Saturday
10
june
an evening of beethoven
Russell Sherman, piano
8 PM
Pre-concert talk with Dr. Andrew Shryock, 7 PM
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
PIANO SONATA NO. 27 IN E MINOR, OP. 90 (1814)
Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck
Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen
PIANO SONATA NO. 28 IN A MAJOR, OP. 101 (1816)
Allegretto, ma non troppo (Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung)
Vivace alla marcia (Lebhaft, marschmȁβig)
Adagio, ma non troppo, con affetto (Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll)
Allegro (Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr und mit Entschlossenheit)
:: intermission ::
RONDO IN G MAJOR, OP. 51, NO. 2 (1797)
Andante cantabile e grazioso
PIANO SONATA NO. 32 IN C MINOR, OP. 111 (1821-22)
Maestoso—Allegro con brio ed appassionato
Arietta: Adagio molto semplice cantabile
Festival
Corporate Partner
This concert is sponsored in part by the generosity of David and Marie Louise Scudder.
36TH SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 21
WEEK 2
the program
PIANO SONATA NO. 27 IN E MINOR, OP. 90 (1814)
Ludwig van Beethoven (b. Bonn, December 16, 1770; d. Vienna, March 26, 1827)
Notes
on the
program
by
Sandra Hyslop
Composed 1814; 13 minutes
From the moment Ludwig van Beethoven first arrived in Vienna, his skills as a pianist and
a composer for that instrument garnered popular and critical attention. Between 1795 and
1809, he published 26 piano sonatas in a steady flow of startlingly innovative compositions
that helped to establish his reputation in Vienna and beyond. Then, after the publication of
the Piano Sonata in E-flat major, called “Les Adieux,” he turned his attentions elsewhere.
The ensuing five years were tumultuous for Beethoven, and for his adopted city. Despite
many personal and political distractions, Beethoven began again to compose piano sonatas
in 1814. The Piano Sonata No. 27 marks a definite shift in his thinking about the genre, and
the succeeding five sonatas affirm that Beethoven had set sail upon a whole new journey of
exploration and achievement.
Miniature portrait on ivory
of Ludwig van Beethoven,
1803, by Christian
Hornemann
The Piano Sonata Op. 90, in E minor—like Beethoven’s final piano sonata, Op. 111—is a work
in two contrasting movements. The opening movement is headed with the instruction,“Mit
Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck” [with animation and with
sensitivity and expression throughout]. (At this time Beethoven began substituting Germanlanguage tempo indications for the traditional Italian instructions in his scores, specifying
not only tempo, but also the spirit and mood that he imagined for the music.) Beethoven
told his friend and benefactor Count Lichnowsky, to whom he dedicated the E-minor
Sonata, that the first movement is “a struggle between the heart and the head,” and that
the second movement is “a conversation with the beloved.”
Cast in classical sonata form, the first movement leans toward a tragic, mysterious mood.
Its lyricism derives from the repetitions of melodic motifs. It is indeed a struggle between
the heart and the head. By turns contemplative and impassioned, the movement offers
serious interpretive challenges to maintain the dramatic arc.
By 1803 Beethoven had achieved
sufficient renown that the innovative
French builder Sébastien Érard (17521831) proudly presented him with one
of his company’s fortepianos. Although
grateful for the gift, Beethoven was
still restricted to a keyboard that
encompassed fewer than six octaves
(the expansion to the now-standard 7
1/2 octaves came only after Beethoven’s
death). He still had to cope with the fact
that every fortepiano was constructed
with a light wooden frame, thin piano
wires, narrow keys, and tiny-headed,
leather-covered hammers. Can it be,
as many have suggested, that Beethoven
could actually imagine the piano of
the future, the instrument that could
realize the sonic world that he alone
could hear?
22 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
The second movement, “Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar
vorgetragen” [not too fast, and played with great lyrical feeling],
reaches out to the beloved with a main rondo theme of utter beauty.
Beethoven returns to that theme repeatedly, without any variation, as
if to emphasize the sincerity of his appeal. The Sonata ends in E major.
PIANO SONATA NO. 28 IN A MAJOR, OP. 101 (1816)
Ludwig van Beethoven
Composed 1816; 21 minutes
During the Congress of Vienna (1814-15), Beethoven was caught up
in the general excitement surrounding the illustrious assemblage of
crowned heads and diplomats who gathered in the city to reconstruct
the map of Europe that Napoleon had so dramatically fractured.
Yielding to the temptation to write patriotic divertissements for
Congressional entertainments—such works as Wellington’s Victory,
Ihr weisen Gründer glücklicher Staaten [You Wise Founders of Happy
Nations], Germania, and Der glorreiche Augenblick [The Glorious Moment]—Beethoven
composed relatively few works of lasting musical importance during those months.
Still, he emerged from that low point to continue his deeper explorations of the piano’s
possibilities. Beethoven’s final five (of 32) piano sonatas and the Diabelli Variations comprise
a distinctive body of works in a category all their own. Technically and musically, these six
piano compositions offer the dedicated pianist a lifetime challenge.
