JOnaTHan BiSS BeeTHOven

THe cOMpleTe pianO SOnaTaS

SepTeMBeR 21–22, 2019 OcTOBeR 12–13, 2019 DeceMBeR 15, 2019 MaRcH 7–8, 2020 HeRTz Hall BENJAMIN EALOVEGA BENJAMIN ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jonathan Biss (piano) is a world-renowned Shaw. is season, Biss premieres Brett Dean’s pianist who channels his deep musical curiosity Gneixendorfer Musik with the Swedish Radio into performances and projects in the concert Symphony Orchestra, performed alongside Bee - hall and beyond. in addition to performing with thoven’s Emperor concerto. He then brings the today’s leading orchestras, he continues to ex- new commission to the Dresden philhar monic, pand his reputation as a teacher, musical thinker, Melbourne Symphony Orches tra, and poland’s and one of the great Beethoven interpreters of Wrocław philharmonic. additionally, he per- our time. Biss was recently named co-artistic forms the Emperor with orchestras worldwide, director alongside Mitsuko Uchida at the Marl - including with the curtis Symphony Orchestra boro Music Festival, where he has spent 13 sum- led by Osmo vänskä at carnegie Hall and phila - mers. He also leads a massive open online course delphia’s Kimmel center as part of a seven-city (MOOc) via coursera, which has reached more east coast tour. than 150,000 people from nearly every country Biss’ projects represent his complete approach in the world. Biss has written extensively about to music-making and connecting his audience the music he plays, and has authored three to his own passion for the music. previous proj- e-books, including Bee thoven’s Shadow, the first ects have included an exploration of composers’ Kindle Single written by a classical musician, “late Style” in various concert pro grams at car- published by Rosetta Books in 2011. ne gie Hall, the Barbican centre, philadelphia For more than a decade, he has fully im- chamber Music Society, and San Francisco per - mersed himself in the music of Beethoven, formances. He also published the Kindle Single exploring the composer’s works and musical Coda on the topic. Schumann: Under the Influ - thought through a wide variety of projects, sev- ence was a 30-concert exploration of the com- eral of which culminate in 2019–20. Biss’ recital poser’s role in music history, for which Biss also repertoire this season is almost exclusively recorded Schumann and Dvořák piano quintets focused on the Beethoven piano sonatas, with with the elias String Quartet and wrote A Pianist complete cycles here at Uc Berkeley, as well as Under the Influence. at london’s Wigmore Hall and the McKnight Biss represents the third generation in a fam- center for the performing arts at Oklahoma ily of professional musicians that includes his State University. He also performs select sonatas grandmother Raya Garbousova, one of the first in recital and mini-cycles around the United well-known female cellists (for whom Samuel States, including in philadelphia, new York, Barber composed his cello concerto), and Washington (Dc), and Seattle, as well as abroad his parents, violinist Miriam Fried and violist/ in Rome, Budapest, Sydney, and Melbourne. violinist paul Biss. Growing up surrounded by in 2011, Biss began a journey to record the music, Biss began his piano studies at age six, composer’s 32 piano sonatas; the project con- and his first musical collaborations were with cludes this fall with the ninth and final volume, his mother and father. He studied with evelyne to be released on Orchid classics. e final two Brancart at indiana University and with leon sets of lessons in his coursera lecture series, Fleisher at the curtis institute of Music, where Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, will be re- he is now on the faculty and holds the neubauer leased in September and January, at which time Family chair in piano Studies. Biss has been all the sonatas will have been examined. recognized with numerous honors, including Biss also surveys Beethoven’s five piano lin coln center’s Martin e. Segal award, an concertos in his Beethoven/5 commissioning avery Fisher career Grant, the 2003 Borletti- project, which pairs each concerto with a new Buitoni Trust award, and the 2002 Gilmore concerto composed in response. launched in Young artist award. 2015 in partnership with lead commissioner the St. paul chamber Orchestra, the project has Exclusive Management for Jonathan Biss led to world premieres by Timo andres, Sally Opus 3 artists, 470 park avenue South, Beamish, Salvatore Sciarrino, and caroline 9th Floor north, new York, nY 10016

2 in Search of Something Unreachable by Jonathan Biss

he word “wonderment” goes a long culty: once you come to the conclusion that way towards conveying my own feel- something is unreachable, how—and when— ings about Beethoven’s music. it was do you decide to reach for it? if one is, by Tthe dominant sensation when i first definition, never really ready to play all the heard Serkin’s Appassionata on a cassette tape Bee thoven sonatas, when is the moment to say, in the car, at age 9. it was again at the forefront “ready or not, here i come?” when i discovered the Grosse Fuge, a year or two in trying to answer this troublesome ques- later, in a recording by the Budapest Quartet. (i tion, i again resort to a negative definition: can remember, vividly, that my immediate re- it may be impossible to know that you are ready action was that the piece was totally incompre- to take on such a project, but it is emphatically hensible, and that i had to hear it again, right possible to know that you aren’t ready. For most away; years later, aer countless hearings, and of my life—probably since [a] peabody cycle— even a number of performances of Beethoven’s i’ve known that i’ve wanted to play the 32 Bee - own arrangement of the piece for piano four- thoven sonatas. What i’ve known, to be more hands, it seems only slightly more comprehen- precise, is that this body of music is more im- sible, and remains as irresistible as ever.) and it portant to me than just about any other, and was an actual sensation, felt in my whole body, that i want—feel compelled—to spend my when i had that first encounter with the com- life interrogating it. and while the open-ended plete cycle of piano sonatas at age 13. study of music can be a wonderful, wonderful ose were all listening experiences. When thing, one’s relationship with a piece invariably i am the one playing—that is to say, when my takes on new dimensions aer public per- relationship to the music becomes tactile and formance. ere are probably many reasons for is complicated by questions of self-expression— this—again, there is the tactile aspect of music- the sensation becomes exponentially more making, so vital to an instrumentalist, which powerful. is sort of awe, while a very intense will always receive more emphasis when a per- thing to live with, is not in any way negative; in formance looms—but above all it is because fact, it is probably essential, given my convic- these works exist to be communicated, and thus tion that the search for something unreachable there are things to be known about them that is part of this music’s expressive Dna. But at one simply cannot know without experiencing the same time, it creates a very practical diffi- that communication. and so, when a concert

3 presenter in a major american city asked me, conclusion that i simply should not perform a aged 23, to play the 32 sonatas, i should have work immediately aer learning it; much better been thrilled. and in fairness, i was sort of to let it percolate first, away from the pressur- thrilled. at the same time, though, i was ab- ized atmosphere of the concert hall, which solutely plagued with doubt. So plagued that tends to force the performer to fall back on nothing—not putting off the start of the proj- what works—even if it doesn’t work too well. ect for three years, or spreading the concerts and if i had accepted that offer when i was 23, over a longer period—could make me feel that there would have been no way around the real- the enormous fear i felt was unjustified. ity that i would need to play many of the Some of the sources of the fear were proba- sonatas immediately aer learning them. bly intangible, but others were plenty tangible. en there was a third reason, which goes First of all, at that point i’d played no more than beyond the Beethoven sonatas themselves: 10 of the sonatas, including just one of the last performing the cycle when i still had so many five. (While it would be wrong to say that the sonatas to learn would have meant a degree of earlier works are easier—on a purely physical immersion in that music so extreme, it would level, for one, some of them are enormously have all but excluded the possibility of my uncomfortable to play—the late sonatas are learning anything else at a time in my life when composed in a language, or languages, so i should have been musically omnivorous. is unprece dented, unique, and seemingly inscru - is partially, of course, a question of my musical table, that coming to terms with them seems to development at large: it would have been a me a greater bridge to be crossed.) While i’d al- very bad decision to have taken on the complete ways assumed—to whatever extent i’d thought Beethoven sonatas and in the process moved it through—that when i got around to per- away from other music—the Mozart concerti, forming the whole cycle there would be certain or Schumann’s solo works, for example—which sonatas i’d still need to learn, making the leap was arguably as important to me, and which when i still had 22 sonatas to go seemed to in- would become vastly more difficult to learn if volve a degree of hubris. i postponed it too long. But it also played di- a second reason, closely related to but ulti- rectly into the question of my readiness to take mately independent from the first, is that on the project itself. Beethoven’s music is so experience has taught me that the physical and exceedingly easy to program in part because mental preparation of a piece of music can take it represents such a watershed in the history of you only so far: putting the piece away for a music: To a remarkable extent, all the music time, letting it rest while the mind and fingers that precedes it (certainly in the classical era) are occupied with other things, oen leads to seems to be leading up to it, and all the music more development than the actual, quantifiable that has come since exists in response. Haydn’s work does. Time and time again, i’ve struggled will to surprise, to invent, and Mozart’s way with something—the shape of a phrase, the of finding expressive possibilities everywhere handling of a transition—in a work that is new (how different they are from one another!) are to me, searched and searched for a solution that among the roots of Beethoven’s music, which seemed organic, and found that nothing i tried grows from them in ways neither prior master sounded natural—nothing passed the “right- could have envisioned. and one would have ness” test. But then, aer leaving the piece for to go outside the central european tradition to a period of several months, sometimes really find music written aer 1827 that does not not even thinking about it at all, the same pas- grapple with the essential aspects of Beethoven’s sage has somehow, through some kind of os- music—the fierce independence; the architec- mosis, resolved itself, and no longer poses tural asymmetry, with enormous works resist- a question. (Or rather, [as i learned listening to ing any resolution until their final movements; artur Schnabel,] having answered one ques- the harmonic boldness, which precipitated the tion, it now poses a new one.) it can be frus- slow collapse of the tonal system; the grit. and trating knowing that this process has no even farther afield, he looms large: With music shortcuts, but ultimately it has led me to the as various as Kirchner and Kurtág, Janá˘cek and

4 Takemitsu, he might not be central, but one amount of Beethoven i’ve played beyond just quality or another of the music points backward the sonatas (many other isolated solo works; toward him; he is always in the room. and so, all of the concerti; most of the chamber music), deciding to spend the bulk of several years and the time i’ve spent listening to and studying of my life with Beethoven, without having ad- the symphonies and, especially, the string quar- dressed such a huge volume of great music with tets. e latter, even more than the sonatas, so much to say about him, seemed not only in- oen seem to me to be Beethoven’s most per- advisable, but irresponsible. sonal statements, and perhaps because they are Seven years later, what has changed? i will written for instruments Beethoven did not have make this series of recordings over a nine-year a physical relationship with, it is in these pieces period, which naturally makes the prospect that earthly concerns—practicality for the player, somewhat less daunting. and a significant side comprehensibility for the listener—seem fur- effect of this pacing is that my relationship with thest from his mind, freeing him to write both Beethoven while i am preparing the recordings some of his most consoling and his most har- will be immersive but not exclusive; his music rowing music. e late quartets in particular

Once you come to the conclusion that something is unreachable, how—and when—do you decide to reach for it? —Jonathan Biss will exist not in a vacuum, but in conversation oen seem to be beyond human understand- with his predecessors and followers (or rather, ing, and yet to engage with them is to feel that precedents and consequents). Still, my decision you know Beethoven, somehow. to dive into this undertaking when i could not and in these past seven years, i also learned bring myself to commit to it when it was offered plenty of other music, from Bach and Handel to me, relatively recently, on a plate represents to new works—in several cases, ones composed a significant shi. particularly as what i am specifically for me, which gave me invaluable committing to now is not just performances of insight into the creative process from which the sonatas, but recordings—recording…being i, as an interpreter, am one enormous degree the most fraught, disorienting process in a mu- removed—and of course, a vast quantity in sician’s life. between the two. i learned a huge amount of First, the straightforward answers: e 10 Mozart, which taught me about Beethoven not sonatas i’d played as of 2004 have now become through their similarities but through their 18, drawn from all periods of Beethoven’s staggering differences. in short: Mozart, a the- compositional career. While it is true that each atrical composer if there ever was one, writes sonata poses decidedly unique questions and about the real world; Beethoven writes about problems—to refer to the Beethoven sonatas an idealized world. Beethoven’s admiration for as a “body of music” is misleading, given the Mozart was enormous, which makes it all the extent to which each sonata is a self-contained more interesting that the drama of his music is emotional universe—the percentage of this drawn from such utterly different sources than music i’ve now played makes me feel that i am Mozart’s. While Mozart’s music so oen suggests at least reasonably well acquainted with both his conversation, Beethoven’s is most oen written musical personality and his ever-evolving mu- in one immensely strong voice. Where Mozart’s sical language. is feeling is bolstered by the temperament is quicksilver, Beethoven’s is stead-

5 Beethoven’s last grand piano, built by the Viennese piano manufacturer Conrad Graf, who placed the instrument at Beethoven's disposal in January 1826. Beethovenhaus Baden has embarked on an ambitious project to restore the instrument to its original glory.

Beethoven’s French Erard piano, used by the composer aer 1803. It has four pedals: lute-stop, sustaining, sourdine, and una corda. fast. and where Mozart is so oen willing to i learned the works of Schoenberg and his |interrupt the narrative of a work if inspiration contemporaries, and felt more strongly all the takes him in a different direction, Bee thoven’s time that while Beethoven never could have music is nearly always relentlessly argued, never imagined this music, it was a natural conse- straying significantly from the business of re- quence of the trail he blazed. Schoenberg spoke solving the central questions it poses. about his need to “emancipate” dissonance with i learned a great deal of Schubert, and was the 12-tone system he built, and Beethoven’s repeatedly struck by the way this musical music, in its daring, so destabilized the diatonic genius with a personality so fundamentally dif- system that the road toward atonality was in a ferent from Beethoven’s was still profoundly sense already paved by the time he wrote his last influenced by him. ere are some very specific works. and of course, Schoenberg’s attempt to instances of this debt—the last movement of create an entirely new language, which he did Schubert’s Sonata in a major, D. 959 hews far with tremendous fanfare and, one can now say, too closely to the finale of Beethoven’s Op. 31, six decades aer his death, limited success, no. 1, in form and even in specific gestures, for makes Beethoven’s late period seem more awe- it to be an accident—but it is the monumen- inspiring than ever. For where Schoenberg’s se- tality and the individualism Schubert pursued rial works juxtapose passages of great nostalgic in his late works that really show what the ex- beauty with music that is both leaden and ob- ample of Beethoven provided him with. e viously “constructed,” Beethoven’s late style, material is utterly different in character, and the while no less linguistically removed from all use of the material is no more similar—where that came before it, is seamless enough to ac- Bee thoven develops and insists, Schubert wan- commodate some of the most profound state- ders and dreams—but the breadth of Schubert’s ments of western civilization. To play one of vision and the nerve he needed to realize it Schoenberg’s piano works directly before Bee - show beyond doubt how closely he had studied thoven’s Op. 109—as i’ve done on a number of Beethoven. occasions—is to make the rather astonishing i learned much of Schumann’s piano music, discovery that the Beethoven is not only more and found that even German music’s most orig- satisfying, but more daring and modern than inal and unanticipated voice is in conversation the Schoenberg. e latter’s music is oen com- with Beethoven. e poetry, the ear for detail plex, but it is a complexity that one can work both bizarre and exquisite, and the talent for through; the mystery of Beethoven remains glorious non sequitur are all Schumann’s own, inexplicable. but the sense of striving and the use of music it’s not just that my study of all of this music as diary—as a means of working through life’s felt somehow related to Beethoven—in many terrors and dissatisfactions—are straight out cases, it seemed to be leading me to him. as i of Beethoven. i played many of Brahms’ great could feel the weight of the preoccupation these works, and was moved by the obviously crush- giants had with Beethoven, my own preoccu- ing weight that this master, born six years aer pation became increasingly intense. e Bee - Beethoven’s death, felt in the form of the need to tho ven sonatas, always the holy grail as far as be Beethoven, and the subsequent difficulty he i was concerned, gradually became something had merely being his own, great, self. (Brahms else as well: the orbit around which my other may have carried this burden more heavily than fascinations moved. e more i widened my others, but Beethoven cast the same shadow musical sphere, the more central he seemed. over the entire 19th century.) Furthermore, it i repeat: He was always in the room. was through Brahms that i discovered some- —excerpted from the Kindle eBook thing equally true of Beethoven: that the pres- Beethoven’s Shadow by Jonathan Biss ence of rigor is in no way an impediment to the expression of passion, and that the cra of com- position, while no substitute for inspiration, is absolutely essential if the inspiration is to have any impact at all.

 Portrait of Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820 Travels with Beethoven by larry Rothe

ight years ago, in an article called ese days we can be forgiven for imagin- “Beethoven’s Guide to Being Human,” ing we live in a uniquely unstable world, where i made the case for Beethoven’s power unwelcome news is dismissed as fabrication, eto fill his audience with optimism, his facts possess alternatives, and even nature’s laws capacity to convince a listener that good will are questioned. But stability is always an illu- prevail. is, i admit, reduces my argument to sion, as Beethoven knew, personally and polit- its most simplistic components. even back then, ically. imagine: a 31-year-old composer loses few would have believed the victories celebrated his hearing—“the one sense,” he confessed, at the end of Beethoven’s Fih and ninth sym- “which ought to be more perfect in me than phonies, or his opera Fidelio, could last beyond others.” imagine Beethoven’s vienna, where the the final curtain. But how much has happened freedoms le intact by napoleon’s army were in these eight years. Today, when national and undercut by the austrians themselves. emperor world events demand we re-examine and get Franz ii, his ear fine-tuned by the French Revo - more serious about what “being human” means, lution, heard seditious whispers everywhere, Beethoven can help. sent his spies to root out enemies of the people,

 and abolished the free press he abhorred. he talks about his relationship with this music Beethoven tamed such personal and social ca- in Beethoven’s Shadow, an extended essay avail- tastrophes. Facing deafness, he rejected suicide able as a Kindle e-book (but not in a print edi- as an option: “it was only my art that held me tion) through amazon.com. (an excerpt from back. it seemed to me impossible to leave the Biss’ writing begins on page 3.) in this personal world until i had brought forth all that i felt was account Biss covers a broad territory—his ear- within me.” He reassembled his inner resources, liest experiences with Beethoven, his changing intent on changing things. Beethoven (writes reactions over the years to the Appassionata his biographer Maynard Solomon) “was pre- Sonata, the opportunities and problems of pared to furnish [vienna] with a model of recording, the challenges and assurances Bee - heroism as well as beauty during an age of tho ven offers a listener. revo lu tion and destruction and to hold out the image of an era of reconciliations and free- A Better World? dom to come.” He has done the same for the count me among the multitude for whom generations since. He translated his inner Beethoven opened a world. His work is a point powers into music of virtually uncontained of entry and defines why we listen to “classical” aspiration, music that urges us to do as he did: music. compared to him, every other com- continue, and reject despair. Beethoven’s mes- poser comes up short if what we’re looking for sage is optimism, optimism hard-won but ever- is urgency and a persistent sense of necessity. present and waiting to be captured: a constant, in the words of British music critic neville a kind of stability. cardus: “Beethoven most times was a rebel, beating his fist against the mortal limitations A World in 32 Pieces of music. He oen wanted to say things which Fortunately for the cal performances audience, music couldn’t contain, let alone express…. Beethoven is a focal point of this season as we at is why there are so many repeated notes celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth. You and chords in Beethoven, violent sforzandi will hear orchestral works and chamber music which are symbols of protest. Repeated notes (see a listing of concerts featuring music by in music, when they are strenuous and weight- Beethoven on page 12). But for the full Bee - ily harmonized, usually mean that a composer thoven immersion, pianist Jonathan Biss has something on his mind. He, at any rate, is appears in seven recitals. Between September not just trying to write a melody.” 2019 and March 2020, Biss performs the com- Beethoven molds our sense of what we plete cycle of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas. expect music to offer. no one before him had Beethoven began composing piano sona - given instrumental music such narrative power, tas early in his career and continued writing and everyone aer him attempted to emulate them to the end. as you might expect, given the his storytelling command. His genius was to in- span of years between the first and last of these fuse his music with psychological scenarios, to creations, they encompass an artistic and emo- join an almost operatic concept of drama with tional terrain of varied contours, ranging from music not limited by the words that any char- lighthearted melody to cosmic statements at acters sing. e Fih Symphony is the most music’s outer limits. if you think of the sonatas obvious example of this. Tchaikovsky, who as a 32-piece jigsaw puzzle that, completed, claimed his own Fourth Symphony was “a re- forms an image of the world, you get some idea flection” of Beethoven’s Fih, wrote that the of what’s in store. Fih was based on a program “so clear that Jonathan Biss, who has spoken of Bee tho - there cannot be the smallest difference of opin- ven’s sonatas as “a private diary of a genius,” is ion as to its meaning.” nearing the end of a nine-year project of record- at plot, depicting a movement from ing the Beethoven sonatas, with the final vol- struggle to victory, darkness to light, suggests ume scheduled for release in november. Biss is that abstract music possesses an ethical com- an eloquent writer, and with disarming candor ponent. Which is not to say that music makes

 us better people. at claim disintegrates in Discovering the Sonatas light of history’s many bad-guy music lovers. even in the early sonatas you hear a new voice. But abstract music, because it is abstract, is listen to no. 2. neither Haydn nor Mozart open to interpretation. lacking the limits and wrote anything so highly spiced, or so delight- specifics that words would impose on them, fully narcissistic. its self-love dictates its struc- Beethoven’s unconstrained dramas engage the ture: because Beethoven can’t let go the principal imagination, enlisting our gut responses to his theme of his third movement, it becomes part scenarios, enabling us to grasp his messages by of the finale. Beethoven aims at more than what understanding our own reactions to him. in music before him could embrace, and he car- this, Beethoven tells us to value our own emo- ried that aim to extremes in the late sonatas. For tions. at may not make us better, but it cer- example: in the second movement of the two- tainly can make us happy. movement Op. 111 Sonata, the last of the 32, we never know where he is leading. He asks that e Effort and the Payoff this movement be played in a “simple and song- if Beethoven can open a wider world for listen- like” way, yet no line of melody goes in a direc- ers, the door to that world is perhaps accessed tion we expect. at the same time, he convinces most easily through his symphonies. Besides us of the momentum’s inevitability. He con- the large and insistent gestures delivered by an vinces us he has captured and transcribed some orchestra—try ignoring those—we encounter essential generative rhythms. ink back to theater in every Beethoven symphony: rising what neville cardus said. Rather than melody, and falling action and climaxes, all delivered in this music is about rhythm and energy and unforgettable lines. invention. e symphonies tell only a fraction of energy also marks the many great, tender the story. Big public statements can convey adagios Beethoven created. in them, too, the their messages with blunt power, but Bee tho - music is not so much based on recognizable ven explored most deeply in more intimate and memorable melodies as on reflection, on forms, especially his piano sonatas and string gesture, on beautifully uttered phrases—quietly quartets. in those genres, particularly in the late urgent, at once rapt and taut with compressed works, he experimented with structure and force, sublime. devised new ways to communicate—Biss has Beethoven understood the sublime, and written of “the perpetual innovation which is also the absurd. as a deaf composer—what one of the most significant aspects of Beetho - could be more unlikely?—he would have had ven’s output.” Beethoven ignores limits. into his to cultivate a sense of irony and the ridiculous. music he loads a multitude of beauties and His humor could be crude. if his instrumental complexities, and he trusts our anticipations music included words, you can bet many of and memories of both—he trusts our close lis- them would be spelled in four letters. tening—to ensure that his compositions will Sometimes crude and more oen direct, transcend their formal borders. He expands Beethoven is also subtle. listening to different music’s capabilities. artists approach him reveals different shadings Beethoven, says Jonathan Biss, “writes and nuances. i recently compared recordings about an idealized world.” e pianist speaks of the Appassionata Sonata’s first movement of the “wonderment” he finds in Beethoven’s by three pianists. a minute into Rudolf Serkin’s sonatas, as though “the search for something recording, he attacks the keyboard, seemingly unreachable is part of the music’s expressive bent on destroying it. Trills that emerge as or- Dna.” Beethoven invested huge effort in that naments in recordings by artur Schnabel and search, and to be true to the music, the artist alfred Brendel pinch like pinpricks in Serkin’s must convey that effort. as Biss writes, “With - recording, which is only slightly slower than out the sense that blood, sweat and tears were Schnabel’s but almost half a minute faster than involved, a performance simply will not sound Brendel’s. (Schnabel, still identified with the like Beethoven.” sonatas today, was the first to record them all,

 Beethoven 250 is season, cal performances celebrates Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. and Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano Join us for concerts including: December 4 at 8pm, Zellerbach Hall 12 variations on Mozart’s “Ein Mädchen JOnATHAn BISS, pIano oder Weibchen,” Op. 66 THE COMPlETE PIAnO SOnATAS Royal Philharmonic Orchestra all performances in Hertz Hall Pinchas Zukerman, conductor September 21 at 8pm January 26 at 3pm, Zellerbach Hall Sonatas nos. 1, 9, 13 (Quasi una Overture to Egmont fantasia), 12 (Funeral March), 21 Rotterdam Philharmonic (Waldstein) lahav Shani, conductor September 22 at 3pm and nelson Freire, piano Sonatas nos. 4, 17 (Tempest), 5, 23 March 22 at 3pm, Zellerbach Hall (Appassionata) piano concerto no. 5, Emperor October 12 at 8pm Sonatas nos. 15 (Pastoral), 20, 3, 27, 28 FURTHER READIng October 13 at 3pm Beethoven’s Shadow Sonatas nos. 6, 10, 18 (e Hunt), 29 by Jonathan Biss (Hammerklavier) Go to amazon.com December 15 at 3pm Political Beethoven Sonatas nos. 25 (Cuckoo), 11, 14 by prof. nicholas Mathew, Uc Berkeley (Moonlight), 24 (À érèse), 30 Dept. of Music (speaker at pre-performance March 7 at 8pm talks before Sunday matinee recitals: Sonatas nos. 19, 16, 7, 2, 31 Sept 22, Oct 13, Dec 15, Mar 8) Go to amazon.com March 8 at 3pm Sonatas nos. 8 (Pathétique), 22, 26 Beethoven’s Guide to Being Human (Les adieux), 32 by larry Rothe Go to sfsymphony.org, click on “Watch, listen & learn,” then on “program notes ADDITIOnAl RECITAlS & articles,” then on “articles & interviews,” AnD ORCHESTRAl COnCERTS and scroll to “March 15, 2011.” Danish String Quartet november 10 at 3pm, Hertz Hall String Quartet no. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130, with Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 David Finckel, cello and Wu Han, piano november 24 at 3pm, Hertz Hall Sonata no. 3 in a major, Op. 69

2 in the 1930s.) Toward the end of the move- the polls. But all three pianists whose Appassio- ment, a racing passage is suddenly interrupted, nata i compared suggest what the Appassionata punctuated by a downward jab. Serkin hesitates is, different and yet the same, there for us. for a micro-second before the jab, and in that in a world as unstable as the ground in suspension you feel him gathering strength earthquake country, we need Beethoven. as we for the blow. neither Schnabel nor Brendel perform and listen to what Beethoven gave us, bring a similar sense of drama to this moment. we do well to remember the deafness and While Serkin focuses on each step in the nar- illnesses he coped with, how his very act of writ- rative and its various characters, Schnabel is ing represented courage in the face of consid- less episodic, integrating its elements more erable misery, and how that misery vanishes completely, emphasizing the music’s beauty. and that courage is mirrored in the dramas Brendel stresses architecture and balance, he wrote—dramas that culminate insistently or drawing special attention to a four-note figure gently or even enigmatically in some ideal des- that is cousin to the fate motif of the Fih tination. in our lives, that ideal will remain un- Symphony. Do these differences reflect the reached simply because it is an ideal, but artists, or Beethoven? traveling toward it can be good in so many “Who knows what ingredients go into ways. Beethoven invites us to join him. the greatest of performances?” the film director errol Morris asks in his New York Times essay “e pianist and the lobster,” proceeding to Larry Rothe, who writes about music for Cal point out that “no matter how good we can ever Performances and the San Francisco Opera, has be, we may still be chained to the wall in plato’s written for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, cave, fantasizing about an unreached ideal.” New York Philharmonic, and San Francisco Given such shiing ground, you might Symphony. His books include For the love of think Beethoven offers no more stability than Music and Music for a city, Music for the the public figures who alter their positions with World.

3 Portrait of Beethoven by Joseph Willibrord Mähler (1778–1860), 1804–05 Beethoven’s piano Sonatas an introduction by Thomas May

hen we consider ludwig van Bee - Beethoven produced a greater number of thoven’s artistic persona overall, the piano sonatas than he did of works in any Wrole played by the piano can hardly other genre: 32 remains the canonical number be exaggerated. Oen regarded as a vehicle or (though in his edition, by admitting into the even a ready-made laboratory for the composer, canon the aforementioned three from his teen - the instrument also served as a kind of alter ego. age years, the musicologist Barry cooper has it provided not only a tool but a place apart that attempted to extend the total to 35). at the same encouraged Beethoven to confide his boldest, time, as Biss has pointed out, the piano sonatas wildest intuitions and creative aspirations. resisted being categorized and dated according Recalling the spell Beethoven cast when per- to the conventional three-period model of Bee - forming at the keyboard, his prodigy student thoven’s development—early, middle, and late carl czerny wrote: “His improvisation was (or, in Franz liszt’s unforgettable phrase: “l’ado- most brilliant and striking. in whatever com- lescent, l’homme, le dieu”). pany he might chance to be, he knew how to e aerlives of these works have assumed produce such an effect upon every hearer that countless forms and continue to set expecta- frequently not an eye remained dry, while many tions: for composers, performers, music lovers. would break into loud sobs; for there was some- and just as they chart the development of Bee - thing wonderful in his expression in addition thoven’s genius, each encounter reflects a new to the beauty and originality of his ideas and stage in our understanding of what music, at its his spirited style of rendering them.” czerny most challenging and under the pressure of adds that, “aer an improvisation of this kind, that genius, can convey. as Biss writes in Bee - [Bee thoven] would burst into loud laughter and tho ven’s Shadow, his behind-the-scenes account banter his hearers on the emotion he had of the odyssey of performing and recording the caused in them. ‘You are fools!’ he would say”— sonatas, “composing gave his life an order and cultivating a contrarian image was part of meaning that were otherwise unavailable to the persona Beethoven presented to his aristo- him.” e challenges that the piano sonatas em- cratic admirers. body from Beethoven’s own life and experience e 32 published piano sonatas tally roughly are transferred on to the performer (and lis- a half-million individual notes. ose notes tener), but the result “addresses and consoles chart one of the most extraordinary trajectories the spirit in a way that no other creative artist in Western music, encoding the epic of an artis- has managed. [Beethoven] is simultaneously tic adventurer who persistently challenged the superhuman and intensely, painfully human.” boundaries of what music itself can express. culminating in the visionary extremes of Bee - omas May is a writer, critic, educator, and thoven’s late style, these works span nearly his translator. Along with essays regularly commis- entire career (and even reach back to his ado les- sioned by the San Francisco Symphony, the Juil - cence in Bonn, if we include the three unpub- li ard School, and other leading institutions, he lished sonatas he wrote at age 12—just around contributes to the new York Times and Musical the time Jonathan Biss had his first major epi - america and blogs about the arts at www.meme- phany encountering the Beethoven sonatas). teria.com.

5 Saturday, September 21, 2019, 8pm Hertz Hall Jonathan Biss, piano

ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) e Complete Piano Sonatas (Concert 1)

Sonata no. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, no. 1 allegro adagio Menuetto: allegretto prestissimo

Sonata no. 9 in e major, Op. 14, no. 1 allegro allegretto Rondo: allegro commodo

Sonata no. 13 in e-flat major, Op. 27, no. 1,Quasi una fantasia andante: allegro – allegro molto e vivace – adagio con espressione – allegro vivace

INTERMISSION

Sonata no. 12 in a-flat major, Op. 26,Funeral March andante con variazioni Scherzo: allegro molto Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un eroe allegro

Sonata no. 21 in c major, Op. 53, Waldstein allegro con brio introduzione: adagio molto Rondo: allegretto moderato – prestissimo

Cal Performances’ 2019–20 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

6 PROgRAM nOTES

Piano Sonata no. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, no. 1 and were dedicated to one of Beethoven’s bene- ludwig van Beethoven published his first set of factors, Baroness Josefa von Braun. While Bee - sonatas as Op. 2 (a set of three) in 1796—he was thoven had already attempted to use the piano 25 at the time—with a dedication to Joseph to create a sound world of orchestral scope in Haydn, whose student he had been. We know the Op. 7 sonata of the year before (and, to that he played these three sonatas for Haydn at some extent, in the contemporaneous Op. 13, a private concert held by one of his patrons in Pathétique), both Op. 14 sonatas are decidedly the fall of 1795. By this point, he deemed what intimate, intended for the private sphere. he had created of sufficient quality to be offi- indeed, Beethoven underscored the chamber cially acknowledged as his first published state- music sensibility here by deciding to transcribe ments in the genre. the first, the Sonata in e major, for string quar- each of the three Op. 2 sonatas is ambitiously tet in 1801 (the only sonata he so transcribed). cast in four movements, and the fact that Bee - although he disapproved in principle of tran- thoven decided to launch the set with a work scribing from solo piano to string instruments, in the minor is noteworthy. (compare this with some scholars have argued that this sonata was other significant Beethovenian genres: his First initially conceived as a string quartet. Symphony, First String Quartet, and First piano e piece unfolds in three movements. concerto are all in major keys.) e opening ough the motivic material of the allegro first allegro theme of this F minor sonata clearly movement comprises elemental gestures— echoes the finale of the K. 550 Symphony in fourths, arpeggios, scales—Beethoven’s treat- G minor of Mozart (1788)—whose piano con- ment is unfailingly engaging. e middle certo in c minor also le an indelible mark on move ment, an allegretto in e minor, is more young Beethoven. akin to a minuet, with a brief trio that shis Shaped as a dynamic, rising arpeggio, the boldly to c major. concluding this sonata is a gesture later is turned in the opposite, descend- rondo marked “comfortably allegro” (allegro ing direction to provide the second theme. also commodo) in which Beethoven indulges the of interest is the use of a fermata pause (i.e., an playful humor that is a recurrent element in the improvisatory break that brings the tense action sonatas. of the opening to an abrupt, suspenseful halt). is gesture of silence is what gives the open- Piano Sonata no. 13 in E-flat major, ing motto of the Fih Symphony, for example, Op. 27, no. 1, Quasi una fantasia much of its power. Beethoven was already concerned with ques- Beethoven grants a respite between the agi- tioning conventional classical sonata form and tated emotions of the first and third movements expectations in his early sonatas. e Op. 27 with a comparatively conventional, song-form pair, which he completed in 1801, take a adagio in F major as the slow movement. e particularly innovative approach to issues of ensuing Minuet, by contrast, boldly plays with architecture. like its much-better-known com- dynamic contrasts in a way that will become a panion (the Sonata in c-sharp minor, immor- stylistic signature. lauded for his thrilling man- talized as the Moonlight), the Sonata in e-flat ner with impetuous tempi, Beethoven draws major (jestingly called by some the Sunlight) on this facet of his keyboard personality for bears the unusual designation Sonata quasi una the restless and stormy prestissimo finale. fantasia (i.e., “in the manner of a fantasy”). in Within the framework of its breakneck speed, both works, Beethoven transforms the classical a middle section of exquisite lyrical poise offers architecture of sonatas built from separate a welcome brief oasis. a fortissimo descent con- movements into a single overarching fan tasy by cludes the sonata. segueing directly (attacca) from one movement to the next—most explicitly in this work, whose Piano Sonata no. 9 in E major, Op. 14, no. 1 four movements all proceed without pause and e two sonatas of Op. 14 date from 1798–99 find their center of gravity in the final movement.

 PROgRAM nOTES

e first movement presents a kind of rondo returns to an andante tempo (now marked characterized by simple, relaxed harmonic see- maestoso—“majestic”) and the variation idea. sawing, though Beethoven undercuts its stabil- Titled “Funeral March on the Death of a Hero,” ity with sudden shi to music in c major (the it naturally brings the parallel movement of the first time stealing in with quiet surprise). Sleight- Eroica Symphony to mind, as do the andante’s of-hand syncopations energize the allegro solemn gestures of dotted rhythms in the minor molto e vivace, a scherzo-with-trio movement key (albeit in a more flowing tempo). e same in c minor that stops short in the major. holds for the brightly contrasting middle sec- as a slow movement within the fantasy tion, with bass tremolos suggesting ceremonial (adagio con espressione), Beethoven turns to drumrolls. Beethoven actually orchestrated this song like, improvisational musing. e sound movement for use as incidental music (using world here is deeply felt but so brief as to form winds and brass): it was played at his funeral a kind of lyrical upbeat or prelude to the joyful in 1827. His pupil carl czerny reported that the allegro vivace finale. Strains of the adagio re- composer was thinking of a mythic hero, not turn unexpectedly (transposed to the home a contemporary napoleonic figure. His direct key) in one of this sonata’s most affecting move- inspiration seems to have been Ferdinand paër’s ments. is gesture of recollection out of the 1801 opera Achille. e variation idea returns blue makes the ensuing, unbridled, rapid-fire yet again in the relatively modest but dazzling coda sound all the more brilliant and conclusive. finale. “e effect is of pulling back from the somber funeral march into something ani- Piano Sonata no. 12 in A-flat major, Op. 26, mated but impersonal, like a cleansing rain,” re- Funeral March marks Swafford. composed at the dawn of the new century and dedicated to the composer’s patron prince Karl Piano Sonata no. 21 in C major, Op. 53, von lichnowsky, this sonata marks a new stage Waldstein in Beethoven’s approach to the genre—and in Beethoven’s sketches for this landmark sonata his understanding of his identity as a composer. can be found in the same notebook he used to Here, according to the biographer Jan Swafford, work out ideas for the contemporaneous Eroica Beethoven “fully possessed the voice history Symphony; he completed both works in 1804. would know him by, and at age 30 he was writ- e composer dedicated Op. 53 to count ing music that would place him once and for all Ferdinand ernst Gabriel von Waldstein—the in the history of his art. everything about this nobleman who was among his earliest support- sonata seems to be more than anything in the ers when he first set off for vienna (hence the works before: more personal; more innovative well-known nickname). is music is animated in the approach to form…; more varied in the by the surge of renewed creativity following expressive scope, with fresh kinds of unity.” Bee thoven’s Heiligenstadt Testament—in which as to its formal innovation, Op. 26 is the first he confided overcoming his thoughts of suicide sonata by Beethoven that begins without an and resolving to accept the fate of his worsening actual sonata-form movement. indeed, none deafness. of its four movements is in sonata form, and Here, Beethoven transcends the High classi- Bee thoven reverses the usual slow movement- cal style with a quasi-symphonic approach to scherzo order, placing the latter before the for- the keyboard. e Waldstein Sonata was in fact mer (as in Op. 27, no. 1). e first movement, partially inspired by the gi of a new, state-of- moreover, is an andante, its five variations the-art instrument Beethoven received from presenting a concept of musical development the parisian piano makers at erard. e para- that swerves from the dialectic of the sonata dox is that the music manages at once to sound paradigm. e Scherzo contrasts staccato and symphonic and quintessentially pianistic. legato articulation, while the third movement continued on p. 24

Next page: Ludwig van Beethoven in his Study; from a painting by Carl Schloesser (1832–1914) 8

Bust statue of Beethoven by Hugo Hagen (1818–1871), based on life mask by Franz Klein done in 1812 Sunday, September 22, 2019, 3pm Hertz Hall Jonathan Biss, piano

ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) e Complete Piano Sonatas (Concert 2)

Sonata no. 4 in e-flat major, Op. 7 allegro molto e con brio largo con gran espressione allegro Rondo: poco allegretto e grazioso

Sonata no. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, no. 2, e Tempest largo: allegro adagio allegretto

INTERMISSION

Sonata no. 5 in c minor, Op. 10, no. 1 allegro molto e con brio adagio molto Finale: prestissimo

Sonata no. 23 in F minor, Op. 57, Appassionata allegro assai andante con moto allegro ma non troppo

Cal Performances’ 2019–20 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

2 PROgRAM nOTES

Piano Sonata no. 4 in E-flat major, Op. 7 once. Beethoven subtly underscores a sense of Beethoven is believed to have composed this unity by again starting, as he had in the allegro ambitious sonata in 1796, while visiting the molto e con brio, with two pairs of chords sep- family estate in Bratislava of a female student: arated by a pause. Here, in one of his most pro- Babette countess Keglević, to whom he decided found slow movements, spacious silences are to dedicate the score. like his first three integrated to wonderful effect. sonatas—published the previous year as Op. 2— e allegro third movement begins sweetly Op. 7 contains four movements, but its much and politely, yet unexpected syncopations of grander scale is apparent from the fact that this silence and hammering accents impart the atti- is the first piano sonata Beethoven published tude of a scherzo. e trio, in agitated e-flat under its own opus number, sans companions. minor, recalls the restless momentum of the and Op. 7 reined as the longest of the piano opening with incessant triplets. in the finale sonatas for years, up until Beethoven wrote the (poco allegretto e grazioso), an especially in- Op. 106 Hammerklavier in 1817–18. it repre- gratiating melody takes a backward glance to sents the first piano sonata he designated on its Beethoven’s origins, though he again surprises title page as “grand” (“Grande Sonate” is some- with a tense shi to c minor in the contrasting times used as a nickname). His student carl middle section. aer so much ground has been czerny once remarked that the epithet Appassi o - traversed, this “Grand Sonata” comes to a self- nata would have been more properly suited effacing close. to Op. 7 than to the Op. 53 sonata that Jonathan Biss has chosen to close this program. e Piano Sonata no. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, relative neglect of the epic Op. 7 is puzzling in- no. 2, e Tempest deed. To what extent might the lack of a catchy Roughly contemporaneous with the Moonlight nickname be to blame? Sonata, this work, dating from 1801–02, has e scale of this work indicates how rapidly similarly become known to posterity via an Beethoven was pushing beyond his models indelible nickname, e Tempest (Der Sturm from Mozart, Haydn, and other authorities— in German). Yet, as in the case of the Moonlight, and beyond the technical limits of the key- the highly suggestive moniker did not originate board’s power as he knew it. While the later with Beethoven. e party responsible for it was Waldstein (with which Biss concluded last anton Schindler, the composer’s personal sec- evening’s program in the cycle) is contem- retary—and the source of a good deal of dubi- poraneous with the breakthrough Eroica, the ous “information” that has become inextricably momentum of Op. 7’s first movement—in the linked to Beethoven. Eroica key of e-flat major—seems to prefigure Schindler claimed that his question as to something of the impetuous drive of that what Beethoven had envisioned with this music symphony. it similarly features an energetically prompted the reply: “Read Shakespeare’s Tem - pulsating accompaniment on the same note. pest.” While Beethoven did own a complete edi- a highly contrasting, chorale-like second theme tion of Shakespeare’s works, the notion that he allows for a brief dissipation of this tension, but was attempting something like program music it comes back with a vengeance at the end of to illustrate the Bard’s late romance must be the exposition. Beethoven inserts powerful— considered with caution. aer all, a good many at times even violent—accents and abrupt other sonatas by the composer include what dynamic shis amid the virtuoso passages of might be labeled “stormy” music. this fiery movement, whose soundscape at in any case, this sonata in D minor stands out moments strains for an almost orchestral ex- on its own, in purely musical terms. e open- pansiveness. ing largo might suggest a slow introduction, e harmonic change to c major for the but it is an integral counterpart to the agitated largo, to be played “con gran espressione” (“with allegro. ese alternating musical states form great expressiveness”), arrests the attention at a polarity of contemplation and terror and gen-

22 PROgRAM nOTES erate an emotional complexity greater than the e opening sonata of the Op. 10 set is also sum of their parts. pay close attention to the Beethoven’s first piano sonata in c minor, the bare recitative-like lament when the largo re- key associated with “Beethoven as Hero,” as turns at the recapitulation. it is one of the most charles Rosen puts it. e stern, call-to-atten- haunting moments in all Beethoven (anticipat- tion chord opening the allegro molto e con brio ing the oboe solo at the parallel moment in the splinters into a tensely dotted, rising idea, first movement of the Fih Symphony): to be followed by a contrasting so lament. is sets whispered, as the eminent scholar charles Rosen into relief the lyrical second theme. in develop- has remarked, “like a voice from the tomb.” ing these ideas, Beethoven seems eager to stretch Duration and scale here manifest Bee tho - beyond the keyboard’s confines of register. ven’s preoccupation with exploring new, With the adagio molto in a-flat major, ambitious potential for the genre. e first we encounter “the last such lyrical sonata slow move ment’s architecture veers from conven- movement Beethoven was to write” and a tional sonata design to build a powerful drama cousin to the parallel movement of the Sonata of dramatic contrasts and musical suspense. in F minor, Op. 2, no. 1, according to the e arpeggiated chord that begins this sonata pianist Robert Taub. e composer, he explains, is echoed at the start of the adagio, now shied “never returned to the style of a florid slow to a newfound equipoise in B-flat major. it movement in a piano sonata.” e prestissimo opens the vista onto a serenely songful dream, finale resorts to a compressed dramatic process momentarily sealing us off from the turmoil similar to that of the first movement—its uni- preceding it. Yet the mood of restless anxiety re- son octave opening giving an anticipation of turns in the perpetual motion of the allegretto how the later, groundbreaking Appassionata finale. e music thrillingly synthesizes an air will begin. Uncanny hints of the Fih Sym - of improvisational mastery with Beethoven’s phony similarly emerge in the brief devel- virtuoso pianism, all in the service of this opment. an intriguing reversal of one of sonata’s extraordinary psychological intensity. Bee tho ven’s favorite strategies occurs in the coda: rather than speed up the (already rush- Piano Sonata no. 5 in C minor, Op. 10, no. 1 ing) tempo, he slows it down to an impro- Beethoven worked simultaneously, starting visa tory adagio, then repeats the shock of the in 1796, on the three sonatas he published as opening with a terse final statement that gutters Op. 10 in 1798. He dedicated them to count ess out like a candle, ending suddenly in c major. anna Margaretha Browne, who was the spouse of his patron Johann Georg Browne, a Russian Piano Sonata no. 23 in F minor, Op. 57, diplomat of irish background in service in appassionata vienna. among the gis Beethoven received a few years separate e Tempest from this from this aristocratic pair was a horse. sonata, which also has become known by a post - certain “common features” link these sonatas humously conferred nickname (this time, from together, according to the biographer William a publisher with good marketing savvy). e Kinderman, “such as the presence of comic Appassionata dates from 1804–05, yet it shares music abounding in sudden contrasts and un- several noteworthy aspects with Op. 31, no. 2: expected turns”—traits Beethoven had likely in- most obviously, the raging turbulence of the ternalized from Haydn, and then made his own. outer movements. in the case of this F minor Yet each sonata in this set possesses a distinctive sonata, a prominent rhythmic motto (three personality. One contemporary critic (writing shorts and a long) relates it to the complex of in 1799) praised the set as a whole but could not musical ideas Beethoven was preoccupied with help wishing that “it might occur to this fanci- at the time, when he was also making sketches ful composer to practice a certain economy in for the Fih Symphony. a sonata-symphony his labors.” Beethoven was seen as too prodigal connection seems to obtain here not unlike that with his “fancy” and “abundance of ideas.” found in the earlier Eroica/Waldstein relation.

