEVELOPMENT 03:23 – M1, 4 bars. Theme 1 enters in D min. 03:31 – Modified Theme 1 (rhythm preserved) in Bb 03:36 – Development Theme. D min, Bb, G min, Eb 03:56 – Dominant preparation RECAPITULATION 04:13 – Theme 1. At 4:24 diverted to E min 04:31 – Transition Group 04:53 – TG 2 CODA 05:42 – TG2, T4 extended for 4 steps 05:45 – Dialogue on M1. G/G min/Bb/Eb. The harmony thickens. 06:09 – Imitative treatment of M1 over tonic pedal 06:13 – Final crescendo over tonic pedal. Bass notes trace augmentation of M1
MVT II, Largo e mesto 06:25 – TG1, T1 07:30 – TG1, T2 08:27 – TG2, T1 09:26 – TG2, T2 DEVELOPMENT 09:53 – Episodic Melody 10:33 – Introduction of new demisemiquaver figuration (x), which alternates with preceding bar 10:46 – Dominant preparation RECAPITULATION 11:28 – TG1 12:57 – TG2 CODA 14:00 – TG1, T1 in extreme bass. D min, Bb, Eb min, then climbing in chromatic steps 14:46 – (x) over dominant pedal 15:12 – TG1, T1. Closing with Neapolitan flavor, before final cadences with dissonant upper tonic pedal enter and the piece dies away in single notes.
MVT III, Menuetto: allegro 16:50 – Menuet. Second strain using imitative counterpoint at 17:16, and codetta at 17:38 18:18 – Trio. 18:41 – Menuet
MVT IV, Rondo: allegro 19:28 – Theme, containing M1 (F-G-B), which is developed at m.3. 19:48 – Transition 20:01 – Episode 1 20:16 – Theme 20:36 – Episode 2, in sudden Bb. Dialogue on M1 answered in free inversion above. At 20:39 modulating theme appears (Bb, G min, Eb, F min). Note inversion of M1 in RH in m.35, 37, 39. At 20:57 theme appears in F, then pauses before M1 is developed in tonic minor in a sphinxlike chromatic passage. 21:19 – Theme. The transition is diverted to 21:50 – Episode 3, beginning on the dominant of B min, with M1 in inner part. Enharmonic move into 6/4 of Bb. At 22:03 home dominant reached. 22:12 – Theme, with decoration. 22:30 – Coda. Imitative development of M1 in contrary dialogue in RH. At 22:49 M1 in bass, shadowed by RH, then 4 bars of chord preserving M1’s rhythm moving through (bII) to 23:02, with M1 tapering in bass with tonic pedal and semiquaver decoration in RH.
Beethoven: Sonata No.8 in C Minor, Op.13, "Pathétique" (Feltsman, Lortie, Korstick) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The Pathétique was famous right from the moment it was performed, and it’s not hard to see why – it contains three incredibly attractive movements with very different characters + unheard-of expressiveness, and contains some of B.’s best motivic manipulations. The first + last movements are unified through a single theme (heard, among many other places, at the opening of the first movement, the second theme of the first movement, and the opening of the third), and both are also internally tightly bound together by a set of their own recurring motifs – there’s hardly a bar of material that’s superfluous or untethered. The first movement also features strangely orchestral textures – there’s the thrumming tremolos, the bassoon in the first theme of the second theme group (3:45), and the tutti that is the second theme of the second theme group (4:26). It’d also be remiss not to mention that the second movement is, well, extremely pretty.
MVT I, Grave INTRODUDCTION 00:00 – The introduction of a C-D-Eb (tonic, supertonic, minor mediant) motif (M1). Immediately developed until Eb is reached 00:42 – M1 is developed yet further, now in lyrical form EXPOSITION 01:45 – Theme Group 1, Theme 1 02:03 – Theme Group 1, Theme 2, containing new M2 over rising bass 02:15 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1, based on M1 (Eb/F/Gb = C/D/Eb). In Eb min, when maj is expected. PAC to Eb, then 02:47 – Theme Group 2, Theme 2 03:06 – Cadential Theme. At 3:12 TG1 T1 appears, apparently closing in Eb but for the descending bass, which guides it to the home dominant DEVELOPMENT 05:04 – Return of the introduction, in G min, with a magical modulation at end to E min 05:44 – M2, immediately followed by a sped-up version of the introduction’s theme (M1), with the LH derived from TG2, T1 05:53 – M2 rising in bass, while RH tremolos descend chromatically 06:07 – the dominant is reached, and a wonderful passage implying double chromatic appoggiaturas takes over (C#-D, C-B) before M.2 races up the keyboard again and closes with a turn. The procedure is repeated, before a scalar passage enters at 6:23 and leads back to the RECAPITULATION 06:29 – TG1. At 06:38 the passage is diverted through Db, Eb min, and then F min. The musical tissue from the exposition which should follow immediately after has been cut out 06:49 – TG2, T1. F min/C min/Ab/C min. Theme 2 and the Cadential Theme remain in C min CODA 07:53 – Return of the introduction. M.1 in dominant, tonic, and then subdominant 08:29 – Return of TG1, T1, before final cadence
MVT II, Adagio cantabile 08:49 – THEME 09:46 – EPISODE 1. Extended cadence-phrase at 10:11 10:33 – THEME 11:02 – EPISODE 2 11:53 – THEME, with triplet accompaniment 12:57 – CODA
MVT III, Rondo: allegro 13:36 – THEME, containing M.1 at its head 13:58 – EPISODE 1, with a second lyrical theme at 14:07, a third in triplets at 14:17 14:55 – THEME 15:17 – EPISODE 2. 2-part counterpoint in contrary motion. At 15:41 beautiful quaver scalar accompaniment enters, and at 15:50 the dominant is reached 16:09 – THEME 16:27 – EPISODE 1, now entering directly with its second theme in C maj. At 16:59 the cadential phrase is extended to modulate back into C min, pausing eventually on the rootless dominant 7th 17:16 – THEME 17:31 – CODA. A cadential phrase enters with subdominant colour, using the triplet figuration from Episode 1. At 17:38 this is gradually expanded, until at 17:44 a new semiquaver figure emerges. The LH is flattened, leading into the dominant of Ab. The downward run at 17:53 which immediately follows reveals that the new semiquaver figure is in fact derived from the descending scale at 14:50 (and similar). At 17:59 the theme enters in Ab, truncated and stated twice. The music moves quickly back into C min, and a final descending scale closes
Beethoven: Sonata No.9 in E major, Op.14 No.1 (Korstick, Yokoyama, Jumppanen) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The 9th Sonata isn’t well known, probably due to a combination of its relatively diminutive proportions and slight air of oddness, but it definitely deserves to be. The striking first movement is an excellent example of how a good development section (see also the 6th sonata, and to a lesser extent the 5th and 7th) does not really need to develop material to be effective – here, the relevant sense of tension is generated by the inclusion of a completely new theme in the development, the first truly lyrical moment in the sonata (and B., in the manuscript, actually writes, “without developing the theme”). The movement is also a classic example of B.’s motivic style: the first theme group consists of rising 4ths (over an E pedal), scales, and then arpeggios, while the second theme group begins with a naked descending and rising (chromatic) scale. It’s pretty extraordinary how much drama B. wrings from such humble material, often with the aid of some very beautiful quartet-like counterpoint. The second movement is notable for some of the rather late-Renaissance-ish harmonies B. uses, and the last movement is pretty funny: the main theme involves the rising RH getting hopelessly jammed on an A, while the LH continues making its way down the keyboard, happily ignoring whatever dissonance it generates against the note above. It’s also a nice example of B.’s skill at continuously developing a rondo’s theme with each recurrence, and the middle episode has a particularly pleasing concerto-like moment.
MVT I, Allegro EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 00:19 – Transition, using Theme 1 with chromatically rising inner part. At 0:24 a new transition theme is introduced 00:34 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1. A single vocal line, descending diatonically and rising chromatically. Repeated with imitation. 00:58 – Theme Group 2, Theme 2. 01:10 – Theme Group 2, Theme 3. 01:27 – Cadential Theme, using Theme 1 under an inverted pedal DEVELOPMENT 03:06 – Theme 1, moving into A min 03:13 – New Episodic Theme, which occurs no-where else in the piece. In the manuscript B. actually explicitly writes at this point, “without developing the theme” (meaning the sonata’s main themes). The texture here is eerily Schubertian – probably the first time something like this was written for piano. 03:37 – Theme 1, developed over 10 bars of dwelling on the dominant RECAPITULATION 03:52 – Theme 1, now with forte scales in LH. At 4:10, a magical movement in to C maj, implied to be the Neapolitan of B min 04:17 – Transition 04:28 – Theme Group 2 05:21 – Cadential Theme 05:32 – CODA
MVT II, Allegretto 05:51 – A Section/minuet. The middle strain at 6:04 has a rather Renaissance feel. At 6:33 a codetta, using figuration from m.4 and with closing with an implied (and impossible) portamento at 6:42 06:43 – B Section/trio. 07:24 – A Section 08:16 – Coda, which deceptively begins like the trio
MVT III, Rondo: Allegro comodo 08:31 – Theme, modulating into B 08:58 – Episode 1 09:11 – Theme, modulating into G 09:31 – Episode 2, with a mini-cadenza at 9:44 10:15 – Theme, modulating into A 10:34 – Episode 1, modulating into F, before using a tritone switch to move into the home dominant 10:48 – Theme, with syncopation
Beethoven: Sonata No.10 in G maj, Op.14 No.2 (Kovacevich, Yokoyama) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
B.’s 10th is one of those sonatas whose lyricism and gentle humor belie its exquisite craftsmanship. The first movement, for instance, has several themes that are certainly distinct (the first is rather Bachian, the second is arch-typical Viennese, the third is duet-like), but they’re definitely not contrasting in the classical sense of the word. And there’s a cunning rhythmic trick played right from the opening bar, where the theme actually enters half a beat earlier than you hear it (you’ll definitely hear the first beat on the LH G; try listening to it “correctly” and the whole movement will transform in your head), which sets up a subtle but definite moment of rhythmic disorientation when the high melody enters in m.4. And in a sly acknowledgement of this trick, B. actually corrects this deceptive rhythm in the coda.
The second movement is the first theme-and-variation movement B. would put in his sonatas, and is pretty explicitly humorous, though some variations are straightforwardly lyrical (it is also one of those things that reacts well to nearly any interpretive liberty). The final movement, like the first, begins deep in rhythmic ambiguity, although unlike the first movement this ambiguity is not hidden. The ingenuity with which B. uses modulations and plays with rondo form here is pretty wonderful: the coda, for instance, contains the final third episode and return of the theme. Like the second movement, the third movement has a funny ending: it builds up to a big brilliant finish, but instead evaporates with a turn in the bass.
MVT I, Allegro EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 00:11 – Transition theme 00:38 – Theme 2 01:10 – Cadence Theme DEVELOPMENT 03:13 – Theme 1, G min, moving into Bb 03:29 – Theme 2, Bb 03:39 – Theme 1 in Ab in bass, revealed to be Neapolitan of G min. Modulates into Eb, then pauses on dominant 04:07 – Theme 1. Eb, diverted with 3 extra bars to modulate into G min 04:20 – Pedal on dominant established, with dramatic RH figuration (and an inversion of the cadence theme in the LH upper voice). At 4:31 dominant preparation, using Theme 1 RECAPITULATION 04:47 – Theme 1 04:59 – Transition Theme 05:31 – Theme 2 06:02 – Cadence Theme CODA – 06:23, with Theme 1 set in a new rhythmic angle so you hear it correctly for the first time.
MVT II, Andante 06:48 – Theme. First strain comic (each phrase ending on dominant), second lyrical 07:55 – Var.1 09:00 – Var.2 (listen to Yokoyama on this) at 10:02, a short bridge 10:10 – Var.3 (again, Yokoyama is incredible on this)
MVT III, Scherzo: allegro assai 11:06 – Theme (note its harmonic and rhythmic deceptiveness) 11:24 – Episode 1 11:39 – Theme 12:03 – Episode 2 12:33 – Theme (in wrong key!), moving back into tonic. At 13:19, another modulation, into F maj, before another quick return to G. 13:34 – CODA/Episode 3, in brilliant concertante style, which nonetheless ends with a lightly humorous touch, quoting a motif from the theme deep in the bass. If the new material introduced here is of Episode 3, then the closing refrain can be read as the final return of the theme, with a Lydian flavor.
Beethoven: Sonata No.11 in B-flat Major, Op.22 (Lortie, Kovacevich) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
MVT I, Allegro con brio EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1. Abrupt Motif A (hidden 3rd) opens the piece, rising into cantabile melody. 00:18 – Transition. Motif A in bass, rising into F. Bass descends, while upper two voices move sequentially into new idea at 00:26 in V of (V). 00:35 – Theme Group 2. Theme 1. 3rds. 00:49 – TG2. T2. New idea (Motif B). Groups of 3rds, descending in 3rds. At 1:14 the variation is broken off by 4 arpeggios, moving through (vi) to jubilant 4-bar closing phrase at 1:21. 01:33 – TG2. T3. Note connection to Motif A in middle voice. At 1:44, Motif C is introduced: rising scale, then its inversion. Motif A closes. DEVELOPMENT 03:48 – Dialogue on Motif A, then Motif C enters, leading to TG2 T3 on V of (vi) 04:09 – Motif C in bass, rising, with inversion in treble, answered by running figure based on Motif A. G min/C min/F min 04:26 – Motif A turns into arpeggios in RH, while bass descends chromatically (NB single bars on Gb and Fb) 04:48 – Arpeggios in RH, Motif C in LH. Ab maj/F min/Bb min. NB dissonance between D and Db at 4:56 etc. RECAPITULATION 05:27 – Theme 1 05:46 – Overlapping call-and-response on Motif A, which rises to Ab. The subsequent sequence is lengthened by 2 bars, and the transition theme after infused with minor colouring 06:09 – Theme Group 2
MVT II, Adagio con molto espressione EXPOSITION 07:31 – Theme 1. Motif A (semiquavers with appoggiatura, proceeding at intervals of a 3rd) at 7:37, Motif B at 7:57 08:55 – Transition 09:38 – Theme 2 10:35 – Cadential Theme DEVELOPMENT 11:03 – Dominant of C min. Motif A ascends, with exotic harmonies produced by long appoggiaturas 11:26 – Motif A and Motif B are fused in two-voice dialogue. Continues for 4 more bars 11:49 – Ab min is reached, and Motif B turns into a continuous contrapuntal passage, with the upper voice singing a lamenting figure. Ab min/Eb min/home dominant. RECAPITUATION 12:45 – Theme 1, with more decoration 13:52 – Transition 14:52 – Theme 2 15:46 – Cadential Theme
MVT III, Menuetto 16:18 – Minuet, Strain 1. NB Motif A (from Mvt 2) in the semiquaver runs at 16:20, etc. 16:48 – Minuet, Strain 2 17:02 – Minuet, Strain 3. Similar to strain 1, with enriched bass and cadential elaboration at 17:18 18:09 – Trio. NB Motif A’s inversion in LH, and use of imitative counterpoint in second half. 19:05 – Minuet da capo
MVT IV, Rondo: allegro 20:03 – THEME. Note Motifs 1 (semiquaver 1 from F to A) and 2 (the A-Bb-B-C rising quavers). At 20:10, Motif 2 in lowest voice 20:39 – Transition, featuring new Motif 3 as its opening. 20:48 – EPISODE 1. At 21:06, cadence-group in F, and at 21:24 dialogue on Motif 1 21:41 – THEME 22:18 – EPISODE 2. An extraordinary section, which both an Episode, and a Development, and a Sonatina all in one. Opens with Motif 3 in Bb min: the first two notes of the motif a developed immediately after. 22:28 – Developmental Theme 22:43 – Motif 3 in bass, answered by counterpoint (C) above. Process repeated in Bb min and (iv), with Motif C in treble and C in middle voice 22:58 – Sequential use of Motif 3 in bass, with inversion above, all with added 3rds. 23:10 – Developmental Theme 23:26 – Motif 1 + 2 in Gb, closing into Ab. Motif 2 then interrupted by appoggiatura in RH, turning into trill 23:45 – Theme in LH, ornamented in RH 24:21 – Transition, with 2 bars added 24:33 – EPISODE 1. At 25:02, shift to Eb. 25:08 – Sudden intrusion of Main Theme, after which Motif 1 + 2 in C min lead to 25:33 – THEME, in triplets and more extensive decoration. Almost imperceptibly a run leads from the last note into the 26:10 – CODA. Based on Motif 3 over descending bass. The piece closes with a canonic derivation of Motif 1
Beethoven: Sonata No.12 in A-flat Major, Op.26, "Funeral March" (Lewis, Kovacevich, Buchbinder) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
If you’ve been following this series of Beethoven sonatas for a while and (God forbid) you’ve actually been reading all the analyses, you’ll have noticed that structural unity is sort of B.’s thing. His movements tend to be connected by all sorts of motivic tissue, linkages and affinities and backward glances, plus boundaries between movements get fuzzier as we reach the late sonatas, and themes more concentrated and abstract.
But you also have this sonata, standing in spectacular isolation. It’s not just that it has no movement in sonata form; it’s that the first movement is in Theme and Variation form, which, in lacking literally any tonal tension whatsoever, is as far from sonata form as you can get. And the theme, which in Beethoven is usually designed to be a sort of rich motivic/developmental mine rather than an attractive thing in itself, is here just flat-out-beautiful. And so all the forward movement in this movement comes only from the theme's unfolding and elaboration, nothing else.
There is also the fact that the four movements aren’t motivically linked at all. The first movement does in one way relate to the rest, in that in contains the outlines of the entire sonata’s structure: the theme and Var.1 are the first movement, the impish Var.2 is the Scherzo, the tragic Var.3 the funeral march, and the lyrical/grazioso/ecstatic Var.4 the finale. But the point is that this sonata works because its movements are different, not because they are similar – a pretty extraordinary conception of what a sonata can be. The first movement’s calm is erased by the scherzo, with its silly passing pretentions to f minor. Then a funeral march wipes away any attempt at joviality, and the finale comments with some irony on the heavy-handedness of the march.
MVT I, Andante con Variazioni 00:00 – Theme. Beautiful and rather Schubertian melody in ABA form (Op.142 No.2) 01:26 – Var.1. A glowing, warm melodic elaboration, featuring quartet-like writing 02:50 – Var.2. A pointillistic decomposition of the theme, which, depending on how you play it, can sound daintily languid or quite exciting, especially with the unexpected accents in the bass 03:56 – Var.3. A wonderfully still, enigmatic variation, with some clever harmonic progressions 05:23 – Var.4. A wryly elusive variation that never decides which register it wants to be in. Taken at a faster tempo, it turns into something like a scherzo, but at a slow tempo becomes funny in a rather self-deprecating kind of way. 06:34 – Var.5. Triplet movement which later turns into demisemiquavers. The melody blossoms into something quite moving. It just about hints at the sorts of ecstatic textures B. would explore in his late sonatas. 07:56 – CODA
MVT II, Scherzo. Allegro molto 08:44 – Scherzo, Strain I. Opens with surprising Fm chord, closing at first into wrong key (Eb), which then rights itself. 08:56 – Scherzo, Strain II. Based on opening figure of Strain I. Long anticipatory tail on dominant of (vi), pretending to close into either F min or F maj. But: 09:18 – Scherzo, Strain III enters – in Eb/Ab (what else?) with counterpoint in treble and melody in bass (with a new chromatic passing tone that will significantly colour the whole section). Melody and bass switch places. 10:15 – Trio 10:59 – Scherzo da capo
MVT III, Marcia Funebre 11:56 – FUNERAL MARCH. 8-bar melody under monotone, closing into Cb maj (relative major) 12:28 – Cb maj becomes Cb min, written as B min. At 12:48 we pause on the subdominant, which then leads to D maj(!). It’s an extremely distant key from Ab min, yet we don’t seem to have gotten there via any unusual means. 12:59 – Violent enharmonic return to the home dominant, via the dominant of the dominant, since single bar which is insisted upon another two times. 13:17 – The main funeral march theme returns. This time it passes through (iv) to the Neapolitan, then back to the dominant. 13:58 – TRIO. Drumrolls + salutes 14:59 – FUNERAL MARCH da capo 16:58 – CODA, featuring eerie dissonances.
MVT IV, Allegro 17:38 – THEME/A Section. The first four semiquavers in the RH form a Motif (M1) 18:09 – Transition, featuring M1 in LH punctuated by loud chrords 18:14 – EPISODE 1/B Section, in (V). Note inverted M1 in LH, then RH 18:37 – THEME/A Section 19:09 – EPISODE 2/C Section, in (iii). C min, then G min, F min, and eventually Eb, the home dominant. Once Eb is reached a chromatic figure winds upward, eventually morphing into M1 19:39 – THEME/A Section 20:11 – Transition. Note addition of contrary motion in LH, Bb min (instead of maj) at 19:08, which the new material at 20:17 “corrects” 20:22 – EPISODE I/B Section, in tonic. 20:41 – CODA/A Section. M1 is woven into a 4-bar phrase coloured by (IV) and (ii). Over a tonic pedal the figure descends, eventually leading the sonata to simply evaporate.
Beethoven: Sonata No.13 in E-flat Major, "Quasi una fantasia" (Korstick, Lortie, Goode) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Even by his own genre-busting standards, B. went through something of an experimental phase in his Op.26 and Op.27 sonatas, and this one, the Op.27 No.1, represents the most striking product of that period. Everyone who’s ever played it loves it, but it’s otherwise slightly obscure, and does not appear immediately striking. But that’s really part of its design, where B. takes the archetypically argumentative form – the sonata – and gives in a basically narrative (fantasy-like, improvisatory, episodic) character.
So there’s no gaps between all the movements, which are arranged in fast-slow-fast-slow order. Motivic connections are sparse. Each movement fills in an expressive gap the previous one lacks. The first is graceful, the second restless/ominous/fidgety, the third inward, the last celebratory and a bit silly. Not a single movement is in sonata form. Moods change constantly.
The first movement begins with an absurdly simple, almost trivial melody. The only thing that undermines its total naivete is the careful articulation B. indicates and the constant changes in sonority which animate it. The C section is such a ridiculous contrast to this it almost seems like a new movement, though its C maj harmony has already been beautifully anticipated.
The second movement is, again, an exercise in articulation, with distinctly improvisatory chord sequences and some of B.’s most creative textural writing in the return of the scherzo. It’s one of those weird movements that can be interpreted a million ways and emerge unscathed.
The third movement barely deserves the name – a single melody in three parts. And yet it returns at the end of the dizzy and already-large final movement, a sudden injection of sincere feeling into an ingeniously wrought rondo (the development section is pretty awesome) full of orchestral timbres.
MVT I, Andante – Allegro – Andante. Eb Maj. ABACA (or ABA) form 00:00 – A SECTION. Extremely simple melody with two strains. Intricate articulation. Note short-short-long rhythm. 01:02 – B SECTION. New sonority (and in second strain, sudden bright new harmony in C maj which turns out to be dominant of (ii)), with same short-short-long rhythm. 02:08 – A SECTION, with very slight variation. 03:11 – C SECTION. Violently contrasting in C maj, with quick runs and arpeggios pausing eventually on the dominant of Eb. 03:50 – A SECTION. Identical to opening bars, but now with inversions in double counterpoint. 4:54 – CODA, using the same rhythm of the opening, now with its last beat missing.
MVT II, Allegro molto e vivace. C min. Scherzo and trio 05:27 – SCHERZO. Arpeggios with bass initially descending in semitones, eventually closing on a chain of suspensions. Note B.’s initially puzzling placement of the repeat sign “one bar late”, which actually indicates the first bar functions as a kind of upbeat. 06:04 – TRIO. Persistent LH iambic rhythm, with playful syncopation in RH 06:32 – SCHERZO. The repeat at 6:39 features some of B.’s most imaginative textural writing, with legato syncopations above staccato bass 06:56 – CODA.
MVT III, Adagio con espressione. Ab maj. Single melody with three parts, functioning as introduction to last movement. 07:12 – Melody, Strain I 08:09 – Melody, Strain II 08:59 – Melody, Strain III (repeat of I with variation in accompaniment and harmony). Closing on dominant of (V)
MVT IV, Allegro vivace. Eb maj. Sonata-Rondo (ABACABCoda*), with development as second episode. 10:26 – THEME, Strain I. Strain II at 10:35. 10:48 – Transition, based on Theme. Second bar of Strain I developed in sequence 10:58 – EPISODE 1, in (V), moving into unexpected territory such as the dominant of Ab. Note the B-C-A-Bb motif, which will recur. A new cadence-theme arises at 11:14. 11:36 – Theme 11:50 – EPISODE 2 / DEVELOPMENT. Repetition of Theme, Strain II in tonic minor, closing on dominant of Gb 11:57 – Theme, Strain I emerges in bass, with new closing continuation. This 3-bar group is heard 4 times in double counterpoint, with accompaniment suggesting original semiquaver running bass. Db maj, Gb maj, Bb min. 12:10 – The new closing continuation is reduced to 3 notes, descending in imitative sequence, then in 3-note groups cutting across 2/4 rhythm. 12:18 – 2-bar dramatic close in Bb min, then repeated in diminution. 12:24 – Repeated Bbs become accompaniment to the main chromatic idea of Episode 1(!). The Bbs (Eb min) become Gbs (Cb maj), then Ebs (Ab min) which rise again to Bb. 12:48 – THEME 13:07 – Transition, moving now to dominant 13:17 – EPISODE 1, in tonic 13:48 – CODA. Extension of Episode 1’s cadential theme, now in a more celebratory mood. 14:03 – The Adagio’s Strain III returns(!) in the tonic. 15:34 – The closing presto. Theme, Strain I is elaborated on in highly compressed form in a 4-bar phrase, which is then repeated an octave higher with added thirds. At 15:41 Episode 1’s main motif returns in both RH and LH, together with a very compressed version of Strain I.
Beethoven: Sonata quasi una fantasia, No.14 in C# Minor, "Moonlight" (Lortie, Jando) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (which really should be known as the Second Sonata-Fantasy) is probably the world’s most popular bit of Great Music, and for good reason. Its peculiar brand of expressive and imagistic power is nearly unrivalled in piano literature. The first movement is one of those rare things that is, like Bach, almost totally impervious to all kinds of interpretive liberty: depending on how you play it it might sound funereal, wistful, melancholic, lyrical, or tragic, but it will never be anything but beautiful. (And interpretive complexities abound in this movement: should the semiquaver-against-triplet polyrhythm be treated literally? Should the pedal be constantly held down like B. indicated? Half-pedal? Third-pedal? Delayed-harmonic-change pedal? Even, God forbid, the sostenuto pedal? Should we play with tempo as indicated, in cut time, so that it goes at nearly twice as fast as some interpretations today, and certainly a lot faster than listeners are used to?) And, of course, there is the fact that the first movement really isn’t in sonata form (I mean, well, technically it is, but I can’t imagine people actually hearing it as sonata form), and unfolds more as a single fantasy-like melody on a really massive scale.
The second movement looks pretty conventional, but there’s actually a lot of wry playfulness going on in it with the ambiguities about where exactly the implied rhythmic accents should fall, and even possible cross-rhythms in the trio. In any case, it’s a sweet little thing (Liszt called it a flower between two chasms, which is slightly too dramatic but conveys the general idea very well) whose monomaniacal use of repeated cells of music manages to convey a kind of gentle humour.
The last movement is one of the miracles of the piano literature: it thrums in a state of almost perpetual climax, yet only rarely does its dynamic raise to a fortissimo. It’s quite obviously the main portion of the sonata (again, it’s worth noting that B. gradually shifted the weight of his sonatas from the front to the back), and its second theme group is richly laden with wonderful ideas. Most of this movement’s power comes from its pounding, insistent rhythm (there’s a reason so many people who enjoy technical metal like it), the sly use of contrasts, the nearly ubiquitous vibrating semiquavers, and some really dramatic Neapolitan harmony: you could teach a good number of composition lessons using it as a model, but the main thing is that it’s amazing to listen to, and rather addictive.