Beethoven composed the Piano Sonata in A major in 1815-16, just one year after the E-minor
Sonata, Opus 90. He dedicated the new piece, published in 1817 as Opus 101, to his long-time
friend the Baroness Dorothea Ertmann (1781-1849), an extraordinary pianist whom
Beethoven admired greatly.
A square piano, dated
1800, built by Ignace
Pleyel of Paris and owned by
Beethoven, with 67 keys
(compared to modern-day
88 keys)
Into the manuscript for this sonata, Beethoven wrote not only the traditional tempo markings
in Italian, but also German instructions further describing the character of each movement.
Thus, at the head of the first movement, he expanded upon “Allegretto, ma non troppo” with
the German “Etwas lebhaft, und mit der innigsten Empfindung” [somewhat lively, and with
innermost feeling]. It is, indeed, an intimate movement. Instead of an assertive Allegro, he
begins with a gracious pulse in 6/8 measure; instead of a forthright statement of the tonic
key, A major, he evokes tender, searching feelings by beginning in E major and avoiding the
tonic with forays into other keys. When he finally passes through A major, he does so on
weak beats, further delaying arrival at the tonic. Even the end of the movement refuses to
settle for long, as Beethoven sets up a shocking transition to the key of F major for the
second movement.
The March is a brash and exuberant scherzo. Its dotted-eighth and sixteenth notes give it a
jauntiness that contrasts with the smooth flow of its Trio, in B-flat major.
Abandoning the exuberance of the March, Beethoven enters mysterious territory. The short
third movement, “Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll” [slow and full of longing], is a concise yet
free-flowing fantasy. A brief re-statement of the opening of the sonata, the graciously pulsing
6/8 theme in E major, ends in a flourish of downward scale and three long trills; the fourth
movement bursts forth with a definite arrival in A major.
“Geschwinde, doch nicht zu sehr, und mit Entschlossenheit” [Quickly, but not too quickly,
and decisively] Beethoven instructed. This decisive music proves to be the goal toward which
the entire sonata has been aiming. The longest of the movements, the fourth is a brilliant
fugue woven skillfully into a sonata form. After the harmonic ambiguities of the first three
movements, it is a celebration of clarity and determination.
RONDO IN G MAJOR, OP. 51, NO. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven
Composed 1797; 9 minutes
In 1797—the same year that he composed the “Pathétique” Sonata—Beethoven completed a
set of two Rondos for piano. He constructed the seven-part Rondo in G major on a scheme of
A-B-A-C-A-B´-A. The main theme—the “A” section, which is heard four times—hints of the
insouciance of a Mozart allegretto. The three alternating sections of this seven-part Rondo
reveal Beethoven exploring the piano and its sounds with well-planned abandon. The “B”
36TH SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 23
Notes
on the
program
by
Sandra Hyslop
section is in the key of D major, the “C” section is in E major, and the “B´”—in other words, a
variation of the original “B” section—is in the tonic key of G major. While the three alternating
parts of the Rondo provide contrasts in mood and spirit, the main theme’s classic grace
dominates the work as a whole.
PIANO SONATA NO. 32 IN C MINOR, OP. 111 (1821-22)
Ludwig van Beethoven
Composed in 1821-22; 24 minutes
In the six piano sonatas composed between 1814 and 1822, Beethoven explored depths of
profound thought and heights of inspired musical language. Still composing for an instrument
whose technical limits kept it from a full expression of the sounds that he intended for it,
Beethoven created in his final sonata a landmark work of exceeding beauty and lasting
significance.
Beethoven’s penchant for casting his important and dramatic compositions in the key of C
minor has provoked many a discussion, with the preponderance of critics agreeing that the
key held special, even heroic implications for him. Among the well-known examples of such
works are the “Pathétique” Piano Sonata, the Symphony No. 5, the “Funeral March” movement
of Symphony No. 3 (the “Eroica”), the Choral Fantasy, and this, his final piano sonata.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Portrait by Joseph Karl
Stieler, 1820
The first movement of Op. 111 is of the stormy, searching, passionate brand of Beethoven’s
C-minor works. It begins with a dark Maestoso statement that is less an announcement or
fanfare, than a despairing complaint. Its insistent trilling figure in the bass leads, without
resolution, into the searching main body of the sonata-allegro movement. This, too, is a grim
journey through the darkness, with surprising key changes and contrapuntal complexity.
Occasionally the tempo relaxes, with the brief questioning phrases interrupted by furious
resumption of the wild drama. The movement ends with its complaint unresolved, despite
the final chord in quiet C major.
The main theme of the Arietta, sweetly simple and hymn-like, emerges from the dying
sounds of the first movement. Its static motion and self-contained beauty hardly suggests
that it is, in fact, the main theme upon which Beethoven builds five variations. A great variety
of tempi and dynamics supports the wide-ranging emotional territory of the movement.
Twice as long as the first movement, the Arietta and its variations encompass a whole world
of sound, as Beethoven takes a meticulous yet generous route toward the blazing conclusion.
The sonata ends with a coda, signaled by a repetition of the trills that opened the work. This
time the trills have emerged into daylight, in the piano’s upper register. Beethoven closes the
extraordinary meditation with quiet dignity—the falling motif of the main theme, in C major.
24 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM