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Programme notes

BEETHOVENS 32 PIANO SONATAS


by Robert Silverman
Robert Silverman

ROBERT SILVERMAN
PLAYS BEETHOVEN
Presented by Music on Main at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club
3611 West Broadway, Vancouver BC Concert One Concert Two Concert Three Concert Four Concert Five Concert Six Concert Seven Concert Eight Monday, September 27, 2010 Tuesday, September 28, 2010 Monday, November 1, 2010 Tuesday, November 2, 2010 Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Wednesday, February 16, 2011 Monday, April 4, 2011 Tuesday, April 5, 2011

www.robertsilverman.ca www.musiconmain.ca

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2/1 composed 1795, published 1796


Although many young pianists study Beethovens first published piano composition before they reach their teens, it would be a mistake to consider the music itself a student or apprentice effort. At twenty-five, Beethoven already was a master of the late classical style, arguably the only living composer of his time who could withstand comparison with Haydn or Mozart. Moreover, he managed to distance himself from his older colleagues by treating his piano sonatas from the outset as seriously as his chamber and orchestral music. It is easy to point to his frequent use of four movements as evidence of his enlarged concept of the sonatahe was the first great composer to do thisbut one must look deeper into the works themselves to discover the extraordinary care and finish he lavished upon them. The main theme of the sonatas concise first movement bears an obvious resemblance to the opening of the finale of Mozarts 40th Symphony. However, his treatment of that idea as early as in the fifth measurelopping off the opening arpeggio and insistently repeating the turning motif (a technique Alfred Brendel calls foreshortening)is pure Beethoven. Likewise, the immediate repetition of the theme in a new key, a new mood, and a new register, bears his unique thumbprint. Other original touches, such as making the second theme a smoother mirror image of the first, or placing jarring accents in unexpected places, occur throughout the movement. Particularly effective is the way Beethoven prepares the return of the opening theme following the central Development section. Classroom definitions of sonata form often emphasize the importance of that moment, with its re-establishment of the tonic key and the main theme. However, the finest classical composers frequently disguise and modify that event. One of Beethoven's favorite techniques is to sneak in the main themes return in the middle of an on-going phrase: overshooting his target, as it were. He uses that device here, as well as in the Tempest, Appassionata and Hammerklavier sonatas, among others. One of the more notorious points of contention among pianists occurs on the very first note of Beethovens very first published sonata. No staccato mark appears here, although the other notes in the motif are thus clearly marked. Eight measures later, in the parallel passage in the left hand, a staccato mark is present. The inconsistency returns later in the movement. Some performers have found a justification for playing all the notes staccato, whereas others underscore the differentiation by slurring the first note to the second, even in the absence of such an indication by the composer. (When faced with such dilemmas, I try, perhaps simplistically, to do just what the composer indicates. In this case I play the first note non legato: musically joined, but unconnected physically to the second.) In the decorative slow movement, Beethoven again asserts his individuality. Although the language is quite similar to that of Mozart, his message is far more direct, aimed straight to the hearts of his listeners. In general, Beethovens early slow movements are some of the most ravishingly beautiful compositions in existence. The opening measure of the Adagio is distilled into its essence, placed into the minor key, and used as the main theme of the Minuet, an unassuming little piece that grows increasingly complex with each hearing. The Finale begins with the same three-chord outburst that concluded the first movement. The surging, tumultuous motion continues virtually unabated for the entire opening section, but then follows one of those infrequent occurrences that illustrate Beethovens relative inexperience as a composer. Although this movement is cast in sonata form, he interrupts the structure in order to insert a new, self-contained section prior to the more traditional development of earlier material. This creates a conundrum for the performer at the movements conclusion, where a repeat is nominally called for. If one observes the repeat, as I feel I must, the new materialitself quite repetitive and now no longer newsounds redundant. Yet, if the repeat is omitted, the movement is clearly too short, and the ending catches everyone, including the pianist, off guard. It is reassuring to know that Beethoven, after all, was human, provided we also remember that he never made the same miscalculation twice.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2/2 composed 1794-95, published 1796


In spite of its relative obscurity, the Sonata No. 2 contains the most strikingly original music of the three sonatas in this opus. It is also in this work that Beethoven's penchant for not allowing such trivialities as the shape of a pianists hand to interfere with his musical vision. Although the overall difficulty of this sonata does not approach that of the middleand late-period pot-boilers, there are a few brief passages whose successful negotiation depends totally upon the smile of the deities, no matter how thorough the artists prior preparation. The expansive first movement provides one of the earliest example of Beethovens practice of presenting two simple, contrasting ideas at the outset, and using the rest of the movement to exploit, and ultimately reconcile their differences. The ideas themselves are about as uncomplicated as they can get: a pair of descending motifs (an A sharply dropping to the dominant E, answered by a filled-in descent from E back to A); and an ascending A major scale. It is in this movement that Beethoven begins a systematic probing of all aspects of the sonatain this case, the common practice by which the opening section of a sonata movement modulates from the tonic to the dominant. True, we ultimately arrive where we are supposed to, but the route Beethoven chooses is so circuitous and convoluted that musicians and educated listeners of his time must have felt completely lost along the way. The Largo is Beethovens first truly sublime slow movement. Its simple melody and string quartet-like texture conveys a powerful spiritual sense that was first noted by his student, Karl Czerny, shortly after the piece appeared. Formally, the movement seems to progress in a standard ternary fashion (A-B-A), and most listeners can be forgiven for expecting a peaceful close following the return of the opening theme. Even if Beethoven had chosen to do this, he would still have composed a wonderful, moving slow movement, and none of us would have been the wiser. However, he had other ideas. What appears to be the coda is suddenly interrupted by a forceful outburst of the main theme in the minor mode. That gesture is easily described, yet it is one of the most cataclysmic events in all music. It doesnt last long. The main theme returns one last time, then the music closes quietly, just as we had expected it to do a short while earlier. In spite of its title, the brief Scherzo is a playful minuet whose jocularity is tempered every so often by darker hues, especially in the Trio. The fourth movement is the first of those gracious, leisurely, repetitive rondos he was so fond of composing. The opening theme, with its long sigh, is not merely delightful, but also delicious, while the material that follows is as delicate as anything he wrote. However, a furious middle section crudely interrupts this delectable atmosphere. (Beethoven frequently inserted music of this nature into his rondos, but in my opinion, he went over the top on this occasion, with subsequent deleterious consequences, as we shall soon see). The return to the main theme is superbly paced; its third reiteration and the music that follows is just as magical as it was the first time around. So, for that matter, is the fourth statement of the theme. A sprightly coda follows, and the movement seems well on its way to a happy conclusion. But wait! Theres more! Remember that crude middle section? No self-respecting composer would dare use such a prominent theme without justifying its presence elsewhere in the piece. Beethoven has no choice: holding his breath, he plows into it again, thankfully in a milder, shortened version. Like its predecessor, it also dissolves into what is now a fifth statement of the main theme. Finally, the storyteller sheepishly tiptoes off the stage, hoping that no one will notice that hed been winging it for the last two pages. But what winging!

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 3 in C Major, Op. 2/3 composed 1794-95, published 1796


This sonata is the third of the set of three that Beethoven dedicated to his teacher, Josef Haydn. It is the most brilliant and freewheeling of the troika, and the slow movement ranks as one of Beethovens finest. Nevertheless, some commentators belittle it because of the composers use, mostly in the first movement, of the sort of virtuoso passagework that one might expect from Czerny or Hummel rather than Beethoven. Admittedly, Beethoven had yet to learn how to make pianistic brilliance better serve a works inner drama, and even become the very stuff out of which a composition is constructed. Nonetheless, there are many extraordinary touches, not the least of which occurs partway in the Development section of the first movement, when the main theme returns in the wrong key of D major. At first Beethoven has the pianist continue playing the theme in a normal fashion, blissfully unaware that anything is amiss. Four measures later, however, the music stops suddenly, and the player, angry at having been duped by the composer, stormily resumes the Development. When the main theme finally returns in the correct key, Beethoven makes a slight alteration in the bass. He then throws in even further thematic development before allowing the recapitulation to hit its stride. This is especially ingenious: Because both the exposition's and recapitulations opening sections begin and end identically, he simply could have repeated that portion of the exposition verbatim rather than go to the trouble of re-composing it. However, he understood that recapitulations and expositions evoke such vastly different perceptions of the tonic key that the music had to be altered considerably in order to accommodate the new context. Finally, just prior to the conclusion of the movement, Beethoven includes a cadenza: a solo improvisatory section more typically found in a concerto than in a sonata. Like so many of Beethovens early, hauntingly-beautiful, slow movements, the second movement contains angry outbursts. However, the explosion in the middle of this one has special significance, given its double reference to the first movement. It is in C major, the principal key of the sonata. More importantly, it now becomes obvious that the slow movement's main theme is a thinly-disguised variation of the sonatas opening motif. The contrapuntal Scherzo, characterized by Mendelssohnian lightness, contrasts sharply with the brilliant and stormy Trio. The descending pattern of the main theme delightfully serves as a foil to the ascending scale that opens the Finale. This fleet, energetic rondo is neither too long nor over-repetitious. The stirring, anthem-like middle section served as an obvious model for Brahms at a parallel spot in his own Sonata No. 3. Like so many Beethoven sonatas, this one concludes unpredictably: just at the point where we are sure the piece is about to wind down, Beethoven suddenly moves into a remote key of A major. He stops abruptly, suddenly aware that he has strayed too far afield. He hesitantly tries out the theme in A minor. Suddenly he sees an opening, and decisively makes his move. Moments later we are back in the home key of C major, and the piece is over. Checkmate!

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 4 in E flat, Op. 7 composed 1796-97, published 1797


Beethovens relatively unknown fourth piano sonata is the second longest of the thirty-two. Abounding with boldness and energy, it isand can only bethe product of youthful creativity. It used to have a German nickname, Die Verliebte (the Maiden in Love) but no one knows why. It may have reflected Beethovens infatuation with the sonatas talented dedicatee, Countess Babette von Keglevics. Other commentators suggest that the sobriquet derives from the character of second or fourth movements. In any case, the name has not stuck. Its vastness aside, Op. 7 is one of the most symphonically conceived of the sonatas. The bell-like tolling in the first movement, the rhetorical pauses that permeate the Largo, the terrifying Trio in the third movement (an unnamed Scherzo) and the clattery middle section of the finale have a commonality: they all seem to point to a sonic image that ranges beyond the capacity of contemporary pianos, let alone those transitionary ones of the late 18th century. Beethovens sense of humour is totally off-the-wall. Consider the final moments of the slow movement: After creating a vast, serious work lasting about nine minutes, he returns to the main theme and devises an ingenious way of harmonizing it even more profoundly so that the bass arrives at an F-sharpa note as far away from C (the key of the movement) as one can get. He further complicates matters by using that F sharp as the bass of an accented, highly dissonant chord. Now, any decent composition teacher wouldif he had permitted all this to occur at allhave cautioned his student to write a lengthy coda in order to work his way out of the corner into which he had just painted himself. However, Beethoven needs only two measures to dispose of the problem, in a gesture that clearly says, at least to me, Oh, the hell with it (or less polite words to that effect). One reason for this magnificent works relative obscurity lies in the finales character. (The problem of how to conclude a composition was one Beethoven wrestled with throughout his career.) Several of Beethovens sonatas, including Op. 7, feature leisurely closing movements cast in a sectional form that combines sonata and rondo elements. In the hands of Haydn, who literally invented this form, the repetitive structure originally featured short, playful themes. However, Beethoven frequently broadened those themes into lengthy lyrical melodies, thereby imparting a here comes that damned tune again quality to the music. Furthermore, as often as not, he ended these movements with a quiet fade-out. Concluding a major work in a light, charming manner was standard classical practice. Beethoven, while lengthening and adapting the form to his own methods, evidently saw no need to discard that aspect of a sonatas structure. Nonetheless, the form was on its last legs; of all the great composers who followed Beethoven, only Schubert frequently employed it. (One might even argue that Schubert, in his later instrumental works, understood the implications of Beethovens changes to the form better than Beethoven himself. However, programme notes for a Beethoven sonata cycle are probably not the most appropriate launching pad for such a thesis.)

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10/1 composed 1796-98, published 1798


This is the first of three dramatic sonatas Beethoven set in the key of C minor. Although the Pathtique and the final sonata, Op. 111 ultimately would overshadow it, it is a strong work on its own: powerful and concise, with each movements character clearly delineated. The similarities between the opening of this work and that of Mozarts Sonata in C minor, K. 475, are too striking to be coincidental. Both sonatas begin with bold, rising C minor arpeggios, followed a plaintive response. However, in spite of this kinship, each sonata could only be the product of its creator. Beethovens restless, nervous energy is something quite new in the musical language of the late eighteenth century. The first movement is also notable for the unusual presence of a new theme in the central section, which normally is devoted solely to the development of previously introduced material. This is one of several examples of how Beethoven, even in his earliest published compositions, methodically questioned and probed every aspect of the classical tradition as he found it at the outset of his career. The slow movement begins with a wonderfully lyrical theme that surely influenced Schubert when he composed his own great C minor sonata. Like virtually all of Beethovens early slow movements, it is a work of transcendent beauty. Also typical of the composer is the passionate, almost defiant outburst shortly following the return of the main theme; it reminds us that peaceful moments are transitory, and that darker forces are always present even if they do not show their faces at every moment. The finale is one of Beethovens most ominous creations. Cast in sonata-allegro form, it is one of only two movements marked Prestissimo in the entire set of 32 sonatas. Its particularly terse Development section fleetingly introduces for the first time in his music the soon-to-be-familiar motifthree short notes followed by a long one. (Interestingly, the key of the piece in which this motif was later immortalized is also C minor.) Both principal themes of the movement are ingeniously combined in the brief coda, which concludes the movement as quietly and mysteriously as it began.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 6 in F Major, Op. 10/2 composed 1796-98, published 1798


There is a wonderful moment in the first movement of the Sonata No. 6 when, after the development section winds down, the opening theme returns virtually unaltered, just as expected in a traditional sonata recapitulation. But something isnt right. We pause to sniff the air, so to speak. Somehow, we have landed in the wrong neighborhood, and find ourselves in D major, rather than the home key of F major. We start again, far more hesitantly, seeking our way back to more familiar territory. Suddenly, we see a path that leads back to F. In order to make up for lost time, we dont bother with the characteristic opening phrase of the theme, but simply sneak into the middle, hoping that no one will have noticed our absence. This is the kind of humour at which Beethoven excelled, and it occurs time and time again in his music. Undoubtedly, he learned this trick (along with countless others) from Haydn, who, if anything, was even better at it than Beethoven. Some might tend to consider the notion of a work of art commenting on, and poking fun at, its own processes as a very modern, almost postmodern, phenomenon. However, it is a prominent, almost distinguishing, feature of the mature classical style. The middle movement, with its ominous outer sections and richly-chorded trio provides the only serious moment in this sonata, although even here, some jarring off-the-beat accents do their best to break the mood. The jocular Finale, with its echo of the Haydn Allegro in F that we all studied as kids, and whose themes literally laugh at themselves, begins like a fugue. Soon, however, the fugal style is quickly dropped, and the movement proceeds in a fairly straightforward sonata style to its abrupt conclusion.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 7 in D Major, Op. 10/3 composed 1797-98, published 1798


This sonata is generally acknowledged to be Beethovens first masterpiece. Each movement is a gem, with a strongly delineated profile and not a wasted note or gesture. The first movement sparkles with energy, its sense of breathlessness conveyed via mad dashes toward silences, double-takes and a surprise sudden jolt into the key of B flat major at the beginning of the Development section. Moreover, with virtually every theme based on the first four descending notes, it is as economical as any piece Beethoven composed. A sly reference to B-flat major also occurs at the very end of the movement, with a quotation from the opening of Mozarts Piano Concerto, K. 450, which also is in that key. The Largo was to remain Beethovens most tragic creation for piano until the appearance of the slow movement of the Hammerklavier, Op. 106. According to his biographer cum flunkey, Anton Schindler, Beethoven had deliberately set out to convey the state of mind of someone who had fallen prey to melancholia. With its desolate opening, anguished climaxes, and devastating ending, he succeeded unconditionally. I often wonder what passed through his mind when he completed this work. The Minuet begins elegantly, with a hint of sweetness. Then the surprises begin: a sudden rush in the bass is taken up by the other voices, before the music dissolves into a return of the opening theme. Finally, after a few more small jolts, it concludes with the same graciousness with which it began. The Trio resonates with the good humour that pervades the opening and closing movements, with its clumsy Landler, or peasant waltz. As an experiment, I once attempted to follow the Largo with minuets and scherzos (appropriately transcribed) Beethoven had composed for other sonatas. Noneincluding the one from the Pastorale Sonata, which is also in D majorprovided the proper emotional release from the mood of despair. Some were too serious, others far too jocular. In trying to determine why this particular one works so well, I discovered a slight thematic connection between the close of the Minuet theme and the opening theme of the Largo, but quickly realized that this was not a valid explanation. One hallmark of a great composer is his ability to provide not merely thematic continuity in a piece of music, but for lack of a better word, psychological continuity. Beethovens genius in that regard is unparalleled. The final movement is an exercise in both frugality and light-hearted comedy. The entire piece derives from only three notes, and the humour lies in that motifs vain efforts to develop into a full-blown theme or melody. It never succeeds: its efforts are met with frustration at every turn. Later, it throws a brief tantrum, furious1 at being thwarted so continually. However, rage is not its essential nature, and the mood soon dissipates. During the motifs adventures, it had previously encountered a simple chromatic scale accompanied in the bass by Chopsticks-like chords. The sonata concludes with these two musical figures flying off together somewhere, silently
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Beethovens incredible brain always lurks in the background, even in his most farcical moments. Consider that the tantrum is in B flat major, the key that plays an important role in the first movement.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13 Grande Sonate Pathtique composed 1798, published 1799
In 1793, the German poet, Friedrich Schiller, wrote an essay entitled ber das Pathetische. Musicologist William Kinderman, in his book, Beethoven, lucidly states Schillers thesis: Pathos or tragedy arises when unblinkered awareness of suffering is counter-balanced by the capacity of reason to resist these feelings. Beethovens understanding of this affect was undoubtedly close to Schillers. Defiance of suffering and a single-minded determination to surmount it lie at the heart of virtually all his C minor compositions. By the late 18th century, that keys strong association with a sense of tragic drama was firmly established: Mozart had cast several of his most dramatic works in that key, while Beethoven had recently composed the first of three dramatic C minor sonatas (Op. 10/1). However, the C minor as pathos identification probably was cemented with the Grande Sonate Pathtique, one of only two sonatas whose nickname was actually provided by Beethoven. This trait is found most obviously in the first movement, with its conflict between the solemn Grave, which is so reminiscent of the opening of Bachs C minor Partita, and the hugely defiant Allegro. Only four of the sonatas have an introduction, and this, his first, is the lengthiest and most elaborate. It does far more than merely set the mood: it is heavily integrated with the rest of the movement. A famous point of dispute between musicians occurs in the opening movement: some early editions of this sonata seem to indicate that the Introduction as well as the Allegro be repeated. The late Rudolf Serkin performed the sonata in this manner, as does at least one of his former students. I sympathize with anyone's desire to hear (or play) the introduction a second time. However, the overwhelming momentum of the Allegro suffers by the resulting interruption, and the devastating shock of the return to the introduction in G minor at the outset of the Development is completely lost. More importantly, how are we to handle Beethovens contemporaneous Piano Quartet/Quintet, Op. 16, with its even longer introduction and identical ambiguity about the repeat? In that work, repeating the introduction sounds ludicrous. Doing so in the Pathtique is equally wrong. Was the famous slow movement consciously or unconsciously influenced by the very similar middle section of the slow movement of Mozarts C minor sonata? Was it deliberately echoed, in turn, by Beethoven himself in the Adagio of his Ninth Symphony? We can never know such things: When someone pointed out to Brahms the resemblance between the finale of his first symphony and Beethovens Ode to Joy, he responded Any idiot knows that. However, when I intrepidly asked Aaron Copland about a striking kinship between the closing measures of The Cat and the Mouse and the introduction to Dukas The Sorcerers Apprentice, he acknowledged the resemblance, but then added that hed never heard the Dukas piece when hed composed his own work as a young man. Like so many of Beethovens adagios, this one has a troubled inner section in the minor key. His piano sonatas often contained textures associated with string quartet writing; here, one can easily envision a duet between the first violin and cello, accompanied by the nervous triplets in the second violin and viola parts. It is also characteristic of the composers slow movements that some aspect of the contrasting middle sectionin this case the triplet figuresremain present when the song-like opening theme returns. The Finale may be the lightest of the three movements, but its thematic connections to the rest of the sonata run deep. The rhythm of the main theme is identical to that of the second theme in the opening movement. The middle section contains two links to the second movement: not only do they share the key of A flat major, but the melodic skeleton of Adagio is also maintained. Throughout the movement Beethoven also plays a teasing game with us: on four occasions there occurs a brilliant descending scale, beginning from the topmost F of the keyboard as he knew it. However, only in the last measure does he finally resolve it in the home key of C minor.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 9 in E, Op. 14/1 composed 1778-79, published 1799


Those who enjoy Beethoven only when he is storming the heavens will have to sit out both Op. 14 sonatas. These brief, unpretentious, and mostly good-humoured pieces are a wonderful foil for the dramatic Pathtique that immediately preceded them. Of course, nowhere is it written that a composition in a lighter vein cannot be expertly crafted, and the first two movements of the E Major sonata are indeed the work of a master. The opening theme, for instance, contains three ideas that at first glance seem quite disparate. However, they are strongly related. The first motive delineates four rising notes (B to E). Those notes are immediately compressed into a brief scurrying passage that is famous for giving nightmares to even the most pyrotechnically-endowed pianists. The theme concludes leisurely with a descending scale, the last four notes of which are-almost predictably-the first four in reverse. The remainder of the movement concerns itself with developing the scale-like material, but also hidden away in the fabric of the music is a simple two-note pattern, G-G#, that the composer delights in reintroducing in a variety of guises. Early in his career, Beethoven was still wrestling with the matter of whether to include a minuet a livelier, trendier scherzo into his compositions. On this occasion, he skirted the issue by writing an unspecified, wistful Allegretto. This gentle work contrasts so satisfactorily with the outer movements that a genuine slow movement would have been superfluous. A curious rondo concludes the sonata. As with the opening movement, the main theme is primarily concerned with scale-like motion, with progression from B to E again prominently featured. Now, the vast majority of Beethovens themes are constructed so as to leave room for, and even demand, further growth and development, but this one never seems to be able to get off the ground. Furthermore, with a generous dose of repetitiveness as well as a busy middle section that may leave some listeners wondering why it is there, it is no wonder that the sonata ends so abruptly and unceremoniously! It is as though Beethoven were saying Whew! Im glad to be through with that one. Incidentally, Beethoven later set this sonata as a string quartet. Although his doing so might be more illustrative of his creative financial dealings with his publishers than with any artistic creativity, the result is no mere transcription. As the famed British musician Donald Tovey wrote in his edition of the sonatas, a careful study of the quartet score sheds new light on Beethovens piano style.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 14/2 composed 1778, published 1799


This good-humored sonata is an exact contemporary of the Pathtique, Op. 13. Beethoven possibly may have planned to include all three under a single opus number, but soon realized that the two lightweight inhabitants of Op. 14 hardly belong in the same galaxy as the Pathtique, let alone the same binding. Jokes abound throughout the piece, beginning with the first measure, which is deliberately written so as mislead the unsuspecting listener as to the placement of the main beat. The movement continues amiably until the relatively lengthy development section, where the mood becomes more serious, even confrontational. Rhythmic confusion begins again toward the end of the section, and the piece is forced to come to an abrupt, ugly halt on C#, a note as far away from G as we can get, before a return to the main themethe sneakiest Beethoven ever composedcan be managed. He obviously liked the joke so much that he repeated it practically verbatim in the finale of his sixteenth sonata (G major, Op. 31/1). The brief second movement is possibly the most unsophisticated in the canon. It is an unnamed set of variations in which the main theme is always discernible, while the speed of its embellishments increases from variation to variation. Interestingly, Beethoven never called movements of this type Variations, reserving that designation only for those works in which the theme itself is subjected to more profound transformations. One almost can imagine this movement having been written by a far less talented colleague, were it not for two touches that only Beethoven could have thought of: a four-bar interpolation just before final variation, and an audacious chord that brings the movement to a close. The final movement is a rondo entitled Scherzo. Once again, the composer keeps the listener guessing: first about the time signature, then, about where the main beat is within the bar. A fitful piece, except for a lyrical episode, it keeps us off guard from beginning to end. Haydn would have loved it.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 11 in B-flat, Op. 22 composed 1799-1800, published 1802


This is the first sonata where, instead of breaking new ground and probing the limits of every precept and process he can, Beethoven appears satisfied to rest on his laurels. Op. 22 is the most normal sonata he wrotethe one that most closely adheres to textbook descriptions of the form. Furthermore, it does not portray him in any of his most characteristic moments; it is not especially defiant, tragic, humorous, or brilliant. Nevertheless, he was particularly proud of it, according to a letter that he wrote to his publisher, and his pride is fully justified. Beethovens accomplishments to date in this genre are fully summed up in this work. Moreover, it would be hard to find a piece that better exemplifies the piano sonata at the end of the 18th century. Still, even here, something new is afoot: the degree, and function, of pianistic figuration. The passage-work no longer merely provides self-conscious moments of brilliance as in, say, Op. 2/3: it becomes the very stuff out of which much of the work is cast, and forecasts pieces like the Waldstein and the fourth concerto. This is also Beethovens most elegant sonata to date. From the start of his career, his Haydnesque tendency to wring as much melodic content as he can from a few simple motives was present. However, in Op. 22, we also witness a Mozartean sense of effortlessness in the way the themes flow into each other, especially in the opening movement. The utterly sublime slow movt is one of my personal favorites in the entire canon. With its simple accompanying chords in the left hand, it begins innocently, like a Grade 3 piano piece. However, once Beethoven has stated his material, the movementin a full Sonata formdevelops magically, with an almost unbearable degree of tension in the Development section. The gracious, trouble-free Minuet begins with upward motion from D to F, as in the opening movement, followed by a turning motif that is derived from the Adagio. The trio is more intense, with most of the melodic interest maintained by the figurations in left hand. Although we tune detectives, can be a tiresome lot, we are here justified in noting a strong connection between this theme and an episode in Mozarts Turkish Rondo. The final movement is probably the most successful of Beethovens congenial, repetitive sonata-rondos. The second theme is reminiscent of that which he used for a set of G major variations familiar to many student pianists. The central section is a little sonatinaa form within a form, as it werein which the main theme is that same G Major tune, while the second theme derives from a figuration that occurs in the first movement. More than one commentator has noted the resemblance between this movement and the finale to the Sonata, Op. 7, but whereas the earlier one ends softly, Beethoven must have decided that a sonata of this scope required a more decisive conclusion than he had provided the first time around.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 12 in A flat Major, Op. 26 Funeral March composed 1800-01, published 1802
In 1802, any musician or educated music-lover who had been tracking Beethovens career would have come to expect a thematically unified work consisting of a dramatic, cogently-argued opening movement, followed by an intensely lyrical Adagio, possibly a witty minuet or scherzo, and finally, a relatively light closing movement. Against such expectations, the appearance of the suite-like Sonata in A flat, Op. 26 and the two sonatas quasi una Fantasia of Op. 27, would not merely have been surprising. With their unorthodox ordering of movements, and the use of genres not normally associated with sonatas, they must have seemed as shocking as Beethovens final sonata trilogy, Op. 109-111, composed two decades later. The opening movement is a leisurely set of variations, based on an Andante that seems far more appropriate to a slow movement than to the beginning of a sonata. Although the relationship between the theme and each of the five variations is clear, there is little connection between the variations themselves, nor is there much of a cumulative effect when all are heard together. (Beethoven tacitly acknowledges each variations separateness by concluding each with a full double bar, a practice not encountered in any of his other variation sets.) For the first time in his four-movement piano sonatas, the Scherzo appears as the second movement rather than the third. The change of order was virtually a necessity here, given the slow pace of the opening movement. Nevertheless, Beethoven must have been satisfied with the result, because this was the order to which he would frequently return in many of his instrumental works. A heroic funeral march serves as the slow movement. All the elements that characterize the genre are presentthe lumbering dotted rhythm, a minor key, and a military salute featuring trumpets and drums. Beethoven must also have been satisfied with this idea, because he soon was to repeat the procedure in his Eroica. (Incidentally, it is not generally known that in 1815 he orchestrated this movement and included it in his incidental music to the now forgotten play Leonore Prohaska.) Op. 26 is the first sonata to feature a perpetuum mobile finale, a technique he would employ in seven of his nine subsequent sonatas. The themes gentle character is interrupted throughout the rondo by jarring syncopations in the second theme, and a middle section whose ferocity anticipates the finale of the Moonlight. The coda, while losing none of its momentum, quickly and effectively dissolves the sonata into nothingness.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 13 quasi una Fantasia in E flat Major, Op. 27/1 composed 1800-01, published 1802
This work, like the Moonlight, its better known bedfellow, represents one of the earliest attempts by Beethoven to create a succinct, unified sonata in which, for the first time in his piano music, individual movements are linked together without a break. A reprise of the slow movement following the finale likewise contributes to the works unity, as does the fact that Beethoven derives virtually all the important themes in this sonata from two ideas: a falling third, and a rising arpeggio. The most notable innovation in this piece is the dramatic shift in the works centre of gravity. Until this point, the classical sonatas weightiest moments generally occurred in the two opening movements. However, this sonata breaks that tradition by intensifying as it progresses, with the Finale serving as its climax. In order to underscore the importance of this structural change, and make it obvious, Beethoven may have deliberately composed as innocuous an opening theme to the sonata as he could. The subsequent variation even borders on silliness: this is one of the few places in Beethoven where the music is not, as Schnabel was fond of saying, greater than it possibly can be played. The two intervening episodes and the coda are by far the most interesting sections of this rondo movement. The work then deepens dramatically and suddenly. The second movement is the first example we have of Beethovens dark, almost sinister scherzi. A songful slow movement is interrupted by the perpetual motion, driven Finale. Brilliant as it is, however, the Finale lacks the stamina to make it all the way to the finish line. It stops suddenly, and while pausing for breath, the Adagio returns for one final reprise. A short Coda resumes the activity, and brings this unjustifiably neglected sonata to a brilliant conclusion.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 14 quasi una Fantasia in C sharp minor, Op. 27/2 Moonlight composed 1801, published 1802
This work, the most famous sonata in existenceand one of the most atypicalowes its nickname not to Beethoven or any ingenious publisher. Rather, the credit goes to the German poet and critic Ludwig Rellstab, who wrote that the first movement reminded him of a boat visiting, by moonlight, the primitive landscapes of Lake Lucerne. One is tempted to wonder whether the sonata would have achieved its popularity without that evocative nickname, and also to lament that the first movement is by now so hackneyed that its magnificence is often overlooked. Moreover, the entire piece, surely one of Beethovens finest creations, is all-too-seldom performed in recital. (Interestingly, when the sonata was first published, it was the finale that gave the work its almost instant popularity.) This work and its less-known companion, the Sonata in E flat, Op. 27/1, represent Beethovens earliest attempts to create works whose continuity spreads over all the movements, with the weightiest moments occurring toward the conclusion, rather than the opening. The dividing lines between movements are clearer here than in Op. 27/1. Still, the Moonlights effect is also cumulative, leading us from the utmost solemnity of the first movement, through the gracious, ultra-brief respite provided by an untitled minuet (termed by Liszt as a flower between two abysses) to the passionate, unremittingly tragic Finale. Interestingly, there is little contrast within any of the movements: each seems to be cut from only one piece of cloth. Theoretically, the opening movement can be parsed into a structure containing all the elements of Sonata allegro form. However such an analysis barely describes this wondrous composition, which sounds more formless than possibly any other movement he wrote. Two characteristics of the final movement, which is in a far more recognizable sonata-allegro form, bear noting. The first three notes in the right hand are identical to the accompanying triplet figure in the opening movement. Also, as in several other of his sonatas, the movement seems to run out of steam shortly before the conclusion of the work, and pauses briefly before heading for the final bar.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 15 in D Major, Op. 28 Pastoral composed 1801, published 1802