MVT I, Adagio sostenuto (fantasy, with vague intimations of sonata form) 00:00 – Introduction 00:26 – Theme 1, modulating to E maj and C maj 01:28 – Theme 2, in (the very surprising) B min, turning into the dominant of either (iii) or (III) 02:17 – Quasi-development. Theme 1, in (iv). At 2:47 a recollection of Theme 2 appears 03:10 – Dominant preparation of extreme length 04:11 – Recapitulation, where Theme 1 returns 05:06 – Theme 2, now in (I) 06:01 – Coda, with Theme 1 in bass
MVT II, Allegretto 07:17 – Scherzo 08:11 – Trio 08:57 – Scherzo da capo
MVT III, Presto agitato EXPOSITION 09:33 – Theme 1 10:03 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1, in (v) 10:37 – Theme Group 2, Theme 2 10:58 – Theme Group 2, Theme 3 (Cadential Theme). Note the dotted figure borrowed from TG2, T1 DEVELOPMENT 12:49 – Theme 1, in I, modulating into (iv) 12:58 – TG2, T1, in F# min. At 13:04 shift into bass, and then into the Neapolitan at 13:10 13:23 – Dominant preparation RECAPITULATION 13:48 – Theme 1, without counterstatement, closing directly into 14:09 – TG2, T1, now in (i) 14:22 – TG2, T2, (i) 15:03 – TG2, T3 CODA 15:16 – Theme 1, broken at 15:21 by two violent statements in diminished 7th harmony 15:33 – TG2, T1 in bass, recalling development section, now in C# min. Moves into RH, with hushed and anticipatory LH accompaniment 15:48 – CADENZA, with quasi-recitative at 16:06 16:37 – TG2, T3 (Cadential Theme), followed by closing flourish
Beethoven: Sonata No.15 in D Major, "Pastoral" (Lewis, Biss) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The 15th Sonata is B. at his most beautiful: a thing of touching and generous serenity that's nonetheless put together with a lot of skill and subtlety. Mvt 1 is notable for its timpani-like bass drone (which first pretends to be the dominant of G), murmuring like a heartbeat, and for the development, which builds into fury by radically compressing the sonata’s first theme and features 38 bars of unchanging harmony that does not(!) lead to the recapitulation. Mvt 2 begins in stately, profound sadness, and only grows in intricacy as it progresses: honestly, it’s just one of the loveliest things B. wrote. Mvt 3 trades on contrast between long and short notes, and its trio is just the same melody 8 times, though you wouldn’t even notice it, so cunningly (and subtly is it transformed) each time. Mvt 4 is a gently rolling rondo, warmly whimsical in a naïve sort of way. It’s also the first time B. writes ‘ma non troppo’ in any work.
MVT I EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1. Melody over tonic pedal, with A-D-E-F#-G-F# motif (Motif A) at m.7. 00:41 – Transition Theme. Motif B at mm.41-42. 01:04 – Theme Group 2 (TG2), Theme 1 01:20 – TG2, Theme 2. Long cantabile melody, moving from dominant of (iii) to (V). Bass hovers first around C#, then B, which becomes the dominant of (V). 01:43 – TG2, Theme 3 01:50 – TG2, Theme 2 reappears, still in (V) 02:06 – TG2, Theme 3, extended 02:16 – TG2, Theme 4 (cadential theme). Note rhythmic anticipation of the Scherzo. DEVELOPMENT 05:27 – Movement into G maj 05:32 – Theme 1 in G 05:42 – Theme 1 in G min, with ornamentation 05:49 – Motif A in RH, with bass counterpoint that partially draws on TG2 Theme 3’s rapid descending scales. Switches into D mi, with Motif A moving into bass. Motif A is broken up, and its tail is increasingly integrated into 2-part invertible counterpoint in 2-bar groups that moves through A min till: 06:11 – Motif A in RH now reduced to a single bar, while counterpoint in bass continues. Treble rises through E min to B min, closing eventually onto 06:22 – 38(!) bars on the dominant of B min, extensively using reduced Motif A in contrary motion 07:00 – After pregnant pause that must lead back to the recapitulation, we instead get TG2 Theme 4, now with new rhythmic angle, and Motif B from the transition smuggled in at 07:03. B maj to B min, then pause on Motif B as question on home dominant. RECAPITULATION 07:25 – Theme 1. At the melody’s repeat, the ornamentation from the development section is included. Another lovely touch is how TG2 Theme 3’s descending scale is incorporated into Theme 1 at 8:03. 08:07 – Transition Theme, answered in tonic instead of enhanced dominant (8:11) 08:32 – Theme Group 2. The cadential theme is extended by 2 bars. CODA 10:13 – Theme 1, its last 2 bars insisted on 4 times, with an interspersed note rising up the tonic chord till it reaches the D. The bass drones on till it too reaches a solitary D, and then final cadence.
MVT II A SECTION 10:45 – Melody 1, closing on A minor 11:35 – Melody 2 12:01 – Melody 3 (variant of Melody 1) 12:19 – Melody 2 & 3 repeated B SECTION (TRIO) 13:03 – 16-bar melody in 4 groups of 4. First section ending in dominant, second passing through subdominant to end in tonic A SECTION 14:31 – Melody 1, repeated at 14:55 with demisemiquaver accompaniment, and legato emerging in bass for first time 15:17 – Melody 2 & 3, unaltered, then repeated at 16:02 with demisemiquaver variation CODA 16:42 – First bars w/o accompaniment, with harmonic modifications 17:06 – Allusion to Trio. Triplet descent lengthened into descent down dominant 9th, then a stark 4-bar close.
MVT III SCHERZO 17:59 – Idea 1: 4+4 in tonic, 4+4 in dominant 18:22 – Idea 2: Rising sequence, reaching dominant, before Idea 1 returns TRIO [incredibly elegant, almost minimalist construction – same melody heard 8 times!] 19:19 – Idea 3 repeated twice in B min, second time modulating to D maj 19:29 – Idea 3 reharmonised in D maj, then returning to B min 19:34 – Idea 3 yet against reharmonised, with rising contrapuntal bass SCHERZO 19:38 – Repeat, with initial F# sounding as dominant of B min
MVT IV 20:32 – A: MAIN THEME, D maj 20:57 – Transition 21:15 – B: EPISODE 1, A maj, with imitative entry 21:38 – Cadence Theme 21:51 – A: Main Theme, with new counterpoint in mm.5-6 22:17 – C: EPISODE 2, G maj 22:35 – New theme in double counterpoint, with added theme in lower thirds. Builds in intensity, moves into G min, and bass voice enters in D min 23:08 – Prolonged dominant, reminiscent of EP 1’s Cadence Theme 23:30 – A: MAIN THEME 23:55 – Transition, diverted at 6th bar into home dominant 24:18 – B: EPISODE 1, D maj 24:43 – Cadence Theme 24:56 – A: CODA. Bass of Main Theme with syncopated chords, eventually rising chromatically at 25:11 over dominant pedal, then descending and ending in a flourish based on Transition (with dramatic pauses). 25:38 – Bass of main theme, with brilliant figuration in RH, then 4-bar flourish to close
Beethoven: Sonata No.16 in G Major, Op.31 No.1 (Kovacevich, Goode) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The first Op.31 sonata is by far and away the funniest of all Beethoven’s 32 sonatas, and it’s kind of hard to explain why it isn’t one of the most famous of them all: all the movements feature attractive melodies, and it brims with good humour from the subtle to the ironically crass. You’ve got the first movement, where the hands can’t play together and the development is built almost entirely around an apparently inconsequential motif, the second, which is a joyfully overlong and increasingly absurd parody of (bad) Italian opera, and the third, full of wily chromatic movement and wry counterpoint.
MVT I, Allegro vivace EXPOSITION 00:00 – Initial statement of Theme 1, containing two main motifs: a descending scale (Motif A), and a group of 3 syncopated chords (Motif B). At 00:09 mm.1-11 are repeated a tone lower 00:25 – Extension of Motif A, leading into counterstatement of theme at 00:39 which wanders into B min 00:56 – Theme 2, B maj. Syncopated melody introduced 01:02 – Counterstatement of melody in B min, in bass. After 5 bars it starts to modulate using the closing figure of the melody (1:07) 01:14 – The modulating section is treated like a new theme 01:23 – Cadential theme. Tonic-dominant swings alternating between major and minor DEVELOPMENT 03:12 – Motif B used to transition into C min, then F, then Bb 03:29 – Motif A, initially in Bb, given highly dramatic extended treatment, with cadential trills in RH. C min, D min, then G (dominant at 3:51) 03:58 – Prolongation of the dominant using Motif B, with flattened 9th harmony introduced RECAPITULATION 04:17 – Theme 1, with repetition of initial bars in F omitted. Modulation into E min 04:38 – Theme 2, in E, modulating rapidly into G and staying there. Note the 2-note transition (Tr) at 5:30 which was also used earlier to move from B min into G CODA 05:31 – Theme 1, with Motif A extended 05:44 – Mimicking the opening, and using Tr. After a while Tr disappears, and Motif B dominates, alternating between tonic and dominant, before the movement flickers out
MVT II, Adagio grazioso 06:17 – A SECTION, Theme 1. Cantabile & richly ornamented melody over operatic pizzicato accompaniment, repeated twice. Second time in bass, with absurd if elegant cadenzas in RH 07:26 – A SECTION, Theme 2. Darker, harmonically complex, and not at all parodic 07:56 – Arrival at tonic, followed by a cadenza 08:20 – A SECTION, Theme 1 repeats itself again, with more ornamentation (it becomes clear that this melody is besotted with itself) 08:52 – B SECTION, Theme 1. Eerily beautiful and still, new melody moving from i to VI 09:20 – B SECTION, Theme 2, reaching the dominant via Neapolitan harmony 10:00 – Extended dominant preparation, featuring surprising amounts of chromaticism and dissonance. Self-consciously + self-indulgently overlong 10:52 – A SECTION repeats itself, with yet even lashings of ornamentation. A deliberately clumsy statement of Theme 1 appears at 14:12, with silly emphases on A-flats that come out of nowhere (14:25 and similar)
MVT III, Rondo: allegretto (ABACABA + Sonata form) 15:15 – A: MAIN THEME, containing two main ideas: a symmetrical melody (at 15:15 – Idea 1), and a chromatic descent (15:26 – Idea 2), itself implied in the bass of Idea 1 (at 15:21). 15:38 – Both ideas repeated in inner voices 15:58 – Transition, developing the tail of Idea 2 16:11 – B: EPISODE 1 / QUASI THEME 2. Note triplet octave tremolo, which will recur later. 16:41 – A: MAIN THEME, now with triplet counterpoint in LH 17:02 – C: MIDDLE EPISODE / QUASI DEVELOPMENT. Idea 1 in bass, then developed in 2-part canon (17:07). At 17:22 a new theme enters, and alternates with Idea 1, modulating constantly. 18:01 – Music pauses on the dominant, with a droning tremolo in the LH taken from Episode 1 18:05 – A: MAIN THEME / RECAPITULATION. Idea 1 enters over drone, Idea 2 elaborated in triplets. At 18:36 Idea 2 also gets its own triplet drone. 18:47 – B: RECAPITULATION OF TRANSITION + EPISODE 1. Latter now in G. CODA 19:31 – The ending section of Episode 1 is extended 19:41 – Cadenza-like development of Idea 1 over dominant pedal. Finally 8 bars of dominant 7th, with the C rising unexpectedly to a C# 20:06 – Idea 1 stated, now more wistfully, and with extravagant pauses. Each phrase alternates between the original tempo and agadio. 20:43 – Cadential trill for 3 bars, over which the opening figure of Idea 1 suddenly enters. A playful dialogue around this tiny figure ensues, after which loud repeated chords enter and slink away with something like insouciance.
Beethoven: Sonata No.17 in D Minor, "Tempest" (Korstick, Grimaud, Lewis) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The Tempest Sonata is one of those crazy feats of compositional genius whose sheer craft is undetectable because it’s so emotionally compelling from the very first listen. But there is no harm in briefly listing what makes it so extraordinary, I suppose.
In the 1st movement nearly everything is built up from the first line of music – the motifs of a arpeggio, scale, and turn. It’s kind of impossible to unhear once you know they’re there, and it’s a level of motivic integration that represents the perfection of the technique Haydn developed. There’s also the incredibly dramatic use of long (developed) recitative-like passages as contrast to passages of searing intensity, and the introduction of wonderfully dark new material in the recapitulation. The 2nd movement is unreasonably beautiful, and the famous 3rd features some of the most gorgeous modulations ever put to paper. Note also how the dramatic movement happens not in the (almost unchanging) figuration, but in the harmony, where turbulence and restlessness is often followed by very long periods of total harmonic stasis [e.g., 23:21], usually as a dominant preparation.
MVT I EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme Group 1, Motif A (Rising Arpeggio) 00:14 – TG1, Motif B (Scalar Passage, with notes in groups of 2) 00:18 – TG1, Motif C (Turn) 00:24 – Counterstatement of TG 1, entering in a surprise E6, the dominant of III 00:37 – Motif B 00:48 – Transition (or an extension of TG 1): Motif A rising in bass, answered by Motif C in RH. Surprisingly substantial. 01:06 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1 (= Motif B!, with Motif C in the LH.) A minor. 01:18 – TG2, Theme 2 (= Motif C, with lengthened 2nd note) 01:26 – TG2, Theme 2, with Motif C now in the deep bass 01:31 – TG2, Theme 3 (Cadential Theme) DEVELOPMENT 03:51 – Motif A, repeated thrice, arriving in F# 04:37 – Transition Theme (Motif A + C), sequentially deployed, rising constantly 04:58 – 22(!) bars of dominant preparation, totally devoid of any thematic allusion. Short recitative (with a little Neapolitan Eb) leads into RECAPITULATION 05:19 – TG1, with 4 bars of recitative attached to each statement of the largo. This section hangs on a Ab, which is transformed 06:43 – into a G# (in enharmonic implied Gb minor!) in a darkly guttural 4 chords. This ushers in a extraordinary modulating section. 06:55 – TG2, in tonic. 07:36 – CODA
MVT II EXPOSITION 07:59 – Theme 1. (Motif A = rising double-dotted 3-note figure) 09:38 – Transition, with stately rising theme. (Motif B = drumroll in bass) 10:55 – Theme 2. At 11:42 Motif B enters, building into dominant minor 9th chord RECAPITULATION 12:08 – Theme 1, with Motif A immediately used as inner voice. At 13:00 a demisemiquaver accompaniment drifts down the keyboard 13:42 – Transition 14:54 – Theme 2 CODA 15:42 – Motif B, again building into a dominant minor 9th 16:26 – Motif A, rounded-off, in LH then RH 16:45 – Recalling Theme 1 17:19 – A new, 2-bar long 3rd theme enters and is repeated in the middle voice, before the movement ends.
