St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Rudolf Buchbinder: Thirty-Two Sonatas by Beethoven (7th evening)


The programme includes:
Ludwig van Beethoven. Sonatas No. 30 in E Major, No. 31 in A flat Major, No. 32 in C Minor

All the concerti in the series >>

Rudolf Buchbinder (the biography)

Ludwig van Beethoven’s first three piano sonatas first appeared in Vienna in March 1796 and were dedicated to Joseph Haydn. Legend has it that Haydn wished to see the words that Beethoven was his pupil on the title sheet, but the latter rebelled. Beethoven owed a great deal to his senior colleague and Haydn’s influence was felt throughout his work until almost his very last days. But the First Sonata (Op. 2, No 1) is demonstratively distant from the style of the maestro’s sonatas. The very first theme of the laconic – by Beethoven’s standards – sonata is staggering: it is as if this free music acts as a focus for the themes of many of the maestros as yet unwritten works, both heroic and dramatic.
The next four sonatas show Beethoven in an entirely different light. The Tenth, Op. 14, No 2 (1799), which is dedicated to Baroness von Braun, is surprising for its lyrical and dreamy first section and scherzo as a finale. Everything in its music bears witness to the fact that during Beethoven’s lifetime sonatas were not yet intended for large capacity concerts in public but for performances in drawing rooms and salons among friends and real music lovers. This genre was, to an equal degree, intimate and experimental. Proof of the latter came with the Thirteenth Sonata, Op. 27, No 1, (1801), which is dedicated to Princess Johanna von Liechtenstein with the secondary title Quasi una fantasia. All the parts are performed without interruption and follow a very unusual order for the classics. The first section is a slow rondo, one episode of which is performed at a quick tempo. The second section is a scherzo and the third opens with an episode Adagio con espressione and continues with a virtuoso cadenza (in Vienna the young Beethoven had made a name for himself as a pianist and improviser) which becomes an impetuous Allegro vivace, while the theme of the  Adagio returns shortly before the end.
The two sonatas of Op. 31 (1802) are among those that were most beloved by the romantics. The Seventeenth is unofficially known as The Tempest (i  association with Shakespeare’s play). Many of the features of the music hint at a hidden plot: both the introduction, like a window opening up into a world of fantastical visions, the brief recitatives that probably (as in the finale of the Ninth Symphony) presuppose some actual text, and a dialogue of two voices in the second section... The Eighteenth Sonata opens with a languid introduction, but first appearances are deceptive.
In the sonata there is a kind of motoric energy: there is no traditional slow section in it, but there is a scherzo, a minuet and a finale composed in the rhythm of an impetuous tarantella and embellished with the glitter of Beethoven’s humour.
Anna Bulycheva

Age category 6+

Fragment from part 1 (Maestoso – Allegro con brio ed appassionato) of Sonata No 32 in C Minor. Performed by Rudolf Buchbinder. From the CD Buchbinder. Beethoven. The Sonata Legacy.
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