This sonata is something of an anomaly, given the six highly innovative sonatas from Op. 26 to 31 that surround it. It is, for Beethoven, a relatively conventional four-movement creation (his last) and is the most laid-back of the canon. There are few formal and harmonic experiments like those that characterize his previous sonatas; also absent is their strong dramatic presence. Still, as Donald Tovey points out, Op. 28 is Pastoral only in the sense that Jane Austins novels are. One only has to compare this masterful piece to Clementis Sonata Op. 40/3 (written almost at the same time, in the same key, and with a strikingly similar opening theme), to recognize the masterful quality that shines through from beginning to end. It is tightly unified; a descending scale from A to D is found in the opening themes of the first, second, and fourth movements. (One wonders whether Beethoven had at the back of his mind, the famous Bach Musette in D major we all played as children, which also begins with the same descending five notes.) Two particularly striking moments in the opening movement bear specific mention. The ending of the first theme, in the right hand, becomes the basis of the closing theme in the left. Later, the Development section provides a classic instance of what Alfred Brendel terms foreshortening, in which more and more of a theme is chopped away, while the remainder is repeated again and again with increasing insistence. The processional Andante follows, accompanied by a cello-like pizzicato bass line. Lest we labour under the misunderstanding that this is another funeral march, Beethoven provides a fairly jocular Trio. Towards the end, however, the movement deepens significantly, and when the Trio is briefly reprised, its far more menacing qualities are also revealed. The Scherzo begins ambiguously, with four descending unison F sharps that could easily imply several different keys. It is only when those notes are answered that we know that Beethoven is remaining in the home key of D Major. His humorous use of silence in this movement is also especially noteworthy. The Trio anticipates a trick Chopin often used in the Mazurkas, in which the melody remains constant while the surrounding harmonies alter with each iteration. Op. 28 marks the first instance in a Beethoven sonata where a deliberately-paced Finale is followed by a brief, fast coda. It is the most pastoral of the four movements, with the opening measures wonderfully evoking the sound of country bagpipes (decidedly not the Black Watch variety) in the distance.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 16 in G Major, Op. 31/1 composed 1801-02, published 1804


Although Beethoven had in 1800 expressed particular satisfaction with his Sonata in B flat, Op. 22, a year later he announced that he was displeased with his previous music, and that henceforth he would embark upon a new course. Part of this rhetorical overstatement can be attributed to the intense insecurity that escapes only mediocre artists. (An equal portion can undoubtedly be ascribed to hyperbole from one of the most successful self-promoters in the history of classical music.) Nonetheless, there is more than an element of truth to his pronouncement. The sonatas of Op. 26 and 27 explore new structural possibilities. Although this sonata is more conventional from a formal standpoint, it explores several important new paths, including some that Beethoven ultimately decided not to pursue further: the use of Ecossais-type melodies, rapid shifts back and forth between major and minor modes (both of which would later become virtual thumbprints of Schubert), and a florid, operatic kind of writing. However, Beethoven's most significant find lies in the area of harmony and structure. From the outset of his career, Beethoven had flirted with the notion of modulating, in his major-key sonata-form movements, to keys other than the dominant. As early as in his second sonata, he had led his listeners far afield before arriving at the expected second key. However, it is in Op. 31/1 that he finally "takes the plunge." For the first time, he modulates from the home key (G Major) to B, in both the major and minor modes (as opposed to the typical dominant, in this case, D major). Nowadays, any Grade II piano student knows that B minor and D major share the same key signature, so the modulation does not seem too strange to our ears. However, two centuries ago, ending the exposition in any key other than D would have undoubtedly shocked listeners and fellow musicians. It could well be that Beethoven chose to clothe such a radical step in the most humorous, off-thewall, movement for piano he would compose, so as to deflect any criticism that such a departure might provoke. The Sonata features one of the most nondescript openings in the history of music, beginning with a trite theme that the pianist's hands seemingly cannot manage to play together. The melody itself goes nowhere, turning back on itself again and again. In desperation, the pianist scrambles all over the keyboard in search of something better to do. Finally, he decides to cut his losses and start over. Unfortunately, he fares no better this time, and it is against this backdrop, that the piece finally modulates, with little subtlety, to the "wrong key." This is an example of musical hi-jinx at its best. Later on, in the Development section and in the coda that concludes the movement, it is the split hands and the mad scrambling, rather than the subsequent melodies, which Beethoven chooses for further expansion. The second movement represents another path Beethoven chose not to explore further: the florid, opera-like style that would lead directly to the Nocturnes of Chopin and Field, as well as the Bel Canto melodies of Bellini and Donizetti. The motorized middle section contrasts sharply with the opening; yet, when the first section returns, the composer, as usual, finds a way of reconciling both elements. The movement concludes with a wondrous, lengthy coda that sounds far more like Schubert than Beethoven. The third movement is one of those leisurely, repetitious rondos with which Beethoven frequently concluded his sonatas. Charles Rosen, the eminent scholar/pianist, notes that it is an exact formal model for the finale of Schubert's posthumous A Major Sonata (and argues that this is a rare instance where a student's effort surpassed that of the teacher). Toward the end of the movement, a cadenza deliciously teases the audience by reintroducing the main theme yet again, but haltingly now, as if to ask: "Shall we move along, or savour it still more?" (Shades of vaudeville artistes Lili St. Cyr or Tempest Storm!) Finally, the composer makes up his mind, and speeds hastily to the double bar, re-introducing in the final measures the alternating hands with which this special, and least familiar, sonata began.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31/2 Tempest composed 1802, published 1804
The sonatas of Op. 31 continue the exploration of new paths that Beethoven had begun with Op. 26paths that include formal and harmonic experimentation. The D minor sonata, Op. 31/2 is his first work in which the main theme (seemingly) begins in a key other than the tonic. A mysterious A major arpeggio, ostensibly the introduction, immediately attracts and holds our attention through a lengthy pause. Suddenly, a rush of twonote figures momentarily identifies the correct key of the piece, but again stops on the dominant A, rather than on the tonic D minor. The mysterious arpeggio is again heard, but in the distant key of C major. After another pause, a second, longer rush of two-note figures leads to triumphant statement of the arpeggio in the home key, pounded out in the bass, alternating with a plaintive gesture in the treble. Here, even the most experienced listener would be justified in presuming that we have finally arrived at the main theme. However, from the outset of the piece, Beethoven has kept several steps ahead of us. After only eight measures he begins modulating to the secondary key. This is a transition: what we had thought was an introduction was actually the main theme. [Interestingly, whenever this theme is quoted again--in the repeat of the exposition and the recapitulation--the previous material elides effortlessly into it, so that Beethoven never again allows us to hear it as a beginning. Those pianistsstudents and professionals alikewho make a big ritardando in order to emphasize the return of the main theme have not a clue about Beethovens narrative sense.] The remainder of the movement is devoted to a working out of the three ideas already introduced. In the recapitulation, the initial slow arpeggio is followed by a recitative that, consciously or otherwise, anticipates the well-known baritone recitative that opens the choral portion of the finale to Beethovens 9th Symphony. The sublime Adagio also begins with a slow arpeggio. All the important themes are peaceful, but running through the movement is a series of ominous, short drum rolls in the bass, that remind us, as Beethoven so often likes to do, that tranquility is at best transitory. The finale is another of those moto perpetuo movements that so obsessed Beethoven in his middle period. Beethoven may (or may not; see my notes to Sonata No. 18) have originally been inspired by hearing a horseman galloping by his window, according to his student Karl Czerny, but he ultimately moved well beyond that image, as evidenced by the Allegretto and piano markings at the outset. A single melodic pattern predominates throughout, with subsidiary sections featuring jarring cross-accentuation. Like the two preceding movements, the finale ends quietly, with the incessant rhythmic pattern playing itself out to the point of exhaustion. As for Beethovens famous response to a question posed by his amanuensis Anton Schindler regarding this works (and the Appassionatas) meaning, it is possible that Beethoven indeed saw some particular connection between both pieces and Shakespeares The Tempest. Given Schindlers less than brilliant mind, however, it is possible that the composer just threw out the first answer he could think of.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 18 in E flat Major, Op. 31/3 composed 1802, published 1804
This work was to be Beethovens final four-movement sonata aside from the Hammerklavier. Its layout is quite unusual. There is no slow movement: instead, the composer provides both a Scherzo and a Minuet. (Had Beethoven appeared on the late-night Dietrich Leitermann TV show, the gap-toothed comic might have quipped: Whats the matter, Lou? After composing 17 sonatas, you still cant make up your mind?) Like the other two Op. 31 sonatas, this one begins unusually. Instead of positing a thesis or statement, Beethoven asks a question. Moreover, throughout the movement, like an insecure child, he asks the same question over and over again, even though the answer is provided on each occasion by a parent whose patience exceeds that of anyone else listening to (or performing) the piece. The Scherzo is equally unorthodox. Until now, Beethovens scherzi have essentially been fast, triple-metered minuets, with contrasting Trios. This one breaks with both traditions: it is a quick march in 2/4 time, and is cast in a sonata form, complete with a repeat of the opening section. Its most distinguishing characteristics are the perpetual-motion accompaniment in the left hand, and the sudden explosive chords that temporarily halt the movements continuous motion. The surprise ending is truly one of the composers masterstrokes. The MinuetBeethovens final free-standing one for solo pianois characterized by a complete absence of the vigour and rhythmic thrust of most classical minuets by Haydn and Mozart, as well as those by Beethoven himself. Instead, this beautiful piece is filled with nostalgia and sentiment, as though the composer is reluctantly taking his leave of the eighteenth century.2 Beethovens student, Karl Czerny, claimed that the composer told him that he was inspired by the sound of a horseman riding wildly outside his window as he composed the finale to the D minor Sonata, Op. 31/2. There may have been a breakdown of communication between them, due either to Beethovens deafness or a lapse in Czernys memory. It requires a stretch of the imagination to hear the last movement of Op. 31/2 (marked Allegretto) in that manner. However, very few pieces better evoke the image of a furious gallop than the Finale of Op. 31/3. It begins breathlessly with the sound of hooves clattering on the cobblestones. Later on, hunting horn calls are added to the mix, and the movement continues to a joyous conclusion with only a tiny break just before the final phrase.

Later, in his Symphony No. 8, he would return to the minuet form to parody it, rather than, as in this sonata, to pay homage to a beloved genre that he realized had outlived its time. Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 19 in G Minor, Op. 49/1 composed 1797, published 1805 Sonata No. 20 in G Major, Op. 49/2 composed 1795-96, published 1805
Despite their opus number, the two Op. 49 sonatas are early works, published without the composers consent at his brothers instigation. One can readily understand Beethovens annoyance: they are quite unfinished, especially with respect to their unusually sparse dynamic markings, which Beethoven invariably treated not simply as expression marks, but as an important aspect of a works structure. More importantly, for all the sonatas allure, they no longer reflected his compositional skills in 1805, and he would not have wanted them regarded as representative of his current work. It is for those reasons that some pianists and commentators argue that these pieces should be excluded from the canon of Beethovens piano sonatas, and grouped instead with the remainder of his juvenilia. Still, they were composed very shortly before Beethoven launched his career in earnest, and are much closer in quality to his earliest published works than to the student pieces he had written previously. Occasionally, they even exhibit a surprising degree of sophistication. The opening movement of the G minor sonata is a tragic Andante. This in itself is unusualslow first movements were rare in the classical erabut more interesting is the fact that both themes share a common rhythm. In the first movement of the G major sonata, the relationship is even subtler: the second theme is derived from the latter portion of the first. Both finales are light rondos. The first combines a formal scheme that is characteristic of Mozart, blended with a humorous quality reminiscent of Haydn. The final movement of No. 2 opens with the theme that Beethoven subsequently used in the minuet of his Septet, Op. 20. Considering that he virtually disowned the Septet, imagine his anger at seeing what is tantamount to a sketch of one of its movements published several years later without his knowledge. For all their youthfulness, the Op. 49 sonatas are delightful, charming pieces. It is small wonder that they are so often used as an introduction to Beethoven for young pianists. Nevertheless, they do deserve a more serious outing every so often

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 21 in C, Op. 53 Waldstein composed 1803-4, published 1805


Many of us are so brainwashed by the image of Beethoven struggling with his creative demons that we overlook the fact that only eight years separate his first piano sonata from the Waldstein. It is worth remembering that a track record of twenty-one published piano sonatas, plus six string quartets, three piano concertos, nine violin sonatas, three piano trios and three completed symphonies, all within eight years, is not exactly indicative of moderately-paced activity. This is especially true, considering these works greatness, complexity and individuality, not to mention the phenomenal artistic growth they evince over that period. Only two piano sonatasthis one and the Appassionatareflect Beethovens mid-career preoccupation with expanding his instrumental forms to epic proportions. The Waldstein, in fact, was originally meant to be even longer; he had originally composed a leisurely slow movement, but subsequently withdrew it, published it separately as Andante Favori, and substituted the short but far more profound Introduzione which now separates the outer movements. Beethovens achievement is even more remarkable, given an additional restriction that he imposed upon himself, namely, the almost total avoidance of a theme with any distinctive melodic profile. Instead, he created his structures out of repeated chords, scale-wise and arpeggiated figurations, and for the first timebut by no means the lasttrills and tremolos, all occurring over relatively slow-moving harmonies. In referring to this sonata, many commentators dwell on the unorthodox modulation, in the first movement, from the home key of C Major, to the relatively distant E major, rather than the more traditional G Major. This is understandable; even after performing this sonata many times, I still feel, when reaching the E major section, that I am in a hitherto undiscovered galaxy where an entirely new set of physical laws apply. Still, for the record, Beethoven had already broken this new ground in the earlier G Major Sonata, Op. 31/1. That sonata, however, is so jocular that the unusual modulation may well have been perceived as a joke. In the Waldstein, his intentions are clear. From this point on, the gravitational pull between dominant and tonic in sonata form becomes less significant than the conflict of musical ideas, irrespective of the key in which they occur. (It is important, however, to remember that Beethoven only broke the rule once more [in the Hammerklavier] as far as the sonatas in major keys are concerned. All the others adhere to the traditional practice.) The wonderful middle movement provides us with one of the best glimpses we have of Beethoven as the legendary improviser at the keyboard. With its extensive chromaticism and shifting harmonies, the accompanying sense of uneasiness serves as the ideal introduction to the expansive, radiant finale. Several of Beethovens piano sonatas contain leisurely rondos with opening themes that are repeated so many times that some listeners patience can come close to being tested. However, the reverse is true in the case of the Waldstein. The resonance of that opening low C, the rolling accompaniment and hazy pedaling impart such enchantment to the innocent theme that time seems to stand still. We are Beethovens willing prisoners, and will remain motionless for as long, and as many times, as he wishes us to do so. How infinitely more apt is this sonatas French and Russian sobriquet (lAurore, or dawn) than the mundane nickname the piece has acquired in English and German!

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 22 in F Major, Op. 54 composed 1804, published 1806


What are we to make of this curious, unassuming work that separates the heroic Waldstein and Appassionata Sonatas? Should we read anything into its lack of a dedication, seemingly a wasted opportunity for one of the more politically astute composers in history? Is it an indication that Beethoven realized that it hadnt quite come off? Could he have intended it as a heavy-handed burlesque of less talented composers efforts, along the lines of Mozarts Musical Joke, or perhaps even his own eighth symphony? Or should we cast our votes with pianists Edwin Fischer and Alfred Brendel, both of whom have written that it is an important work (without really explaining why)? The truth probably lies somewhere within all these assertions. In this sonata, Beethoven explored a number of radical techniques for the first time, while disguising the sonatas experimental nature with the use of humour, so as to deflect any criticism of the piece. In the opening movement Beethoven attempts a juxtaposition and ultimate reconciliation of two diametrically opposing ideas: an elegant, gentle minuet and a crude, heavily accented octave exercise. The minuet occurs three times, becoming increasingly ornate with each repetition, finally dissolving into trills. Interspersed are the two octave passages. They begin similarly, but partway through the second of these, Beethoven suddenly breaks off, as though he realizes that this experiment simply is not working, and returns to the minuet. He becomes contrite in the coda when, as though to atone for his sins, he delivers the movements finest music. In the second movement we find the composer experimenting with structure. The thematic material, admittedly, can be shoe-horned into some kind of sonata form, but with the proportions of each section totally askew: The opening exposition is only 3 lines long, while the remainder of the movement occupies more than five pages. Furthermore, the imbalance is magnified because Beethoven specifically indicates that the lengthy second section be repeated. Perceptually, the effect is one of the composer leading us all over the map for several minutes, at a hypnotic pace that according to Donald Tovey, nothing can hurry and nothing can stop. Finally, Beethoven decides that enough is enough, and races us for the concluding double bar, leaving us all out of breath when we arrive there. The laugh is on us! Some of the techniques he first explored here would be repeated with more notable success in subsequent keyboard works. The progressively increasing decorativeness in each repetition of the minuet can also be heard in both the slow movement of Op. 57 and the final variation of the third movement of Op. 109. The juxtaposition of two seemingly incompatible ideas in the opening movement of Op. 54 is again worked out in the first movement of Op. 109. Finally, Beethoven was sufficiently satisfied with the finale that he immediately used a similar in his very next piano sonata, the Appassionata, both with respect to the tempo and asymmetrical ground plan.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 Appassionata composed 1804-5, published 1807


I confess the reasons for the so-called Appassionata Sonatas popularity elude me. At this period of his life Beethoven was not only preoccupied with motivic frugality. He was also preoccupied with being Beethoven his conceit at this period was to create mammoth structures from material that in lesser hands would scarcely have afforded a good sixteen-bar intro. And there is about the Appassionata an egoistic pomposity, a defiant let's see if I can't get away with using that tune once more, attitude, that on my own private Beethoven poll places this sonata somewhere between the King Stephen Overture and the Wellington's Victory Symphony. No, this quote is not another post-modern attempt by a proponent of the "new musicology" to cut Beethoven down to size. Rather, it is from programme notes Glenn Gould wrote three decades ago for his own recording of the piece. That performance elicited from critic Harris Goldsmith the remark that Goulds interpretation represented an act of "deliberate sabotage." (This was one of the more charitable comments that greeted that particular release.) Yet, Gould did have a point. He recognized that for all the Appassionatas drama and presti-digitational demands, the harmonic motion is slow, and there is less contrapuntal complexity than we find in his earlier or later sonatas. However, he was judging this piece strictly from the vantagepoint of an obsessed imitative contrapuntist. He demonstrably had little sympathy for Beethovens extraordinary achievement of creating as epic a work as had yet been written for the piano, one that used sound and texture rather than melody, and with every aspect of the sonatas architecture contributing to its inner drama. The sonata begins with an arpeggiated theme in F minor. It is immediately repeated, but now in the key of G flat. This sets into motion a struggle between the all-important note C, a fundamental part of the F minor chord, and a less crucial note in that key, D flat. The standard tensions of themes and keys inherent in the most first movements are still present; however, the C - D flat dichotomy also persists throughout the movement (and indeed, the entire sonata) and even overwhelms the music at its most climactic points: the end of the Development and the Coda. In the middle of his career, Beethoven seemed to avoid writing the extended slow movements he delighted in composing both earlier and later. Many of these middle movement, like the Appassionatas, serve primarily as a welcome pause between the weightier outer movements. The second movement is a set of variations (set in D flat major) whose main theme contains no fewer than five iterations of the motif D flat - C - D flat. The theme, essentially a series of chords, remains constant, but becomes increasingly embellished in each of the three variations. Finally, the original theme is re-stated. This time, though, each phrase sounds in a different register, thereby revealing inner dialogues that were hidden the first time around. Suddenly, the movement is harshly interrupted (by a chord whose top note is none other than D flat), and the finale follows without a pause. It is characteristic of another aspect of Beethovens middle-period keyboard style: of the nine sonatas written between Opus 26 and 57, seven of their finales, including this one, feature perpetual-motion patterns from start to finish. The highest notes of the principal motif are, almost predictably, C and D flat. The tempo marking is Allegro ma non troppo. Of course, that only serves as a challenge for some pianists to play the movement from beginning to end as troppo as possible, so as to demonstrate conclusively how much better they know than Beethoven about how his music is to be performed. As with the opening movement, the repetition of the Exposition is omitted. How bizarre, then, that Beethoven specifically and unusually directs that the much longer development and recapitulation be repeated! Many musicians question the advisability of following this marking, and I must confess that, before performing the piece I also had decided that the sonatas greatness might best be served by ignoring the repeat sign. However, the first time I played it in public, the choice was literally taken out of my hands. I simply could not go forward at this point, and played the piece as written. As always, Beethoven is right. The repetition may admittedly be superfluous if only the last movement is played, but when one performs the entire sonata, the finale demands the length Beethoven assigned it, if for no other reason than to counterbalance the weight and force of the opening movement.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp, Op. 78 composed 1809, published 1810


This is first of three relatively brief piano sonatas that appeared four years after the Appassionata. Its brevity, however, is not an indication that it is a slight work; indeed, Beethoven claimed that this sonata was one of his favorites. (Presumably, he was sufficiently objective not to allow his special affection for the sonatas dedicatee, Therese von Brunsvik, as well what may have been more than affection for her sister Josephine, to color his judgment.) Anyone believing that keys lost their distinctive personalities following the introduction of the well-tempered system of tuning need not look further than this sonata. Try playing the introduction in G or F major, then play it in the proper key of F#. The difference is astonishing; the piece becomes so dark, so haunting! No wonder Beethoven wouldnt have been bothered in the slightest by the fact that the pianist has to walk on eggs in order to play the rest of the sonata! The miraculous four-measure introduction sets the stage and the mood of the remainder of the movement, with the cantabile feeling moderating all the harmonic and rhythmic contrasts that follow. The main theme of this exuberant, kaleidoscopic second movement is based on a three-note idea that appears inconspicuously in the first movement, followed immediately by the refrain, Brittannia rules the Waves, from Thomas Arne's anthem Rule Brittania. (This could be a coincidence, although Beethoven knew the theme well, having composed a set of piano variations on the English melody in 1803.) Good humour abounds through the continuous two-note chirrups, the sudden changes in register, and even the sharp major-minor shifts. One of the movements finest touches occurs just prior to each return of the main theme, when the composer keeps us guessing about exactly when it will happen. Also in evidence is Beethovens genius for knowing precisely how to end a movement.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 25 in G Major, Op. 79 composed 1809, published 1810


This is the second of three relatively brief sonatas that followed the Appassionata. Beethoven described it in a letter to his publisher as Sonatine facile. However, although of sonatina length, it is not sonatina-like in its detailed working out; nor is it particularly facile to jouer. The opening movement is marked Presto alla Tedesca (i.e. a fast waltz). Toward the beginning of the Development section, Beethoven discovered that, if you eliminate the first note of the opening three-note theme, you are left with a falling motive that sounds like a cuckoo clock. His amusement at this discovery knows no bounds! He repeats it for us time and time again. Then, at the end of the movement, he has another go or two at the idea, just to ensure we have not forgotten his jest. The lilting, melancholy second movement forecasts the Venetian Boat Songs of Mendelssohn, while the finale is a miniature rondo in which the main theme alternates with two epigrammatic sections. (Beethoven would use that theme again in the first movement of the sonata, Op. 109.) The coda provides a surprise ending that perfectly sums up the jocular mood of this delightful movement.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 26 in E-flat, Op. 81a Das Lebewohl composed 1809-10, published 1811
Op. 81a is a transitional work: the sonic landscape of the introduction presages some of his late compositions, while other portions could easily have been written a few years earlier. This sonata is also unusual in three respects that have nothing to do with the music itself. Of all the sonatas, this is the only one with an explicit program. Archduke Rudolph, a close friend and sponsor of Beethoven, was forced to leave Vienna due to the imminent Napoleonic invasion, and Beethoven composed this work with the movements representing, respectively, his friends farewell, his absence, and their reunion. (He even delayed completion of the finale until Rudolph actually returned to Vienna). It is also no coincidence that this is also the first sonata in which the original titles and principal tempo indications are in German. To employ even common musical terms such as Allegro and Andante was politically incorrect at this time because Italian was the Napoleons native language.3 Lastly, the work owes its unusual opus number to the fact that it was bound with a sextet for two horns and string quartet (Op. 81b) which Beethoven had composed much earlier. Although the grouping of several similar compositions under a single opus number was still relatively common (although no longer so for Beethoven, whose works were in such demand that he could sell each one individually), this type of dogs breakfast publication was always a rare occurrence. The sonata is not only programmatic, but also highly pictorial. The first three notes of the introduction bring to mind a post-horn call. One can almost imagine the Archdukes horses neighing in the flourish immediately preceding the main theme, following which, the left hand imitates the clattering of coach wheels while the sharp, rising three notes in the right hand depict the cracking of the drivers whip. Also, in the coda, it is not hard to picture, in the winding down of the tempo and the spreading of the hands, the Archdukes coach disappearing from view. The second movement wonderfully evokes a sense of loneliness, while the third, complete with fanfare, conjures up the joy and excitement of seeing a close friend after a lengthy absence. Yet, for all the programmatic content, the sonata is rigorously constructed, beginning with the Introduction, which is totally integrated with the rest of the composition. Indeed, the opening three notes are the source of virtually all the important material of the first movement. In various transformations, that motto also plays a meaningful role in the remainder of the sonata. All three movements are in fairly standard sonata forms, except for the deeply expressive Andante, which lacks a development section. The Finale, with its E-flat major scales and arpeggios, is highly reminiscent of the Emperor Concerto, written around the same time.

3 'Les Adieux' was the last name Beethoven would have chosen, and not simply because of anti-French sentiment. Beneath the important descending three-note motto with which the Sonata begins, the composer wrote the syllables, Le-be-wohl, whose meaning in German - 'live well' - is quite different than the French 'good-bye,' or 'God be with you'.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90 composed 1814, published 1815


The years 1812-1814 were the least productive of Beethovens career. No wonder: the combination of particularly severe personal stress, a sharp decline in his hearing, and the impact of the recent Napoleonic occupation could hardly have been conducive to the incredible productivity that had characterized his output in the 19th centurys first decade. (He did remain busy during those years, but it was busy work that principally occupied him: the creation of patriotic pieces like Wellingtons Victory and The Glorious Moment, which were written to commemorate the Congress of Vienna, several folksong settings, and the final revision of Fidelio.) The sonata in E minor, Op. 90 marks a return to more serious composition. Perhaps coincidentally, Beethoven appears to have picked up where he left off with the principal thematic germ of the first movementthe three-note descending motif, G-F#-Eremarkably like his previous sonatas (Op. 81a) main theme, G-F-E flat. The two ideas are even developed similarly in places. As with all his mature two-movement sonatas, each movement contrasts sharply with the other. In the opening, highly concentrated movement, two dissimilar ideas are presented at the outset, and it is these themes that Beethoven ultimately subjects to extensive development. Especially masterful is the manner in which, at the end of the development section, the composer ruminates about the first of these motivesthree descending notesto the point where the rhythm of the movement almost dissolves completely. However, just before chaos sets in, the music regains its momentum, and the main theme emerges out of the prior dissolution of the musical material. The concluding movement is not only the last of the five congenial Rondos to appear in his piano sonatas, but is as leisurely, lyrical, and repetitive a finale as he was ever to compose. (Some commentators refer to it as Schubertian because of its melodiousness, but with the exception of a cadence just before the movements conclusion, that particular reference eludes these ears.) Thank goodness Beethoven knew a good tune when he wrote it: it occurs virtually unadorned sixteen times over the course of the movement. Beethoven knows exactly what he is up to, however, and teases us at the sonatas conclusion, pretending that the movement is going to continue even more. Suddenly, he decides that enough is enough and as abruptly as this sentence, the music stops cold.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 28 in A, Op. 101 composed 1816, published 1817


Op. 101 was Beethovens first truly substantial piano sonata following the Appassionata of 1805. Stylistically, this work and the two Op. 102 cello sonatas are so far removed from any of his previous compositions that one can argue that it is these three works that usher in his late period. Forms are unorthodox, or unorthodoxically placed within the sonata. His earlier efforts to combine and relate individual movements now reach fruition in a single, organicallyunified composition. Beethoven was never a stranger to contrapuntal writing, but from this piece onward, pervasive, imitative polyphony would henceforth become an integral part of his style. Although virtuosity of the sort found in the Waldstein or the Appassionata is assiduously avoided, the uncompromising, and largely unpianistic, writing makes Op. 101 one of the most difficult of his sonatas to play. In the leisurely first movement, although one can find features of standard sonata form, the characteristic element of contrast is totally missing. Sections blend together seamlessly. Even the opening measures give the illusion that the piece has already been going on for a while, much as if we had happened upon a conversation already in progress4. The old-fashioned minuet had earlier surrendered its place in a sonata or symphony to the faster scherzo; however, even the scherzo has been banished in Op. 101. Instead, the second movement is a jerky, gnarly, heavily contrapuntal march. The middle Trio provides welcome contrast in mood and density, but it too relies on contrapuntal writing, taking the anachronistic form of a canon (and consequently resembling a two-part invention that Bach would have made his students throw into the waste-basket). A relatively brief Adagio follows, contemplative and sparse, forecasting the tragic vision that would characterize those awesome slow movements that were to come in his last works. It too seems to begin in mid-stream, and soon begins to meander harmonically, getting a bit lost in the process. In its wanderings, it arrives unexpectedly at a re-statement of the opening measures of the sonata. But this is not where we should be at this point and Beethoven quickly breaks off the quotation. Still, the question of what to do next remains. While pondering those last three notes of the previous phrase with increasing agitation he suddenly sees his way out of his predicament, and while the right hand is occupied with long trills, the left hand delivers a pair of one-two combination punches that lead directly into the Finale. The problem of finding a finale appropriate to what has gone before, as well as a convincing way of introducing it, occupied Beethoven increasingly throughout his career. Some critics believe that his rate of success in this regard is somewhat less than 100 percent, but in Op. 101 he succeeds beyond question. The jubilant fourth movements centerpiece is an intense, thumb-twisting fugue. Beginning quietly and ominously, it piles one voice on top of another, building without respite to an almost unbearable degree of tension, before returning triumphantly to the main theme. Just as masterful is the Coda. It begins very much like the opening of the fugue, but Beethoven is just toying with our expectations. He suddenly changes course, and winds down the excitement, forcing the pianist to pretend he is a string quartet in the process. Then, when all is at a standstill, Beethoven delivers a final knockout blow, bringing the sonata to an abrupt conclusion.

So seamlessly does the first movement follow the final measures of the previous sonata (No. 27) that perhaps, in an offbeat way, it has been going on for a while! Just possibly, this is another of Beethovens attempts, in his later works, to elucidate his creative process: in this case, he could consciously be guiding us from his previous world into his new one.
4

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, Op. 106 Hammerklavier composed 1816-17, published 1819
In addition to the Hammerklaviers5 enormous demands upon a performers technique and his/her powers of concentration, the work also poses unusual problems for the serious interpreter. It was published in both Vienna and London under Beethovens supervision, but the autograph has never been found. Unfortunately, the two sources contain many divergent readings, sometimes in important places. There is also an incomprehensible reversal of the order of second and third movements in the London edition. Ironically, the area of tempo, where Beethoven ostensibly went out of his way to be as explicit as possible, is equally problematic. Although Op. 106 is the only piano sonata with metronome indications, some of these markings are simply ludicrous. Pianists who can manage the first movement at the proscribed 138 to the halfnote (I freely admit to not being among them) succeed only in making as strong a case as possible against the validity of such a notion 6. Even if Beethovens primitive metronome was accurate, two other facts must be taken into consideration. Composers often hear their music faster than anyone else: they do not require the time the rest of us need to absorb it because they have digested it so thoroughly during the process of creating it. Furthermore, with Beethoven now virtually deaf, it is likely that he had lost the spatial sense that music requires in order to be cogent, and for its nuances to be adequately conveyed. It is commonly known that the Hammerklavier is by far his longest sonata. This is due mostly to the vast landscape of the slow movement. The outer movements are only moderately lengthy, while the Scherzo is one of his briefest creations. The piece is also sonically huge, sounding extraordinarily symphonic.7 There is no sidestepping the fact that the Hammerklavier is also as tough, gnarled, and uncompromising as anything Beethoven wrote, except perhaps for the Grosse Fuge. Above all, it is relentlessly obsessive. A single interval, the third, permeates all the movements at the motivic, melodic and harmonic levels. In fact, that interval forms the basis of virtually every principal theme in the sonata. Similarly, although the dominant note F might be expected to play a key role, with large-scale areas of the piece in that key, just as it does in all other works of the classical era, its role here is extremely limited. Beethoven frequently uses the dominant chord as a brief resting-place before returning to the tonic. However, never once does he actually modulate to the key of F. Instead, all important modulations are to a key that is a third higher or lower than the immediately preceding one. 8 In other words, as early as 1816, Beethoven was attempting to do nothing less than re-define the concept of tonality by casting aside the traditional role of the dominant key (the second most fundamental entity in the tonal system), and elevating another notethe thirdto that level of importance. It is not too great an exaggeration to state that we must look almost a century ahead, to Debussy and Schoenberg, in order to find so radical a transformation of musical thought. 9 For the sonatas layout, Beethoven reverted to the four-movement Grande Sonate model that he had used so frequently in his youth. The opening movement is in sonata form, complete with a (very) necessary repeat of the Exposition. Immediately following the recapitulation, Beethoven jarringly introduces the theme in B minor, which he is known to have regarded as a dark key. From that point on, B minor serves as B flat majors antithesis, with the struggle between the two keys occurring at various points throughout the sonata, most obviously at the conclusion of the Scherzo. The first movement also contains the most disputed reading in all of Beethovens piano music. Just prior to the return of the main theme there is a progression of notes in the bass line, in which an A-sharp becomes the
5 There is no single instrument called a Hammerklavier. Rather, it refers, in German to a keyboard instrument with hammers. Romance language terms even for something as common as piano were out of favor in the immediate postNapoleonic era. Beethoven himself had also indicated that the Sonata Op. 101 was written for the Hammerklavier, but the nickname has stuck only to this work. 6 Solomon being the notable exception. I was referring to everyone else, of course. 7 Paradoxically, the sense of a piano (and perhaps the pianist as well) straining at its limits is required in order for that effect to be felt. The conductor Felix Weingartner actually made an orchestration of the sonata; the third movement is remarkably successful, but overall, at least in his own recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the piece sounds smaller than it does in the hands of any competent pianist. 8 Ironically, B flat major is only peripherally related to the intricate system of four keys he constructs around it, and returns to time and time again. Three of them, G, D, and F sharp, are separated from B flat by, almost predictably, the interval of a third. I believe that these unorthodox ground rules are one of the chief elements that make the piece such a tough nut to crack. The sonata superficially sounds as if it is in a traditional key, but its internal workings are markedly different. 9 In this respect, he was ahead of the late 19th century composers like Liszt and Wagner, who, by exploiting and thwarting our expectations of traditional harmonic practice, were still acknowledging its traditions.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

tonic B-flat. The first editions are explicit, but controversy exists nonetheless, partially because a sketch in Beethovens hand indicates a more conventional A-natural. More importantly, the music sounds extraordinarily strange as printed, even to late 20th century ears. Pianist Alfred Brendel believes that an A-sharp robs the recapitulation of a sense of triumph, and that the natural is therefore correct. I agree with Brendels observations, but not his conclusions. Throughout his career, Beethoven often went out of his way to deemphasize the moment when the main theme returns. This is particularly true in the Hammerklavier, where the left-hand accompaniment ensures that the power of the sonatas opening cannot possibly be duplicated in the recapitulation. (He is setting up the important B minor shock just ahead.) Since the A-sharp eliminates the dominant-tonic progression leading up to the recapitulation, one of this sonatas fundamental goals is achieved by playing the music as printed.10 Very few compositions in the canon of Western music start or conclude as tragically as the slow movement, but elsewhere, vastly different states of mind are evoked. Beethoven indicates at the outset that the entire movement is to be played Appassionata e con molto sentimento, and subsequently directs that certain sections be performed espressivo, and on two occasions, con grand espressione. In other words, unlike the slow movement of the Sonata Op. 10/3, this movement is not a depiction of uninterrupted desolation. Central to the movementcast in Sonata form with an expansive codais an extended passage where descending thirds are chained together melodically. The resemblance to the opening of Brahms fourth symphony can hardly be called a coincidence. Elsewhere, there are moments where embellishments in the right hand sound uncannily like those found in Chopin nocturnes. It is only in the final movement that traditional sonata procedure is abandoned. As in the Finale of the composers ninth symphony, the composer begins by searching for an appropriate conclusion to the work. A slow, introspective, seemingly rhythm-less series of descending thirds in the bass voice is heard, sounding somewhat like the awakening from a deep slumber. The composer interrupts the process three times in order to try out a new idea. (Of course, something similar happens in the ninth symphony, but there, Beethoven auditions themes from previous movements. In the Hammerklavier, the material is always new and each idea is faster and more contrapuntal than the preceding one.) Suddenly, he hits upon the idea of ending the sonata with a fugue. He is elated: those chained thirds become faster, louder, and more excited. Then he calms down, and the fugue itself begins. Beethoven had included fugal sections in several of his earlier works, but writing a fugue as an entire movement was new for him. And what a weird, grotesque fugue it is! Not only does it begin with a trill, which ordinarily is a concluding ornament, but in sharp contrast to greatest fugues of the Baroque masters, it uses every known manner of fugal writingeven the very rare technique of stating the theme backwards (set in B Minor, B flat major's sinister alter ego) instead of only one or two. Finally, I offer without comment a quotation from a letter that Beethoven wrote to Ferdinand Ries, the pianist who played the first London performance of this, his most complex and ingeniously structured sonata:

Should the sonata not be suitable for London, I could send another one; or you could also omit the Largo and begin straight away with the Fugue, which is the last movement; or you could use the first movement and then the Adagio, and then for the third movement the Scherzo, and omit entirely No. 4. Or you could take just the first movement and the Scherzo and let them form the whole sonata. I leave it to you to do as you think best.

10 Perhaps Donald Tovey, the esteemed British musicologist, came closest to the truth in suggesting that Beethoven probably meant an A-natural, but would have been ecstatic had anyone pointed out that he had actually written an A-sharp. (The passage in question, by the way, lasts two seconds at most. Nonetheless, its importance cannot be overstated.)

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 composed 1820, published 1821


With his gigantic Hammerklavier of 1818, Beethoven had taken the piano sonata as far as it could go in anything resembling a traditional format. If he was not to repeat himself, any subsequent effort would have to lead the form into uncharted waters, and his three final sonatas, Op. 109-111, composed between 1820 and 1823, are indeed unlike any others written previously. As revolutionary as these sonatas are from so many standpoints, they reach backward for much of their originality. Late in his career, Beethoven seemed to undertake a conscious exploration of his musical roots, and in Op. 109, he was clearly preoccupied with the Baroque era. With its shifting moods and tempi, the opening movement almost seems to hearken back to the free organ fantasies of Bach and his predecessors, while the last movement, for reasons I will soon explain, could almost be called Beethovens Goldberg Variations. Beethoven did not only pay homage to other composers in his later works; he sometimes echoed himself. This is the case of the main theme of the first movement, which is derived from the finale of his sonata, Op. 79. However, the most striking feature of the opening movement is its extreme conciseness. It obeys all the conventions of sonata form, but the main themeif you can call that sort of noodling a themeis over almost before it begins. The brief, sharply contrasting secondary material gives us another rare glimpse of Beethoven's improvisatory skills. It is only in the central development section that he lets us feel comfortable enough to settle back, unwrap our cellophane-covered candy, and listen to the music. Soon, however, the unsettled material returns, and a coda brings the movement to a peaceful, yet uneasy close. The middle movement, a wild Tarantella, immediately shatters this calm. Although listeners would be justified in assuming that the main theme is in the right hand, it is the left hands counter-theme that Beethoven later subjects to substantial development. In his last sonatas, Beethoven reserves his most sublime thoughts for the finales, and Op. 109, with its glorious set of variations, is no exception. Unlike the second movement of the Appassionata, where one variation leads almost imperceptibly into the next, each variation here is discrete and distinctive. The subtle, almost intangible, links between them attest to Beethovens masterful skill as a spiritual travel guide. I earlier referred to this movement as Beethovens Goldberg Variations. There are three reasons for this comparison: both themes share a similar Sarabande-like rhythm; both sets make copious use of imitative counterpoint; and at the conclusion of both works, the composer restates the theme almost verbatim, allowing us a few extra moments to reflect on how many changes the themes and we have undergone since their initial occurrence.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 31 in A flat Major, Op. 110 composed 1821, published 1821
Like so many of Beethovens later works, this sonata reaches backward as much as it looks forward. The influence of the classical style is evident in the rapid figurations and Alberti accompaniments that appear in the first movement. A subsequent counter-melody in the left hand is a direct quote, in the minor, of the opening theme of Haydns Sonata No. 47. The Baroque period is reflected in the final movement, a complex mix of recitative (complete with a stock operatic cadence of that era), aria and fugue, the quintessential Baroque form. The general influence of Beethovens own previous music is also present: the re-statement of the slow movement following the first fugue echoes a somewhat similar event in the Sonata, Op. 27/1. Throughout history composers were fully aware of the emotive power of music, and exploited it regularly. Still, insofar as the range of emotion is concerned, Beethovens music represents a sharp break with that of his immediate predecessors. In Op. 110, the spiritual journey through which Beethoven guides us over the course of the final movement is as profound as any he conceived. An intense recitative leads to a grief-laden aria. A fugue (whose subject is a variation of the sonatas opening theme) attempts to console and uplift, but at the last moment it fails, and the key of the piece appropriately sinks from A-flat major to G minor. A variation of the aria follows, marked lamenting, exhausted, in which, as clearly as one can attribute an external event to abstract music, the grief-stricken protagonist dies, gasping for breath. A series of repeated chords signals some sort of transfiguration; as the sound fades away, the second fugue begins imperceptibly. (This fugues principal theme is a mirror image of the first, another common Baroque device.) Soon the original fugue theme reappears, but this time it does not falter. Instead, the music quickly gathers momentum and ends triumphantly and suddenly, like a rocket disappearing into space. Although eclecticism and the inclusion of vulgarity is an entirely legitimate aspect of great art, some people have difficulty dealing with it. Particularly troubling are such occurrences as cowbells in Mahler symphonies, or the medley of tunes, including one entitled "Cabbages and Turnips," with which Bach's Goldberg Variations conclude. I must therefore apologize for noting that the sublime concluding movement of Beethoven's Sonata No. 31 is preceded by a scherzo that quotes two popular tavern-tunes of the time: Unsa Ktz hd Katzln ghabt ("Our cat had kittens") and Ich bin lderlich, du bist lderlich which, politely translated, is "I'm a slob, you're a slob").

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 composed 1821-22, published 1823


Yin and Yang are perfectly reflected in the two movements of Beethovens final sonata, in which the nervous, pent-up energy of the concise opening movement gives way to the utter serenity and timelessness of the second. Here, as in many of his late works, Beethoven was consciously exploring his musical roots. The first movement clearly has its origins in the French Overture, a standard genre of the Baroque period. Its principal components were a slow introduction in dotted rhythms, followed by a fast fugal section. (A kinship with the Introduction to that of his earlier Pathtique Sonata, also in C minor, also cannot be overlooked.) A terrifying trill in the lower bass leads to a statement of the explosive, defiant three-note main theme. Like a caged beast, it tries again and again to escape its bonds, and finally breaks free, with an energetic fugue. The second theme, although very different from the first, is similarly constricted and requires several attempts to break out of its constraints. The fugal Development section is unusually short for a piece of this scope and an overall sense of restlessness and frustration soon returns. The key changes from C minor to C major in the brief coda, but this is not the joyful C major of Op. 2/3 or the triumphant C major of the close of the Fifth Symphony. Rather, the mood is one of resignation and acceptance. The second movement is, in my opinion, the most sublime, transcendental work written for piano. With the themes stark simplicity, the astonishing sonorities that Beethoven explores over the course of the piece, and the final drive to the movements climax and release, its profundity is unmatched in the entire repertoire. Beethovens obsession in the latter part of his career with the interval of the third is here extended to the number three in general. The time signature is 9/8 (or three times 3/8), and without exception, each beat in every measure is similarly subdivided and sub-subdivided. Although not termed as such, the movement is a set of continuous variations that are characterized by a process of increasing rhythmic animation, while the theme and accompanying harmonies remain constant.11 Variations 1 through 3 increase the rhythmic activity to the point where Beethoven seems to be straining at our earthly confines, much like the buffeting an airplane must endure before breaking the sound barrier. (So active and syncopated is Variation 3 that some wishful commentators have suggested that the beginnings of jazz date from this point.) Variation 4 is a so-called double variation: the repeat of each section receives totally different treatment than its initial iteration. Here, the rhythm is broken down into even smaller rhythmic subdivisions (a background rumble or a pointillistic elaboration of the melody). The boundaries of everyday existence are now behind us; our spirits are in free flight. A lengthy interlude follows, featuring trills, musics ultimate thematic disintegration. Then, when all is dust, Beethoven begins reassembling his material. Finally, the theme begins again, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, transporting us to a state of spiritual ecstasy that will continue into infinity, even after all is silent
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It is interesting that, as with the middle movement of the Appassionata and the slow movement of the Archduke Trio. Beethoven never entitled this type of composition a set of variations. He reserved that designation only for movements such as those in the Sonatas Op. 26 and 109, in which each variation is far more of a distinct entity.

Music on Main presents Silverman plays Beethoven. September 27, 2010 April 5, 2011 at the Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club. www.musiconmain.ca Programme notes by Robert Silverman. Robert Silverman

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