MVT III EXPOSITION 18:06 – Theme Group 1, Theme 1. A single motif (Motif A) repeated 16 times in RH. Note codetta with chromatic descending line 18:29 – Transition. Theme 1 in bass, interspersed with arpeggiated figure 18:38 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1, entering with insistent hemiola and 6 bars of dominant harmony 18:55 – TG2, Theme 2 19:05 – TG2, Theme 3 (Cadential Theme) DEVELOPMENT 20:26 – Motif A in dim7 of iv, modulating into A min 20:37 – The bass uses Motif A to climb up a dim7 in D min, then shifts to D min harmony, then shifts into C min by flattening the A and introducing the inversion of Motif A in the RH. Then movement into the dim7 of Bb min 20:54 – Dramatic entrance of inverted A motif in RH, while LH climbs up bass chromatically. 21:06 – TG1 Theme 1, in Bb min 21:12 – Chromatic rising, landing on a dominant 7, suddenly revealed 21:19 – to be a augmented 6th when it resolves into the dominant of D min 21:23 – Dominant preparation begins, oscillating between G min and D min 21:41 – 16 bars of continuous descent to the home dominant RECAPITULATION 21:53 – TG1, Theme 1. The bII in bar 18 becomes the subdominant of Bb, introduction a surprisingly lyrical passage. 22:14 – Transition. Tonal movement around circle of 5ths. G min harmony becomes augmented 6th chord, leading back into 22:34 – D min, TG2. Note how at 23:00 (Theme 3) Beethoven omits the expected high G, since his piano didn’t have the note, and substitutes a really nice repetition of the high D instead. CODA 23:12 – Mimicking the beginning of the development, without forte outbursts 23:21 – for 16 bars(!) we dwell on the dominant, leading to 23:33 – a violent restatement of TG1 Theme 1, with an A pedal in the highest registers 23:54 – The original codetta from Theme 1 is now presented in full. With another familiar tonic-dominant swing the sonata ends.
Beethoven: Sonata No.18 in E-flat Major, "The Hunt" (Kovacevich, Biret) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Beethoven’s last Op.31 sonata is one of the most warm, big-hearted, lyrical things he wrote. It’s the second-last sonata in 4 movements (the last is the Hammerklavier), and it contains no slow movements. (Also worth noting that 3 of them are in full-fledged sonata form!)
The first movement is a total delight to listen to: from the surprising harmony that opens the piece, to the richly textured chordal response and the theme group that grows out of it, the repeated recollections of the sort-of-motivic-introduction that begins the work (cf the Pathetique!), & the wonderful soaring thing that is the second theme, all air and light.
The second movement is one of my all-time favourites: it’s hilarious & a total earworm. Everything comes together so well: the bassoon-like bass, the off-beat accents, the absurd little held F across bars 2&3, the violent contrasts and semidemiquaver-against-semiquaver textures in the second theme, those repeated Cs that sound like the performer has had a disastrous memory slip.
The third movement is the last minuet movement Beethoven ever wrote: after this sonata it looked like the form didn’t quite have enough dramatic potential for him, although what we have here is a real nice example of Beethoven’s ability to write a beautiful melody when he really wanted to.
The last movement is full of rhythmic swagger: from the tarantella-like first idea, to the vigorously funny second, to the insistent third, & the suddenly coruscating textures (almost Waldstein-like) that suddenly emerge, everything comes together perfectly in an utterly natural expression of pure joy.
MVT I, Allegro EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme Group 1, quasi-introduction (two motifs: a dotted-rhythm falling 5th and four chords, three short following by one long). Note recurrence through movement. 00:26 – “Main Entrance” of Theme 1 (developing the two motifs just introduced) 00:45 – Transition, following the quasi-introduction 01:02 – Theme Group 2, Theme 2 01:25 – Theme Group 2, Theme 3 01:46 – Codetta DEVELOPMENT 03:55 – Development of quasi-introduction, landing on C min at 4:02 04:07 – Falling 5th motif 04:11 – Theme 1, in C 04:21 – A distinctly orchestral variation on Theme 1, emphasizing the three-short-one-long motif with gently muted dissonances in the bass. Modulation to F. Note also that the run at 4:28 (and similar passages) borrows from the arpeggiated flourish in Theme 3 04:38 – Modulation, which 04:48 – lands on an F min chord, in turn revealed as RECAPITULATION 04:54 – the supertonic chord of Eb maj, thus ushering back the quasi-introduction 05:38 – Theme Group 2 enters, this time without a transition 06:32 – We get the original codetta, which sounds like it’s bringing things to a close, but this only leads to the real CODA 06:42 – The quasi-introduction, this time implying Ab maj 06:51 – The dominant seventh harmony signals a new harmonic twist 07:01 – which seems to lead back to familiar territory. The quasi-introduction seems to be repeated normally, but 07:19 – instead pauses, and leads to a lovely closing passage.
MVT II, Scherzo: Allegretto vivace 07:40 – Theme 1 08:23 – Theme 2 08:41 – Theme 3 (or an extended cadence, if you like) DEVELOPMENT 10:11 – The music slips into C maj 10:14 – Theme 1 10:21 – Theme 2, in Bb min, modulating into C min 10:36 – Theme 1 10:40 – Variation on Theme 1, with glissando-like passages RECAPTULATION 11:06 – Theme 1 11:30 – More voices are added into Theme 1 11:50 – Theme 2, appearing in a rather shocking key 12:08 – Theme 3 12:05 – CODA
MVT III, Menuetto: Moderato e grazioso 12:33 – Menuet, Part A 13:04 – Menuet, Part B 13:33 – Trio, Part A 14:01 – Trio, Part B 14:51 – Menuet, Part A 15:35 – Menuet, Part B 15:50 – Coda
MVT IV, Presto con fuoco EXPOSITION 16:11 – Theme 1, Part 1 16:18 – Theme 1, Part 2 16:32 – Theme 2 16:50 – Theme 3 (Or extended cadence) DEVELOPMENT 17:50 – Theme 1 Part 2, in Gb 17:58 – Theme 1 Part 2, reduction, in F# 18:01 – Transition to B min, beginning of modulating sequence. G maj, C min, Ab maj (VI of C min), Db maj (Neapolitan of C min), V7 of C min/maj, then C maj 18:16 – Theme 1 Part 2, in C 18:21 – Introduction of diminished 7th harmony, modulation 18:32 – Recollection of figuration from Theme 2. Ab, F min, Bb V7 chords. RECAPITULATION 18:49 – Theme 1, with rhythmic gaps now filled in 19:09 – Surprising shift to Gb maj 19:13 – Theme 2, in Gb 19:31 – Theme 3, which at first refuses to modulate, further establishing Gb 19:38 – Theme 3 slips into Eb min 19:45 – We arrive at V7 of Eb min, also V7 of Eb maj, so arrive at the CODA 19:55 – Theme 1, in LH (but jumping all over the keyboard) modulating to F min and Ab maj 20:12 – A nice little sequence: pause on a dramatic diminished 7th chord, Theme 1 Part 1 in stretto, an elaboration on the LH texture of T1, and then another pause on a diminished 7th 20:21 – Theme 1 Part 1 in stretto, fragmented, then transformed into a chromatic elaboration on the V7, and then the final cadence. .
Beethoven: Sonata No.19 in G Minor, Op.49 No.1 (Biret, Lewis) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
B.’s two Op.49 sonatas (really sonatinas) are misnumbered: they were written at around the same time as the 3rd and 4th sonatas, but were published a lot later because B. never intended that they be published (we’ve got his brother to thank that these sonatas are known at all.) Both sonatas are small, two-movement, unassuming pieces, unabashedly classical in style, and constructed rather straightforwardly for (in all likelihood) some of B.’s friends (or their children).
Which is not to say they are not wonderful pieces. The 19th sonata has a particularly moving first movement, with a starkly doleful first theme and a lyrical second. The second movement is struck through with little dashes of humour, starting from its rather long upbeat. And though it is not a radically new or innovative, the 19th perfectly written for what it is: an example of the classical two-movement form, concise, graceful, with a naturalness of expression that only the greatest classical composers ever achieved.
MVT I, Andante EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 00:30 – Theme 2 00:58 – Codetta DEVELOPMENT 02:16 – Theme 2, decomposed 02:25 – A developmental Theme 3, introduced and repeated with ornamentation 02:43 – Sequential treatment of the Codetta, with dominant preparation reached at 3:00 and chromaticism introduced at 3:08 to build up tension 03:21 – RECAPITULATION, with some elaboration of the themes 04:22 – CODA, with Theme 2 in bass, and an eerie final passage leading to a cadence on a Picardy third
MVT II, Rondo (allegro) 05:15 – A Section 05:35 – B Section 05:55 – C Section (Bb maj) 06:35 – B section 06:52 – Transition. The A theme pretends to enter in G min. 06:55 – A theme 07:25 – C section (now in G maj) 08:06 – It looks like we’re back to the A theme, but we’ve actually slipped into the CODA 08:09 – The A theme transfers registers 08:20 – We build to a dramatic pause that must herald some kind of cadenza, but 08:24 – Instead the A theme comes in again in the LH, segueing into a warm passage, using the opening motif of this movement, that brings the piece to a close.
Beethoven: Sonata No.20 in G Major, Op.49 No.2 (Goode, Lewis) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The second of Beethoven’s two small Op.49 sonatas is a delicately playful and (though I don’t really like the word very much) aristocratic work. The first movement features an ultra-compressed development and two themes which are surprisingly well-bound together by via motivic linkages. The second movement, a menuet, is almost a small study in instrumental textures: the A section is written for a string section, B for woodwinds, and C for brass.
An interesting point is that the manuscript of this sonata contains no dynamic indications at all, with the exception of two pianissimos in the second movement. Pianists are really left to their own devices, and it is surprising that so many choose the same dynamic scheme. One definite point of divergence lies in the performance of the Menuet’s A section: some pianists (like both featured here) take the LH staccato (though if you listen closely enough you'll hear that they apply the staccato slightly differently), and some play it legato (Bavouzet being a good example).
MVT I – Allegro, ma non troppo EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 (Note how the second idea of the theme at 0:23 is built from the triplet flourish that opens the sonata) 00:32 – Theme 2 (Note its linkage to Theme 1 via the use of a three-note stepwise motif heard in the second bar of the onata) 02:46 – DEVELOPMENT (Very short, freely integrating themes 1 & 2) 03:08 – RECAPITULATION
MVT II, Tempo di menuetto 04:42 – A section (Theme) 05:13 – B section (Episode 1) 05:53 – A section (Theme) 06:23 – C section (Episode 2) 06:52 – A section (theme) 07:23 – Coda
Beethoven: Sonata No.21 in C Major, "Waldstein" (Korstick, Jumppanen) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
And now we’ve reached the incandescent marvel that is the Waldstein. It’s one of Beethoven’s most expansive and uplifting works, but its instant likability sometimes obscures that fact that it’s a deeply restless and innovative work, structurally and texturally extraordinary in ways that sound natural only because the sonata is so well-put together.
Take the opening of the first movement. What kind of a sound is this? It’s tense without being dramatic, ambiguous without being vague, motoric and shapeless and aurally without any sense of harmony even though it’s just a C maj chord in root position, of all things. There’s also the tonal restlessness of this work: right after the C maj chord we get a secondary dominant, almost immediately followed by an unprepared shift down to Bb maj. (This is one of those moments that be played either as a funny gesture, or as something more mysterious.) The second theme group (which has a surprising link to the first theme in the form of a 5-note descending motif) is in E major, rather than the more normal G maj/F maj/A min. And the recapitulation is surprisingly playful – there’s tiny dashes of new material, and the second theme group enters in the rather flippant A maj, another “wrong” key. (There’s more, like this little infinitely flexible modulating idea, but that will be singled out below.)
The second movement, an extended introduction to the rondo, is one of Beethoven’s moat harmonically deceptive and moving slow movements, and the rondo itself is a blaze of wonder. There’s the A theme, hovering over a haze of blurred harmonies; a B theme which builds the second time it occurs into a huge orchestral peroration; a transitional motif, based on the A theme, which is both joyous and sad and noble at the same time; and an extended coda which is as developmental as it is brilliant. (The mere fact that the last movement is so weighty was pretty novel for the time – Beethoven gradually shifted the heavy lifting from the first to the last movements over his 32 sonatas.)
MVT I, Allegro con brio EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 00:32 – Transition 00:50 – Theme 2, Part 1, in E(!) maj. The chorale, one of Beethoven’s typical melodic non-melodies, is built around the 5 descending notes in the RH of Theme 1. [0:04 and similar] 01:13 – Theme 2, Part 2 01:48 – Codetta (Note the “never-ending” modulating section at 1:58) DEVELOPMENT 04:14 – The infinitely modulating section is expanded 04:20 – Theme 1, modulating. Note the prevalence of the 5-descending-note motif 04:40 – LH figuration from the transition joins Theme 1 04:52 – Theme 2, Part 2, modulating 05:35 – The 5-note descending motif appears in the LH, except now it’s shortened to 4 notes. Inversions of it then enter in the RH, then, at 5:51, figuration from the transition which leads to the RECAPITULATION 05:54 – Theme 1 06:12 – The unexpected landing on the Ab signals a little spurt of new material, which leads back into a restatement of the main idea 06:36 – Transition, now in A min 06:53 – Theme 2 Part 1, which when it enters is still not synced-up with Theme 1, as it’s stubbornly in A maj. It takes some time to wander to A min, and then finally lands on the “correct” key: C maj. 07:17 – Theme 2 Part 2, C maj 07:53 – The “codetta”, with the modulating idea still attached, which leads into what is by all accounts a pretty substantial CODA 08:15 – Theme 1 enters blithely in Db maj, as if the entire movement is going to repeat itself. 08:20 – Well, now it’s clear this is not a repeat. More modulation and compression 08:30 – A pause on the dominant, which leads to a syncopated RH descent over the pulsating chords of Theme 1. 08:35 – Theme 1’s RH is now in the LH. Eventually it is used sequentially [8:40], and leads into a concerto-like cadenza [8:51]. 09:07 – Theme 2 enters right where you’d expect a final cadence 09:36 – A final statement of Theme 1, leading into the ending cadence
MVT II, Introduzione. Adagio molto 09:51 – Prelude 11:17 – Melody 12:27 – Postlude
MVT III, Rondo. Allegretto moderato – Prestissimo 14:14 – A SECTION 15:24 – B SECTION 16:03 – Transition 16:22 – A SECTION 17:32 – C SECTION 18:21 – Transition 18:43 – Syncopated modulations 18:55 – Arpeggiated modulations, with the A theme implied by the LH 19:34 – Eerie circling around the dominant 20:04 – A SECTION 20:39 – B SECTION 21:14 – Transition. More extended dwelling on the dominant 21:45 – A SECTION / CODA 22:13 – Sudden modulating into Ab, with the A theme continuing in the LH 22:30 – The notorious RH octave glissandi 22:42 – Another gorgeous statement of the A theme, which slips into C min at 22:49, then into Ab, then into F min, then lands on an Italian sixth chord, before suspending itself on the dominant 23:04 – A big, chordal statement of the A theme, which leads into the final cadence
Beethoven: Sonata No.21 in C Major, "Waldstein" (Pletnev) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
This is one of Beethoven's most important works, often classed with the Appassionata and Les Aideux as one of the great sonatas of his middle period. There is too much to say about the structural/harmonic innovations of this piece, but I suppose the most notable features about it are the extended modulation to the mediant (E major) in the first movement (the same modulation also features prominently in one of the most important late sonatas, the Hammerklavier), the linking of the first movement's 1st and 2nd themes via a 5-note falling motif, and the daring (not to say virtuosic) textures of the final rondo.
Movement I: 00:00 Movement II: 10:30 Movement III: 14:14*
Pletnev's performance is incredibly lively and buoyant -- check out the Rondo, where he thankfully avoids the overpedaling that even other great pianists end up doing (Beethoven's long sustained pedal marks, which ignore changes of harmony, were appropriate on the dry instruments of his time, but are clearly out of place on the modern grand, with its rich sonorities and lush sustaining pedal.) It's always nice to hear a performance of a Beethoven sonata that its not wearingly overserious, and is willing to pull on the structure a bit to emphasise "in-the-moment" textures (see 20:40) -- although by any measure this is a very serious performance of a very important part of the piano literature.
Beethoven: Sonata No.22 in F Major, Op.54 (Lortie, Korstick, Buchbinder) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
It's hard not to feel a bit of pity for the Op.54 – it’s a little thing jammed right between the massive Waldstein and Appassionata, and even though it’s every bit as radical as those behemoths it’s practically unknown and rarely performed. This is probably because its radical nature is expressed in a way that makes it hard to pin down: the Waldstein is bright, and Appassionata is dark, and the Op.54 is – well, what, exactly? Happy? Delicate? Tipsy? I suppose the way to put it is this: it’s structurally very odd, but in a rather gently misleading sort of way.
Take the first movement, which is in ABABA form. The A section is formed from a theme that’s designed to have no hint of tension or progression in it: all of its 8 phrases end in the tonic. The B section has a theme that (a) basically isn’t a theme, being formed of just brusque octaves, (b) modulates without preparation, (c) suddenly decides to shift midway to 2/4 time, and (d) has suddenly become a lot shorter the second time it appears. The only real development you get is the decoration of the A theme each time it appears, and the whole movement is built almost entirely around the contrast between the two themes (this is also a feature of some of the very latest sonatas, in particular the Op.109 in E Maj).
The second movement is even more bizarre. It’s in sonata form (ish), but either the exposition does not give you the full theme (and yes, it’s basically monothematic, with what might be a new idea in the development), or the recapitulation itself continues to develop the theme aggressively. And the whole texture of the movement is surprisingly Chopinesque: it’s a highly pianistic perpetuum mobile in 2-part harmony on a single theme, with some odd accenting thrown in (the LH “jerk” at 5:50). The only texture this movement seems to know is counterpoint, the only counterpoint it seems to know is 2-part counterpoint, and the only kind of 2-part counterpoint it knows is basically, well, arpeggios. Tonally, it moves between lilting farce and straight-up drama (Tovey calls this movement “childlike, or even dog-like”), and modulates with abandon into distant keys, in contrast to the more typical tonic-dominant schema of the first movement.
MVT I - In tempo d'un menuetto 00:00 – A section 00:54 – B section 02:15 – A section (with decoration) 03:09 – B section (now shorter) 03:33 – A section (more decoration) 04:30 – Cadenza and Coda [4:54] (or an extension of the A section – note how the triplet rhythm of the B section is now integrated into the A theme, and how some of the abrasiveness of the B section is present too: 5:27)
MVT II - Più allegro 05:48 – EXPOSITION (Theme 1 – just one theme, for now) 06:27 – DEVELOPMENT 06:49 – Introduction of syncopated motif 07:08 – Grating modulatory sequence 07:18 – Increasingly distant keys, accompanied by what might just about qualify as Theme 2 07:41 – Back on safe ground again, with the syncopated motif 07:56 – Back to the tonic, which is apparently safe ground for a RECAPITULATION[?], but – the music again shifts keys, and leads to 08:14 – Theme 2, now overtly dramatic, modulating relentlessly 08:31 – Lots of dramatic tiptoeing around the dominant, which leads first (very surprisingly) back to A major for a repeat, and the second time around to the 10:52 – CODA, which integrates both Theme 1 and the syncopated motif
Beethoven: Sonata No.23 in F Minor, "Appassionata" (Jumppanen, Kovacevich) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The Appassionata is by far and away Beethoven’s darkest sonata: it is an antipode to the luminous Waldstein, which came just 2 years before. It's probably the greatest sonata Beethoven had written up to this point: it is unabashedly expressionist, distorting harmony, form, and texture all for the sole purpose of achieving a certain kind of emotional effect, creating huge gestural blocks of sound that are shocking in their directness – and which achieve in the end a relentless and jagged sense of tragedy. The only respite comes in the second movement, which hints at the sort of transcendental effects Beethoven would achieve many years later in the very last sonatas.
MVT I EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 (Note its minimalist nature – an arpeggio separated in both hands by the distance of two octaves – and the use of Neapolitan harmony to immediately bring you far from the home key) 00:27 – Introduction of Fate Motif in LH (Its basic nature – a half-step downwards – implies the tonal structure of the entire theme, and is itself derived from the “sighing” second half of Theme 1’s first phrase at 0:06) 00:48 – Repeat of Theme 1 01:03 – Transition. Note the uneasy triplet figure, and the prominent half-step-downward resolution at 01:06 01:22 – Theme 2. Remarkably, based on an inversion of Theme 1 – contrast built out of organic unity. 01:37 – Transition. Note Neapolitan harmony at 1:40, which again resolves downward by a half-step, as well as the use of trills (a rapid oscillation between two notes a half-step apart: the similarity to the Fate Motif is not accidental). Tension is built via a sustained scale at 1:50, before a striking transitional theme at 1:58, which again features lots of Neapolitan harmony and half-step movement (see for instance the Fate Motif in the LH at 2:03). DEVELOPMENT 02:27 – Theme 1, with the second half of the first phrase emphasised 03:05 – Theme 1, given particularly dramatic sequential treatment and modulating by major thirds (E- C-Ab) 03:34 – Transition theme 04:05 – Theme 2, which modulates from Db maj to Bb min, Gb maj, B min, and C maj 04:43 – Extended dwelling on the diminished 7th, recalling its use in the opening at 0:38 04:46 – Fate Motif, now profoundly violent RECAPITULATION 04:57 – Theme 1. No ordinary recapitulation, and the re-emergence of theme 1 here shows immediately why: the opening of the movement was lean, stark, eerie: but the retention of the LH triplets changes things entirely, giving Theme 1 a pulsating undercurrent, a throbbing menace. And there is another striking feature: the harmony is awry. The whole idea of the development is to build up harmonic tension until the grand return of the tonic in the recapitulation: but although we are in F minor the LH refuses to join the party, doggedly remaining on the dominant. 05:34 – Theme 1, F maj 05:57 – Transition 06:16 – Theme 2, also in F maj 06:32 – Transition CODA 07:19 – Theme 1, modulating until it directly leads to 07:31 – Theme 2, which itself modulates into a dramatic cadenza at 7:48 beginning in the Neapolitan. 08:22 – Fate Motif, which slows down and dies away until it suddenly becomes a huge cacophony at 8:54. 08:55 – An extraordinary passage, where Theme 2 is absorbed into the mood-world of Theme 1: the key is now clearly F minor, the warm triplets are harsh, the lyrical melody cold. 09:09 – Dramatic figuration 09:21 – Theme 1 rises and falls down the keyboard, fading away into one of Beethoven’s very rare ppps. It’s not an ending of the movement as it is a kind of death, really.
MVT II 09:45 – Theme. Like the theme of the first movement, it too is fairly minimalist. Despite the fact that this is ostensibly a theme-and-variations movement, for the whole movement this theme will never be heard outside its home key of Db maj. 11:26 – Var.1. Gentle syncopation 12:52 – Var.2. Lyrical semiquavers implying a melodic contour, while the LH (at first) just provides the roots of chords. More beautiful than it has a right to be. 14:09 – Var.3. The theme starts to sound, maybe, a little exalted, a little luminous. 15:11 – Var.4. Not a variation, really. Just the theme repeated with octave displacement. The movement ends hanging on a diminished 7th.
MVT III EXPOSITION 16:13 – The diminished 7th chord is repeated 16:17 – Semiquavers enter, at first almost delicately, but build into a roiling torrent 16:29 – Theme 1. Note the extended use of canonic imitation and Neapolitan harmony. DEVELOPMENT 17:48 – Before a Theme 2 enters (!), we get development of Theme 1. 18:08 – And here is our Theme 2, a sharply syncopated figure 18:27 – Transition 18:34 – A cadenza much like the one in the first movement – extended dwelling on diminished 7th harmony, beginning with a Neapolitan flourish. 19:11 – RECAPITULATION CODA 23:04 – A guttural, fiercely muscular theme, repeated first in F min and then in Ab maj 23:24 – Theme 1, played at breakneck speed 23:34 – Closing cadence
Beethoven: Sonata No.23 in F minor, "Appassionata" (Pletnev, Gilels, Horowitz) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The Appassionata needs no introduction, and besides it’s impossible to explain everything significant about it here, so I’ll just point out a few relevant features (see below).
- The extraordinary expressiveness of the work. It was never played in Beethoven’s lifetime: critics found it “incomprehensibly abrupt and dark.”
- The stark minimalism of the 1st movement’s opening theme, which consists of an arpeggiated F minor chord followed immediately by the Neapolitan, Gb major.
- The importance of Neapolitan harmony to the entire work. (Note its repeated and dramatic use in the 3rd movement, and the transpositional opportunities it offers.)
- The high degree of similarity between the 1st and 2nd themes in the 1st movements (a big step away from the classical form)
- The way the 2nd theme of the 1st movement “absorbs” the tone of the 1st theme over the course of the 1st movement.
- The unorthodox modulation (in major thirds) in the development [3:30, and the preceding section] of the 1st movement (G# minor – E major -- E minor – implied C (minor) – implied Ab (major)).
- At the reintroduction the opening theme [5:36], the dramatic use of repeated Cs/Dbs to forestall a sense of resolution – the LH refuses to straightforwardly cohere with the established harmony.
- The fact that the expositions in the 1st and 3rd movements (both of which are in sonata form) are not repeated, and that, amazingly, in the 3rd Beethoven directs the performer to repeat instead the entire development and recapitulation (!)
- The integration of the “fate” theme/rhythm (Db-Db-Db-C) into the whole 1st movement, and the way it introduces the coda.
- The beautiful 2nd movement not really featuring a melody in the true sense (Ab-Bb-Ab-Bb-Ab-Ab-Ab, Db-Db-Db-Db-Db-C-Db), instead being driven almost purely by harmony. (This is especially clear in the 2nd variation.)
- The use of canonic imitation between the two hands in the 3rd movement (especially in the development. E.g.: [20:11]).
- The fact that the 2nd theme of the 3rd movement [19:58] is only introduced in the movement’s development section (which has to be repeated).
- The violent, magnificent coda. [24:44, 50:24, 1:14:00]
The three performances here are very different. Pletnev's has a sleek, precise brutality that is extremely effective. The contrasts in the first movement are lovingly delineated. The lightness he brings to the middle movement (listen out for the slight staccatos) is a lovely counterpoint to the tumult he creates in the third movement, which he takes relatively quickly while maintaining incredibly clarity.
Gilels takes a more leisurely tempo that allows all the detail to unfold without losing any momentum. His recording is extraordinarily rich and tender, with finely shaded dynamics and outbursts that are seamlessly integrated into the whole. There is a mysterious gracefulness to his performance of the last movement.
