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Ludwig van Beethoven wrote 32 mature piano sonatas between 1795 and 1822. (He also wrote 3 juvenile sonatas at the age of 13 [1] and one unfinished sonata, WoO. 51.) Although originally not intended to be a meaningful whole, as a set they comprise one of the most important collections of works in the history of music. [2]
Piano Sonatas, Ops 10 & 13. Deux-Elles DXL1161. Louis Lortie. Even Beethoven’s Op.2, his first acknowledged sonatas, which are explicitly Haydnesque sonatas, are filled with wonderful new things. Listen to the slow movement of Op.2, No.3, which at first is reminiscent of Bach: Beethoven gives you a simple chorale but then mixes in strange ...
- Pathétique. To single out just a few. The most important of the early Sonatas is the Pathétique. For the first time Beethoven uses a slow introduction, and an introduction of such weight you know something truly significant is going on.
- The Moonlight. The most famous movement of any of the 32 Piano Sonatas is the opening movement of The Moonlight – the Sonata he composed for the woman he wanted to marry, Giulietta Guicciardi [see Chapter 6, Beethoven’s Women].
- Waldstein. We already know the origin of the Waldstein from Chapter 3, The Spaniard. The gloriously spacious theme of the final movement is prefaced by a mysterious, fragmented middle movement, which presages it perfectly.
- Appassionata. Wagner’s favourite was the Appassionata. He loved playing it, and marvelled at the theme of the first movement rising from the depths. Once again, as with the Pathétique, the middle movement is simplicity itself, almost a theme on a single note.
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Jul 23, 2020 · For music-making at home, the most prestigious form of serious music was the Beethoven piano sonata. Except for The Well-Tempered Clavier, the works of all other composers could seem light-weight, and Bach was too academic, too learned, to sustain the rivalry of the drama and emotion of the Beethoven sonata. Even more than the string quartet ...
A chronological list of the sonatas follows, along with the publication date (and composition date, if significantly earlier): Piano Sonata in E-flat Major, WoO 47, “Kurfürstensonata No. 1” (1783) Piano Sonata in F Minor, WoO 47, “Kurfürstensonata No. 2” (1783) Piano Sonata in D Major, WoO 47, “Kurfürstensonata No. 3” (1783)
- Betsy Schwarm
Dec 17, 2023 · Beethoven’s late piano sonatas. After that, there was a gap of around four years, to 1814, before the first of Beethoven’s “late” piano sonatas, ‘Op. 90 ‘– in two concise movements ...
Mar 20, 2020 · By Harry Haskell. Ever since 1861, when Sir Charles Hallé performed all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas on a landmark concert series in London, pianists have contemplated these canonical masterpieces with almost religious awe. Indeed, the late–19th-century virtuoso Hans von Bülow—who thought nothing of playing Beethoven’s five notoriously ...