Horowitz's inclusion here might be a bit controversial, but it's a recording worth listening to. As he stated in the notes to his RCA LP, he sought to strip the first movement of all lyricism because "for me it is appassionata from first to last". The result is raw, explosive, jagged. Horowitz also points out that his choice of a relatively slow tempo in the last movement is deliberate, to bring out the roiling, ma non troppo quality of the music: you can hear the attacks as they happen, and some oft-overlooked detail emerges, especially in the LH. This is the archetypal anti-sentimental recording.
Pletnev Movement I: 00:00 Movement II: 11:05 Movement III: 18:03
Gilels Movement I: 25:40 Movement II: 36:48 Movement III: 43:19
Horowitz Movement I: 51:20 Movement II: 1:00:55 Movement III: 1:06:50
Beethoven: Sonata No.24 in F-sharp Major, "à Thérèse" (Biss, Kovacevich, Jando) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Coming 5 years after the morbidly dramatic Appassionata, the Op.78 sonata could not present a more striking contrast to its predecessor. Despite its slight two-movement structure, it appears that Beethoven thought of this work as highly as he did the Appassionata, and not without reason.
The first movement of this sonata is remarkably tender and lyrical, and features one of Beethoven's loveliest run-on melodies. It's notable its highly cellular nature: the first subject, for example, is comprised of a motif in quarter notes, a motif in sixteenths, and another in triplets, yet all these motifs run together in a completely natural way so that there isn't any real "transitional" material. There's also the fact that Beethoven opens the work with a beautifiul cantabile melody in four bars which never recurs throughout the work and serves no formal function. Its only warrant is purely psychological: it prepares and contains the entire emotional landscape of the first movement (Mozart too could write introductions like this), and almost becomes the slow movement the piece is missing. In a weird way, you listen to the whole first movement waiting for that first melody to come back, and it never does: this gives the otherwise overwhelming sweetness of the first movement a slightly wistful edge. In general the whole movement is devoid of a sense of conflict: instead it's built around a sense of disintegration and re-integration.The last thing to note is how the tiny three note-motif at 0:20, the upbeat to the first time, binds the movement together (both its rhythm and structural shape are motivically highly influential).
The second movement is one of Beethoven's unapologetic comic romps. It has an odd structure, to start with, and doesn't really fit neatly into typical rondo or sonata-rondo form (in the notes below I'm just indicated where the main ideas are, and you can decide for yourself what formal structure it has!) The first phrase is divided into 6 parts, which go forte-piano-forte-piano and so on, and is exceptionally harmonically deceptive (we open with an Italian augmented 6th chord, and just as we start getting certain about the F# tonality, the second phrase enters in B, though it also begins with an ambiguous diminished 7th chord.) The third main idea of this movement consists of schizophrenic vacillation between major and minor (7:47), and at the end of the movement there is another harmonic joke: after a florid dominant 7th, Beethoven prepares us to expect the tonic, but no -- he emphasises yet again an absurd augmented chord: 9:32. The figuration of this movement is also striking: the second main idea consists of a sparse and direct bass line overlaid with slurred sixteenths, which can be played in an exaggerated acciacciatura fashion to resemble chirps or twittering (see 7:12 for one of the most odd effects you'll ever come across in a sonata) or in a more extroverted fashion (see 17:11). And the episodes in this movement are punctuated by increasingly ridiculous cadenzas based on the slurred-sixteenth figuration: they keep growing longer and longer, and eventually come to incorporate some plainly silly hand-crossing: 8:47.
MVT I, Adadio cantabile - Allegro ma non troppo INTRODUCTION -- 00:00 EXPOSITION 00:20 -- Theme 1 (note opening upbeat/dotted-rhythm + rising third motif ["opening motif"], which is actually implied in the introduction) 00:35 -- Opening motif 00:47 -- Theme 2, introduced suddenly via a "wrong note". Note its cellular structure (like that of Theme 1) 01:13 -- A long-term anticipation of the second movement's first theme DEVELOPMENT 02:35 -- Theme 1 02:44 -- Development of the opening motif 02:48 -- The opening motif's rhythm in LH, the rhythm of Theme 2's first cell in RH RECAPITULATION -- 03:10
MVT II, Allegro Vivace 07:03 -- Theme 1 (note the rhythmic similarity to the opening motif) 07:12 -- Theme 2 -- a cartoonish scamper up the keyboard 07:20 -- Cadenza (This isn't a theme per se, and you can see this as an extension of Theme 2, but it starts to play an increasingly individual role in the movement) 07:27 -- Theme 1 07:36 -- Theme 2 07:43 -- Cadenza, inverted 07:47 -- Theme 3 (note shift between major and minor) 08:01 -- Cadenza 08:11 -- Theme 1 (If you see this as a sonata-rondo the development might start here, in the subdominant) 08:21 -- Theme 2 08:29 -- Cadenza, inverted 08:33 -- Theme 3 08:47 -- Cadenza 08:59 -- Theme 1 09:10 -- Right when you think theme 2 should enter, we slip into a sort-of coda. Note the inversions of the opening motif which recur, and how twice at the end we come to rest on a dominant 7th (at 9:24 and 9:29) which does not resolve to the tonic.
Beethoven: Sonata No.25 in G Major, "Cuckoo" (Goode, Lewis, Kovacevich) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
I’ve got a real soft spot for this sonata: it’s the shortest of the three-movement sonatas and contains no emotional extremities, no bravura, no structural extravagance, no demonstrations of new technique or sonority (despite coming after the radically new Appassionata). And yet this sonata is beautiful, because what it is is a completely spontaneous and unforced expression of joy (listen to 23:52 - the whole coda is wonderful). It’s the kind of thing you enjoy from the first listen and love from the second, and which you never have to struggle with at any point. In that way it’s like Mozart at his best.
This sonata is also one of those rare things that’s more or less interpretively bulletproof: it works at all kinds of tempi, with all kinds of dynamic additions and articulations: it’ll end up sounding gently humorous, or lyrical, or even dramatic, but whatever it is it’ll sound pretty good.
The nickname “Cuckoo” comes from the second and third notes of the first movement (a descending third), whose harmonic elaboration in the development and use in the coda have the feel of the eponymous bird-call (see 1:14 for a lithe Haydn-esque treatment, 10:46 for a lyrical treatment, and 20:41 for a motoric, dry treatment). Interestingly the “Cuckoo” motif (well, a third) is also important to the second movement (it is the decisive interval of not just the G min theme but also the Eb maj middle section of the Andante) and the third (all those thirds in the beginning of the Vivace).
Another point of interest is the modulatory sequence in the first movement’s development: usually key changes in sonatas are spoken of in structural terms which are very hard to intuitively hear, but the development is a textbook-perfect example of how modulation can be used to generate real “wow” moments.
And one last thing: the A theme of the Rondo uses exactly the same harmony as the opening of the Op.109 [see https://youtu.be/8JZGiY--2LM], though in character it couldn’t be more different from it: the Op.109 is adventitious, expansive, even mysterious, but the Rondo here is taut and perky. It’s hard not to smile at the opening of the Vivace once you hear the similarity.
MVT I EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1, G maj 00:15 – Theme 2, D maj DEVELOPMENT 01:09 – Theme 1, E maj 01:14 – “Cuckoo”, E maj 01:19 – “Cuckoo”, now with pedal and without sforzandi, in C maj 01:12 – Theme 1 (second half), C maj 01:31 – “Cuckoo”, C min 01:37 – “Cuckoo”, Eb maj 01:43 – Theme 1 (second half), Eb maj 01:51 – “Cuckoo”, D maj 01:59 – RECAPITULATION (Note that the development and recapitulation are repeated) 04:00 – CODA. Theme is repeated in G in bass, in A in treble, and then with acciaccaturas
MVT II 04:26 – A section, G min 05:13 – B section, Eb maj (A key introduced in the first movement) 06:21 – A section, G min
MVT III 07:33 – A theme, G maj 07:58 – B theme, E min 08:12 – A theme, now with triplet accompaniment 08:23 – C theme, C maj 08:35 – A theme, with an almost-invisible false beginning, and then with the LH triplets replaced by semiquavers, and then with the triplets migrating to the RH 09:05 – Coda
Beethoven: Sonata No.26 in E-flat Major, "Les Adieux" (Oppitz, Lortie) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The Les Adieaux is one of the great works from Beethoven’s middle period, and is notable for several reasons. For a start, it’s Beethoven’s only explicitly programmatic sonata; the three movements are labelled The Farewell, The Absence, and The Return respectively. The first movement is bound by an aching motif; the second is full of painful suspensions and diminished 7th chords, and the last movement is an explosion of joy.
There’s also the fact (too little remarked-upon) that the last movement really is a Concerto for Solo Piano, with many passages that might as well be flagged “tutti” (see 11:10, for instance, which features the sort of writing you’ll see in orchestral transcriptions for piano, or 11:17, when the piano joins the orchestra with a brilliant solo part), virtuoso passages which come right out of the Emperor Concerto (see 11:45, and compare it with the passage that begins here: https://youtu.be/6j-qf5790T8?t=204), and symphonic layering (see 11:34, with the flutes in the RH, and 11:43, where’s it’s all too easy to imagine the cellos taking the LH, the violins and woodwinds the higher voices, and so on).
More well-known is the use of the Lebewohl motif through the first movement (see the notes below), and the two very substantial codas to the outer movements, which develop themes already introduced.
MVT I, Das Lebewohl (The Farewell), Adagio; Allegro 00:00 – INTRODUCTION [Note transformation of Lebewohl motif at 00:31, with a sudden key change] EXPOSITION 01:28 – Theme 1 [Inversion of Lebewohl motif in bass at 1:33] 01:40 – Transition [Note Lebewohl motif in LH and RH (inverted) at 1:45] 02:03 – Theme 2 [Note Lebewohl motif in upper voice] DEVELOPMENT 03:25 – Theme 1, in C min, interspersed with augmented Lebewohl motif/rhythm (3:29 and similar: two solitary notes followed by a long chord). The LH soon begins a modulatory sequence based on the head of theme 1 (3:31 and similar) 03:54 – Start of transition to recapitulation. The recapitulation is snuck back via a deconstruction of Theme 1 into its smallest elements: 4:04 RECAPITULATION – 04:11 CODA (Note its length and the amount of thematic development it contains) 05:04 – Lebewohl motif, leading to restatement of Theme 1 in F min 05:30 – Overlapping statements of the Lebewohl motif in RH and LH. This leads to some daring dissonances between topic and dominant harmony (see e.g., 6:25) 06:43 – A pedal Eb introduces a touching closing passage
MVT II, Abwesenheit (The Absence), Andante espressivo: In gehender Bewegung, doch mit viel Ausdruck (“In walking motion, but with much expression”) 07:08 – Theme, Cycle 1 [Note the prominent diminished 7th which opens the theme, the recollection of the 1st movement’s Theme 1 at 7:17, and the repeated usage of the opening appoggiatura throughout the movement to generate a sense of irresolution] 08:53 – Theme, Cycle 2 10:15 – Theme, Cycle 3, incomplete / Coda
MVT III, Das Wiedersehen (The Return), Vivacissimamente: Im lebhaftesten Zeitmaße (“The liveliest time measurements”) 10:45 – INTRODUCTION EXPOSITION 10:54 – Theme 1 11:24 – Transition (This bell-like passage is a little mysterious; the pedal is instructed to be kept on, but each note is indicated staccato, and separated from the next by a rest. There is also the matter of the uneasy harmony: the use of the first inversion gives both chords a minor patina, and the fact that each chord is separated from the other by a semitone makes this passage unusually dramatic) 11:44 – Theme 2 DEVELOPMENT 13:42 – Descending arpeggio, recalling Theme 1 13:45 – Modulating passages, recalling Theme 2 14:00 – Theme 2, with the original RH and LH accompaniments switched (they are returned to their original positions after just 2 seconds) 14:07 – Theme 2’s LH voice now becomes the main melody: and again the state of affairs is remedied after 2 seconds 14:12 – Theme 1 is used contrapuntally in a passage containing numerous stretti 14:18 – A false entry of theme 1 in the subdominant RECAPITULATION – 14:21 CODA (Again, a surprisingly long and developmental affair) 15:39 – Theme 1, modified 15:58 – Repetition of Theme 1, with decoration 16:08 – Second repetition, simplified
Beethoven: Sonata No.27 in E Minor, Op.90 (Korstick, Biss, Lewis) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The Op.90 Sonata evades easy characterisation. It’s highly compressed, usually taking no more than 14 minutes to be performed in its entirety, and is constructed with incredible efficiency despite its thematic richness. The refrain of the second movement rondo is one of the most beautiful melodies Beethoven ever wrote, but the first movement is far more difficult to pin down – it’s certainly full of tension, but of a rather lonesome and despairing sort –it’s not menacing like the Appassionata or violent like the Op.111. Of particular note is the development section of the first movement, which is as short as it is ingenious, and the structure of the rondo (which typically is a little mysterious – it has elements of sonata form, and no-one knows if it’s really got a coda and where it begins if it does exist.)
MVT I, Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck (“With liveliness and with feeling and expression throughout”) EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1.1 00:10 – Theme 1.2 00:22 – Theme 1.3 00:40 – Transition 01:00 – Theme 2.1 01:12 – Theme 2.2 (Note the 10ths in the LH, which are notoriously awkward to play) DEVELOPMENT 01:49 – Theme 1.1, with accompaniment from Theme 2.1 01:57 – Theme 1.1 continues, but with its link to Theme 1.3 more clearly displayed 02:06 – Theme 1.1’s rhythm, over a G pedal 02:18 – Theme 1.2 with added counterpoint 02:22 – The RH introduces decoration, while Theme 1.2 is relentlessly shortened until only its head is left, used sequentially: 2:29. 02:42 – The final bit of RH decoration is augmented and gradually revealed to be Theme 1.1, in a transitory passage of extraordinary efficiency – stuff like what happens at 2:52 was really unheard-of before this sonata RECAPITULATION – 03:57 04:50 – As a sort-of coda Themes 1.1 and 1.3 are repeated as they are in the exposition, but Theme 1.2 is gone.
MVT II, Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen (“Not too swiftly and conveyed in a singing manner”) THEME – 05:20 (E maj) EPISODE 1 – 06:15 (C# min) EPISODE 2 – 06:30 (B maj) [Note the relation to the theme, and the gently dissonant slow trill starting from 6:42] EPISODE 3 – 07:02 (B maj) THEME – 07:20 (E maj, with a long modulating tail) EPISODE 3 / Quasi-development – 08:35 (C maj/C min/C# min/C# maj/E maj) THEME / Quasi – recapitulation – 09:20 (E maj) EPISODE 1 – 10:15 (C# min) EPISODE 2 – 10:31 (E maj – viewed from a sonata-form schematic, we’re in the recapitulation, since the B theme – episodes 2/3 – is now presented in the tonic, rather than the original dominant) EPISODE 3 – 11:02 (E maj, with an unexpected modulation to C at the end) 11:04 – Transition CODA 11:54 – Theme, in lower registers 12:56 – Theme, compressed 13:14 – Theme 13:30 – EPILOGUE [It’s a pretty extraordinary passage, introducing some rather string-quartet-like 4-part writing, decelerating, accelerating, and then sneaking in an ending so unobtrusive you don’t quite notice it’s already here.]
Beethoven: Sonata No.28 in A Major, Op.101 (Levit, Lewis, Korstick) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
This sonata is a little overshadowed by the Hammerklavier, which it precedes, but should not be. It’s the first of Beethoven’s late sonatas, and is groundbreaking in more ways than one. It might be the case that its ingenuity is overlooked because it is worn so lightly – this is the most tender and good-natured of all the late sonatas.
The first movement is this sonata is ultra-compressed, as is typical of the late sonatas (well, some of them at least: I’m looking at you, Hammerklavier). The most extraordinary feature of the movement is its quality of infinitude –it is constructed such that the melody unfolds forever like a Wagner “run-on” progression [see 0:14], and the method by which this is achieved becomes clear when you notice that in this A Maj movement, the root position tonic chord never occurs at all until the very end of the piece. So a movement which opens on the dominant (in a manner rather like a Bach prelude), really turns out to be single (interrupted and extended) dominant-tonic progression.
The second movement is a march where a scherzo would be, and has rather unexpected musical and dramatic heft. The movement is in F Maj, far removed from A Maj, and the movement also features prominent episodes in A Maj and Db Maj (even further removed from A Maj). The three keys are all related by the interval of a third, in clear anticipation of the Hammerklavier’s even more extensive large-scale deployment of the interval. The passage which leads back from Db to F Maj is one of Beethoven’s magical passages, where the pedal is instructed to be held down despite changes in harmony [5:21; more dramatically 52:00].
Note also the heavily canonic writing of the second movement’s middle (“sort-of-trio”) section, and the extensive canonic writing in the last movement [14:20, 14:49]. This is the most canon-heavy of Beethoven’s sonatas, but at lot of this stuff passes by almost without notice because the canonic writing is so unintrusive and joyous.
The third movement is essentially an intermezzo or introduction, which would make you expect it to lead straight into the final movement. Instead, extraordinarily, after a long pause on the dominant, it leads back to a repeat of the first movement’s main theme: one of the most moving moments in all of Beethoven’s music.
The final movement is heavily contrapuntal: even before we encounter the fugue which is the development, we’re given a main theme that is highly contrapuntal in a rather Bachian, imitative way. The fugue of the development section is the most good-natured one Beethoven ever wrote (all of the fugal episodes in Beethoven’s late sonatas have very distinct characters, and this one is certainly the nice guy in the family). It begins with a minimalist quotation of the sonata’s opening [16:33], and features a consistently gentle humour (see the unresolved trill at [16:56 and similar] and the fugue subject which enters at 16:51, which is described by Schiff as “a villain tiptoeing on a stage”). Formally, it’s also worth noting that the fugue employs an inventive harmonic scheme where the first entry is in A Min, the second in C Maj (E Min would be the “correct” key), and the third in D Min.
The movement also features a low E prominently because Beethoven had just gotten a new Broadwood piano with a low E the Viennese pianos didn’t have and was eager to show it off. See the wonderful passage that ends the development [18:28], where the bass features a heavily augmented version of the movement’s theme (A-F#-G#-A-B-E) embedded in a pounding low E, which Beethoven actually points out by writing “Contra E”(!) The sonata’s coda also features the low E recurring in the bass – as Schiff observes, Beethoven used the low E whenever he could, like a child with a new toy.
MVT I – Etwas Lebhaft und mit innigsten Empfindung (“Rather lively, with the warmest feeling”) EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 00:14 – Theme 2 [Note how fast we arrive in the dominant] 01:06 – A syncopated “floating” progression, where the resolution to the tonic is extensively delayed 01:20 – DEVELOPMENT [Note the integration of the syncopation into the texture] 02:13 – RECAPITULATION [Note the highly unobtrusive return of the main theme: it’s basically smuggled into the texture] 03:02 – CODA
MVT II – Lebhaft, marschmässig (“Lively, restrained march” – Note how Schumanesque this movement is) 04:18 – March [Note the chromatic fourth in the bass and the sudden harmonic disolations] 07:15 – Trio 08:32 – March gradually returns
MVT III – Langsam und sehnsuchtvoll (“Slowly and longingly”) 10:21 – Intermezzo 13:13 – Recollection of MVT I
MVT IV – Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr und mit Entschlossenheit (“Quickly, but not rushed and with determination”) EXPOSITION 13:49 – Theme 1 14:40 – Theme (group) 2 (closely related to Theme 1) 16:33 – DEVELOPMENT: fugue (Note imitative passages of extraordinary power, such as at 18:13) 18:35 – RECAPITULATION 20:28 – CODA
Beethoven: Sonata No.29 in B-flat Major, "Hammerklavier" (Levit) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
And here’s the biggest one of them all. The weird, titanic, gnarled, joyous, grief-stricken monster that is the Hammerklavier. Where exactly to begin?
With the interval of a 3rd, I guess. It permeates the work at every level, creating close coordination between motivic/harmonic detail, and tonal structure. The main theme of each movement is built from the same motif: a rising and then falling 3rd. In the final movement the 3rd both defies the movement in the bass in the introduction, as well as the shape of the fugue theme: a rising 3rd (10th), following by a scalar figure that is repeated, each time descending by a 3rd. Harmonically, the development section of the third movement is built on a sequence of 3rds, and the trio of the scherzo oscillates between Bb Minor and Db Major, two keys separated by a 3rd.
At an even deeper structural level, the 3rd is all-pervasive. You’d expect, in a Bb Maj sonata, that the dominant key of F would play a major role, but in 40+ minutes of music there is not a single modulation to that key. Instead, Beethoven constructs an intricate system of four keys around Bb, and returns to them time and time again. Three of them, G, D, and F#, are all separated from Bb by the interval of a third. The final, the “black key” of B Minor, occurs in every movement and functions as an anti-thesis to Bb Major. The struggle between these two keys dramatically frames the entire sonata (just listen to the scherzo’s ending).
There’s lots more to the Hammerklavier than the 3rd. You’ve got structural innovations: in the 1st movement’s recapitulation the return to the stable tonic is heavily delayed (by, yes, the key of B minor), and in the 2nd the development is too short, but the recapitulation varies and decorates the theme so extensively that it becomes a sort of extended development. And you’ve got the sheer contrapuntal and dramatic genius of the last movement, where a huge number of traditional contrapuntal devices are wielded with a jaggedness and fury that belies their conservative associations. It's also worth noting how contrapuntal the writing in the 1st movement is -- one of the most striking features of Beethoven's late work.
MVT 1 EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 00:43 – Shift to D (modulating by 3rd), beginning of Theme group 2. 01:51 – Theme 2 (G Maj; modulating by 3rd) DEVELOPMENT 04:44 – Theme 2 04:58 – Theme 1 head 05:06 – Fughetta based on Theme 1 head 06:09 – Shift from D to B Maj (modulation by 3rd; note closeness to “black key”) RECAPITULATION 06:37 – Theme 1 06:48 – Shift to Gb/F#. Harmonic instability follows, and we move eventually to 07:29 – Bm (and then G, another modulation by a 3rd, and then back at 7:51 to Bb) 08:49 – Theme 2 09:19 – CODA; Theme 2 09:39 – Theme 1 head 09:50 – Theme 1
MVT 3 EXPOSITION 12:44 – Main Theme 15:14 – Transition 16:43 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1 17:25 – Theme Group 2, Theme 2 18:25 – Theme Group 2, Theme 3 19:27 – DEVELOPMENT 20:17 – RECAPITULATION [extended development]
MVT 4: PART I 29:52 – Introduction. Note movement by 3rds in bass, interspersed with episodes of original material. PART II 32:37 – Introduction and development of fugue theme [Theme 1] and countersubject. Note how long the theme is, containing a leap and trill in the head (ordinarily a concluding device), scalar descent in 3rds in the middle, and a long chromatic tail with much implied dissonance. PART III 34:07 – Introduction and brief development of new theme [Theme 2] in Gb 34:21 – Augmentation [doubled note value] of fugue theme, with countersubject (note the constant descent by 3rds) 34:49 – Stretto [overlapping entry] of the fugue theme’s head [leap + trill] PART IV 34:57 – Return to Theme 2, in Ab 35:34 – Theme 1 in retrograde [backwards] 36:10 – Stretti of Theme 1, initially in inversion, then including original (Note key of B) 36:46 – Entire subject in mirrored form 37:20 – Increasing focus on Theme 1’s head, leading to trill-laden passage at 37:30 PART V 37:41 – Chorale (Theme 3) PART VI 38:23 – Theme 3 functions as cantus firmus, and is combined with the first half of Theme 1 38:44 – Stretto of Theme 1 (inversion + original). The music appears to be reaching a conclusion, as we’re in the right key, the dominant is playing a bigger role (from 39:12 it recurs as a pedal point in the bass), and stretti/pedal points seem to militate for a conclusion. 39:32 – But nope. Just as we reach the point where the concluding bars should be, Beethoven begins the fugue anew. 39:47 – Exploration of subject, countersubject, and their inversions (in stretto) 40:13 – Abruptly, the music cadences, and on the wrong [weak] beat too. PART VII 40:15 – The fugue subject briefly enters, before a trill begins in the bass at 40:18 40:26 – As the trill continues, the RH toys with the fugue subject and countersubject. Eventually a F pedal emerges. 40:38 – Theme 1’s head is repeated, then its middle. 40:58 – The leap and trill which opened the fugue subject closes the sonata.
Beethoven: Sonata No.30 in E Major, Op.109 (Goode, Levit) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Beethoven’s 30th Sonata is to the Hammerklavier what a koan is to a novel: ultra-compressed, terse, deeply enigmatic (so enigmatic, in fact, that we can’t even decide if it’s got 2 or 3 movements). It marks a return to intimate structures after the vastness of the Hammerklavier, but despite its beauty and warmth it’s as deeply radical as anything which Beethoven wrote.
In terms of large-scale structure, the Op.109 does a couple of very interesting things. There is the fact that Mvt 1 is extremely short, being built more around contrast (the old, “classical” ideal), and containing little thematic development (the new “romantic” ideal that Beethoven had done so much to build). Perhaps because of this, Mvt 2 (to pick up the slack?) is also in sonata form (a scherzo without the trio is also a good reading), another very unusual step. Add to this the fact that for the first time in Beethoven’s sonata output the focus is now the last movement (instead of the first, which is the norm), which is considerably longer than both Mvt 1 + 2. This pattern – of having a slow and large final movement which ends the piece with a kind of devotional intensity – is repeated in the two sonatas which come after the Op.109.
The relationship between Mvt 1 & 2 is also pretty interesting: they sort of function as a combined counterweight to Mvt 3. They are joined together (not by an attaca indication, which is unusual) by the thinnest of tissues – the holding down of the pedal. Both main (opening) themes of both movements are also very similar: the basses of both are built around a simple descending scale.
The sonata as a whole is also unified by the motivic interval of a 3rd. The 1st theme of the Mvt 1 has a principal melody (highlighted as quarter-notes) which basically consists of paired 3rds (G#-B, F#-A, E-G#), as is the 1st theme of the Mvt 2 (the RH basically goes G-E, B-G, E-G). The theme of Mvt 3 opens with a 3rd, which recurs throughout the variations. In Var.2 the 2nd and 3rd notes in the RH are separated by a 3rd, and the pattern recurs (F#-D#, then G#-E, F#-D#, F#-A#). In Var.3, the pattern is obvious: both RH and LH move outward in 3rd. In Var.4, the rhythmically important notes are also separated by 3rds (for the most part: B-G#-E in the opening phrased, for instance). In Var.5 the fugue subject closely resembles the sonata’s opening principal melody, and so on.
Last thing to note: the last movement, a theme and variations (unusual end to a sonata), contains much of Beethoven’s most beautiful writing. The bit from 35:19 to 36:17 (including the theme’s re-entrance at 35:40) must count as one of the most transcendent 1-min segments of music ever written. In fact, the 3 most lyrically intense/ecstatic/generous 1-min segments of music Beethoven ever wrote are probably all found in the last movements of his last three sonatas (the closing chorale of the 31st, and the brief moment in the 32nd when the theme and variation form is abandoned.)
MVT I EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 00:11 – Theme 2 (the culmination of Beethoven’s experimentation with quasi-recitative structures in sonata form. Note the sudden changes of harmony.) DEVELOPMENT 01:05 – Theme 1 RECAPITULATION 01:38 – Theme 1 01:50 – Theme 2 (Note the violent transition to C Maj at 2:11, which Levit emphasises very well [21:27]) 02:52 – Theme 1 03:22 – CODA
MVT II EXPOSITION 03:42 – Theme 1 (note the bass line, which is what the development will pick up on) 03:49 – Theme 2 (or the start of Theme Group 2) DEVELOPMENT 04:31 – Theme 1’s bass line is presented in canon in RH 04:42 – Theme 1’s bass line is presented against itself in inversion RECAPITULATION 05:02 – Theme 1 05:14 – Theme (Group) 2 05:49 – CODA
MVT III 06:02 – Theme 08:15 – VAR.1. A waltz. 10:21 – VAR.2. Three variations in one, the second of which features lovely contrapuntal writing [10:42; 11:33] and last of which is especially moving [10:55; 11:43] 11:56 – VAR.3 12:12 – VAR.4 14:53 – VAR.5. A spectacular little chorale-fugue, erupting out of an essentially lyrical movement. Oddly enough, Beethoven does not mark the final two variations in the score, instead leaving only tempo indications. No-one is quite sure why this is. 15:45 – VAR.6. This single variation telegraphs essentially the whole final movement of the 32nd sonata. It’s built essentially on keeping the same basic rhythm while further subdividing the repeated B of each theme. This technique of using subdivision is taken to the extreme in the 32nd Sonata's 2nd movement, where all the individual variations are built from subdivision (whereas here, all the subdivision is contained in a single variation.) 17:50 – CODA. The theme is repeated, as if nothing has happened. As is the case with the Goldberg Variations, the repetition takes you home.
Beethoven: Sonata No.31 in A-flat Major, Op.110 (Lortie, Siirala, Kovacevich) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
The most warmly lyrical of all of Beethoven’s late sonatas, and probably my favourite of all 32.
Why? Well, to start with the obvious: In a late sonata, where you’d expect ambiguity, radical structural innovation, gnarled counterpoint – a conventional 1st movement, with a theme so simple and unadorned [0:18] its only warrant, really, is its beauty. The development is not just simple but consciously minimalist, and the shift to and from E Maj in the recapitulation [3:36; 4:09] is exquisitely beautiful.
There is also the structural tightness of the sonata. The opening bars of the sonata become the subject of the first fugue in the last movement, and, in an inverted form, the subject of the second fugue also. The opening phrase of the 2nd movement scherzo [6:24] also becomes transformed into the arioso of the final movement [10:26]. So Beethoven does not just shift the focus of the sonata form from first movement to last, or even use the final movement to unify the other two – in this sonata, the final movement is where the themes presented in other two really take flight, and the final movement is almost entirely built around material already presented.
Also, that last movement. It features the most sophisticated use of counterpoint of all 32 sonatas: not because the contrapuntal writing is ingenious (which it is, but Sonatas No.28 + 29 have got that too), but because the counterpoint is used (maybe for the first time in musical history) as part of a dramatic narrative. The final movement is basically a struggle between the arioso theme, which is not merely sad but crushingly hopeless (dolente = painful, aching, ermattet = exhausted) to the point of its literally breaking up the second time it’s presented, and the fugue, which radiates an inner strength and consolation.
In the end, the fugue wins, but in an extraordinary way. The second fugue does not merely achieve a triumphant shape: it burns itself out of existence. As the texture thickens and intensifies with inversions and simultaneous presentations of augmentations and diminuitions [57:30], suddenly there are just two voices duelling in ecstasy [57:53, with the shift to 2 voices at 58:05], incessantly reaching higher, and then suddenly there is just one voice, the main theme pouring out in a great chorale [58:19]. It’s my favourite moment in all the 32 sonatas – a theme that leaps out of its own chasm of counterpoint, and when finally freed rings with a kind of joy which should be impossible after the arioso but somehow isn’t. And because the fugue theme is really the opening bars of the entire sonata, the sonata has an open-ended, cyclic form, with the basic movement over the entire piece being from lyricism (the opening) to hope (the final bars).
MVT I EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 00:41 – Transition (a highly abstracted form of the melody that just preceded it) 01:05 – Theme (Group) 2 02:12 –DEVELOPMENT (Note how compressed it is, and how reliant on counterpoint) 03:03 – RECAPITULATION (Theme 1 is combined with the Transition theme in the LH) 05:59 – CODA
MVT II 06:24 – Scherzo 07:04 – Trio (Cleverly constructed out of large upward leaps and downward descents: Beethoven’s manuscript shows he struggled a lot working out of figuration of this section) 07:31 – Scherzo 08:13 – CODA/transition
MVT III 08:30 – INTRODUCTION 10:26 – ARIOSO (the melody is built from the downward gesture that opens the scherzo) 12:52 – FUGA I (The fugue subject is built from an ascending chain of fourths, and is derived from the sonata’s opening phrase. The countersubject is built from a descending chain of fourths.) 15:13 – ARIOSO (note how the melody is broken up, “sobbing”) 18:00 – FUGA II (The fugue subject is a straightforward inversion of the first fugue’s subject. If there was any doubt about the narrative structure of this movement Beethoven has marked this section wieder auflebend = again reviving, poi a poi di nuovo vivente = little by little with renewed vigour) 18:23 – The subject of the first fugue enters the fray in the lowest voice, in diminished form and with a different rhythmic emphasis. Immediately after, the first fugue subject also enters in the top voice, but this time in augmented form. 18:48 – A double diminuition of the first fugue subject is introduced, with a relaxing of the tempo which generates the effect of a gradual increase in tempo 18:53 – The subject of the second fugue enters in middle voice. 19:01 – The subject of the first fugue enters in bass. Effectively two voices left. The double diminuition becomes transformed into a decorative figure in RH. 19:15 – FINALE: Homophonic chorale. The theme escapes.
Beethoven: Sonata No.31 in A-flat Major (Ashkenazy) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Movement I: 00:00 Movement II: 06:40 Movement III*: 08:55 [Fugue I: 12:55 -- Fugue II (inversion): 18:00]
The sunniest of Beethoven's great late sonatas, and one that contains some beautiful and beautifully deployed fugal writing (note the complexity of some of the augmentation/diminution used -- see 18:35 -- and that the fugue subject is derived very directly from the opening phrase of the first movement).
It is interesting to note how different the fugal writing here is from that deployed in the Hammerklavier, No.29. Here the fugal writing is very strict, with the relatively meek exception of some doubling in the bass, but in the Hammerklavier the huge fugue includes some truly daring departures from the rules.
This is also the only late sonata which seems to have real humour in it (in the second movement).
Ashkenazy plays the first movement with incredible tenderness, and (thankfully) takes the fugal sections of the third movement with a speed that imbues with with prayerlike, reverential clarity.
Beethoven: Sonata Op.111 No.32 in C Minor (Uchida) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Yes, okay, this praise is a little hackneyed, and there’s no shortage of wild-eyed gushing over this sonata, but this sonata is not just great but profound -- a staunchly (weirdly) unrepresentative apotheosis of the form. I’m not sure this sonata can be properly explained – as Wittgenstein said, mysteries are meant to be deepened, not explained, but I’ll try to point out some interesting features. In general, the sonata is strange because it’s in just two movements: the first a welter of surging darkness, the second sharply contrasting, but otherwise more or less beyond conventional description. No-one’s quite sure if Beethoven really meant to write a 3rd movement, but it’s true in any case that the sonata has a searching, hanging quality despite the straightforward dualism between the two movements (major/minor, fast/slow, harmonic agitation/harmonic stasis, angular/melodic, propulsive/static, terrestrial/divine.)
The allegro:
- The striking opening, about which probably more than enough has already been said.
- The profusion of diminished 7ths in the introduction, which has no apparently structural answer (cf the Pathetique) even though it is mirrored (possibly) in the development at: 6:09
- If you listen to Romantic fugues, you’ll can’t help but keep thinking that the texture of the entire movement is extremely fugal (see esp 5:50). Properly speaking, the dramatic tremolo leads into a fugal theme that is never realised, instead turning into a free-form canon. The entire work is characterised by this sort of deliberate incompleteness: notice how disjointed the two main motives of the movement are, and how they never really seem to get off the ground. (Hence the description you’ll keep encountering when reading about this movement: “struggle”.)
- Note how often Beethoven uses the dramatic device of placing the hands quite far apart when you wouldn’t expect this. For instance, if both hands are playing mirroring each other, they will be two octaves apart, so that there is an “unspoken” note between them (6:18, 6:56, 8:32).
The arietta (theme and variations):
- Something which almost everyone fails to notice is that this arietta begins on an upbeat. The melody proper does not begin with the C-G fall. Instead it begins E-F-D. (Try to keep this in mind as you go through the variations.)
- That being said, for a set of variations, this entire 2nd movement is marked by rather exalted strangeness.
- Consider the nature of the variations themselves. They do not wander into different keys. They do not change tempo (NB the “incorrect” time signatures, since Beethoven leaves out all the implied triplets). They contain no thematic transformation in the style of Liszt in his B minor sonata. They do not elaborate on portions on the theme (cf the Diabelli Variations). Instead, each variation is a model of structural minimalism (something totally weird to ascribe to Beethoven): it goes through the theme’s harmony exactly as first written, preserving the broad melodic contour, and all that changes is how much each beat is subdivided: each variation (roughly speaking) divides the beats in the previous variation into either 3 or 4. The extraordinary thing is how much the nature of the theme changes via this simple device: it starts out form something that’s serene in a rather static, glacial, quietly monumental sort of way (9:20), and then gains a berceuse-ish lilt (11:38), and then a bit of swing (13:58), and then erupts into ecstasy (15:56 - this sounds like boogie-woogie, and there’s nothing wrong with listening to it that way, but be aware that this rhythmic pattern is something that has grown naturally out of all that has come before, and that this is not supposed to sound light-hearted but brokenly propulsive, maybe even rapturous in a slightly painful way), and then becomes a set of muted pulses of colour (18:00, 19:16) strung within an ethereal halo (18:40, 19:56) – a whisper, really, that proves that major keys can do a lot more than be happy, and can in fact be very sad – and then becomes a heart-stoppingly generous, grateful chorale (23:30).
- This very straightforward variation structure is interrupted at one point and one point only, and that moment is (like many of the moments of structural breakdown in Beethoven’s last sonatas) utterly gorgeous – listen for those tiny dissonances at the peak of the implied LH melody (20:41) – and then utterly devastating (22:07). It features the only modulation in the movement.
- This is the basic thing about the movement: a simple, unpromising theme, developed via a simple, unpromising heuristic, producing something sublime. (I mean sublime not in the usual sense, but in the Shaftesbury + Burke sense – big enough to look unmade, unheroic, unpropelled by any sense of human craft or will, a bit scary.)
Beethoven: Sonata No.32 in C Minor (Pogorelich) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
806,418 views Jun 6, 2014 Very possibly Beethoven's greatest sonata (it may or may not be edged out by the Hammerklavier, and also No.31 has a good punt at the title), and certainly one of the greatest piano works ever written. There is a lot to say about this, but suffice to say that Chopin admired it enough to imitate both the beginning and end of the first movement (in the opening of his B-flat Minor sonata, and in the end of the Revolutionary etude respectively).
The boogie-woogie variation is at 16:47 , but the best moment of the generally awesome second movement comes at 21:56 . [Brendel's comment: "...perhaps nowhere else in piano literature does mystical experience feel so immediately close at hand."]
This is also a marvellous rendition by Pogorelich, who plays with absolutely clarity, with no indulgence and quite a lot of intensity (as in "focus", not "aggressive"). The tempo choice is especially good -- the music has space to breathe.
Movement I: 00:00 Movement II: 09:54 (Theme and Variations)
Beethoven: Sonata No.32 in C Minor, Op.111 (Levit, Korstick) Author: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Beethoven’s last sonata is often identified as one of the most powerful and transcendent works in piano literature, but if anything that description understates how incredible this work is. Like all of B.’s late sonatas, the Op.111 features quite a lot of contrapuntal writing in both movements, and a very compressed Mvt 1. But what makes this sonata very different from all the rest is its use of polarity, of contrasts between 2 extremes. On the broadest level, you see this play out the structure of the sonata, which, unusually for B., has only two movements: the first jagged and toweringly menacing, the second rarefied, spiritual, generous, sometimes ecstatic. You also see this play out in the contrast between the 1st and 2nd themes of the 1st movement: the 1st theme is taut and angular, almost orchestral, while the 2nd sounds wholly improvised. There is also the use of sonic distance in this sonata: in the 1st movement the two hands often play parallel running passages two or more octaves apart, plus there are also passages in 13ths and the like and in the Arietta there are passages where both hands play at the extreme ends of the keyboard.You can add to this a whole host of textural and harmonic innovations. For instance, the introduction, which appears unconnected to the rest of the sonata, is built around a sequence of diminished 7th chords that recurs at multiple points in Mvt 1, and in particularly dramatic form in the development’s close. The awe-inspiring Arietta has a rapt, highly static theme that gains life from the increasing rhythmic subdivision it is subjected to, until it bursts into joy in one particularly famous variation. And then there are the hair-rising trills in the Coda, which introduce the only real tonal diversity into the movement, and the warmth and tenderness of the last two variations, snuck in after the coda.Strangely enough, it wasn’t that hard to choose the two recordings here: one has my favourite Arietta, the other my favourite Mvt 1. Levit is one of those pianists you really want to use the word “poetic” to describe, except that that word is so bland and vague it really does his playing a disservice. Immaculate voicing (the little fughetta in Mvt 1!), pearlescent technique, incredible attention to detail – all that is there in spades, but something else too, that makes his Arietta the most heartbreaking I’ve heard on record to date. The last two variations (5 + 6) are shaped so well their sense of warmth and tenderness takes the breath away, and the slow-build up into Var. 4 is magical, luminous. Among all the really great B. pianists Korstick seems to understand – and use – contrast the best, and since this sonata has contrast as its entire justifying premise Korstick does spectacularly well here. His Mvt 1 is stunning, with blackly propulsive playing supported by a faster-than-usual-tempo that never really slips, even in the second theme. The overall impression is that of crushing despair. The Arietta is also wonderfully played: it starts off at a really slow tempo, but accelerates suddenly when Var.4 is reached. And Korstick’s approach to Var.4 is really interesting: he often treats the triplet rhythms as something between a tripet and duplet rhythm proper, giving the variation a feel of being possessed, of being swept up in its own ecstasy. Korstick also plays trills with total control and beauty: see those in the Coda or Var.6, which are almost ridiculously well-projected. Var.5 does not quite come with the sense of transfixed release that Levit manages, but the counterpoint is especially clear, a trait of Korstick’s playing that works wonders at moments like 48:24.Levit:00:00 – Mvt 109:25 – Mvt 2Korstick:27:21 – Mvt 136:11 – Mvt 2