23 PROgRAM nOTES

e Appassionata finds Beethoven in fully the movement, the passion momentarily spent amped “heroic” mode, but here channeled into but by no means resolved. a more concentrated and fiercely dramatic e first movement of e Tempest had style. We might recall that F minor is the same ended with a similar strategy, and, in the tonality Beethoven daringly chose to inaugu- Appassionata, the shi to D-flat major for the rate his sonata cycle. From it he generates a dis- andante con moto parallels the shi in the turbingly dark, violent, menacing soundscape former work’s slow movement (down a major of tragic conflict. third from its minor home key). is andante— played at the outset in unadorned unison the eye of the hurricane—is hymnal in charac- and with an eerily conspiratorial quiet, the main ter. Beethoven proceeds to dash its reassurance theme of the opening allegro assai sprawls over with the tempestuous, perpetual-motion fury two octaves. note Beethoven’s masterful use of of the finale. e theme whirls and churns disturbing pauses—also a feature of the Fih with merciless determination—the Fates spin- Symphony, along with the motto rhythm that ning their thread. ere is no journey in this here emerges low in the bass. e second theme sonata from darkness to light. it yields only reworks the first, viewing it from a different unrelenting tragedy, closing with a coda that angle—a concentration of ideas that intensifies speeds up like a mad dance of death. aer these the drama’s vividness. Remarkably, the com- exhaustive explorations of the sonata, Beethoven poser dispenses with the conventional repeat would take a lengthy break—five years—from of the exposition for the first time in his piano the genre. But he had already changed our sonatas. Hammering outbursts are set against expectations of what could be accomplished passages of unnerving sotto voce—nowhere within it forever. more so than in the reduction to ppp to end —omas May

PROgRAM nOTES (cont. from p. 18)

Steadily pulsing chords at the outset of the initially, Beethoven planned a substantial allegro con brio (the same marking as the first andante to correspond to the proportions of movement of the Fih Symphony) signal the the outer movements, but later he replaced this dynamism of Beethoven’s thinking. ey estab- with the “introduzione”—a quasi-operatic lish an electrifying current of seemingly end- intermezzo that bridges the outer movements lessly renewable energy (compare this with the and raises the curtain on the massive finale. similar pulsation at the start of the Eroica). a like the allegro con brio, the final movement dramatic pause brings the forward motion opens almost surreptitiously before swelling to an abrupt stop at the end of the first full with immense energy. Beethoven brings it all statement. Beethoven’s harmonic planning and to a close with a coda of dizzying speed—in the dramatic use of extreme contrasts of range and process redefining the piano’s powers. volume shape the first movement’s magnificent —omas May architecture.

24 Saturday, October 12, 2019, 8pm Hertz Hall Jonathan Biss, piano

ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) e Complete Piano Sonatas (Concert 3)

Sonata no. 15 in D major, Op. 28, Pastorale allegro andante Scherzo: allegro vivace Rondo: allegro ma non troppo

Sonata no. 20 in G major, Op. 49, no. 2 allegro ma non troppo Tempo di Menuetto

Sonata no. 3 in c major, Op. 2, no. 3 allegro con brio adagio Scherzo: allegretto allegro assai

INTERMISSION

Sonata no. 27 in e minor, Op. 90 Mit lebhaigkeit und durchaus mit empfindung und ausdruck nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen

Sonata no. 28 in a major, Op. 101 etwas lebha und mit der innigsten empfindung lebha, marschmäßig langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll Geschwinde, doch nicht zu sehr, und mit entschlossenheit

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25 Portrait of Beethoven by Christian Horneman (1765–1844), 1803 PROgRAM nOTES

Piano Sonata no. 15 in D major, Op. 28, schematic periods that set “early” off against pastorale “middle” and “late.” even within a narrow Tradition has surrounded a number of Beetho- chronological span, the composer exploited ven’s piano sonatas with vague programmatic remarkably disparate strategies, such that each (or “characteristic”) associations. ese are usu- fresh approach to the genre possesses a unique ally crystalized by the nicknames attached to character. them. is sonata, which was published in 1801, e Op. 49 pair of sonatas comes from the with a dedication to Joseph von Sonnenfels heyday of Beethoven’s years as a performing (a former Mozart patron and anti-torture virtuoso in the 1790s. (e comparatively late acti vist), has become known as the Pastorale— opus number merely indicates that these pieces another publisher’s invention—though it is were held back from publication for several not as famous as Beethoven’s other moniker- years, though their composition is actually bearing sonatas. dated sometime between 1795 and 1798.) Yet e suggestion of a peaceful, bucolic mood in this modest set of twins (see p. 46 for a arises from specific devices Beethoven uses description of its companion), each comprising here: above all, the repeated bass drone of the only two movements, Beethoven purposely tonic D in the finale triggered rhetorical con- reins in virtuoso display. anyone who has stud- notations of the countryside. One might also ied piano has likely encountered these so-called identify the charming rondo theme in that “easy sonatas,” for they belong to the tradition of movement as belonging to the same family as keyboard music intended for students and am- the lightly tripping theme in the final move- ateurs, to which such composers as J.S. Bach and ment of the later Pastoral Symphony (which Mozart also contributed such notable repertoire. does bear Beethoven’s authentic nickname). not that there is anything rote or formulaic Beethoven sets aside the experimental mode about Beethoven’s pared-down writing here. e of the three sonatas preceding Op. 28, opting second of this pair, in G major, is even more- instead to take a look again at more classically straightforward than its G minor twin but poses oriented conventions. e rhythmic pulse in interpretive challenges in the lack of dynamic the bass at the beginning of the first movement markings, which normally play such a crucial (oen likened to a steady beat provided by the role in Beethoven’s shaping of the musical ar- timpani) anchors the harmonic voyage to come. gument. (e autograph score is not extant.) Beethoven’s use of contrasts is especially Both movements are in G major, the first a pleasing in the D minor andante, as well as simple and charming allegro ma non troppo in the relationship between the allegro vivace whose two main themes feature a contrast of Scherzo in D major and its minor-key trio. extroverted and more subdued lyrical material. Despite the music’s leisurely aura, the finale Beethoven, the master atomizer, pulverizer, and encompasses a wide range of textures, from transmogrifier of motivic ideas, here contents intricate polyphony to Beethoven’s most virtu- himself with a mere wisp of a development sec- osic vein in a thrilling coda. as a whole, writes tion. e first movement is complemented by the biographer Maynard Solomon, this sonata a rondo in tempo di menuetto (an indication “celebrates the peace that comes from the Beethoven uses elsewhere in the sonatas only fulfillment of a difficult creative effort and for Op. 54—as well as in his uber-popular withdraws to a relative traditionalism, from Op. 20 Septet, for which he recycled this tune). which Bee thoven will gain strength for a new each reprise of the rondo theme offers an op- creative surge.” portunity for the pianist to shade a bit differ- ently with improvisatory inflections. Piano Sonata no. 20 in g major, Op. 49, no. 2 Jonathan Biss’ juxtaposition of the five sonatas Piano Sonata no. 3 in C major, Op. 2, no. 3 in this program underscores the inadequacy Of the very first set of piano sonatas that Bee - of pigeonholing Beethoven into conveniently thoven published in 1796 as his Op. 2 (see p. 17

2 Vienna ca. 1800. The Kohlmarkt. Artaria, Beethoven’s publisher, is on the right. PROgRAM nOTES for more background), the concluding work at a significant change in perspective. While he in c major is the boldest, in regards both to its had started introducing German directives to structural scope and to the challenges it poses clarify his italian ones in that preceding sonata for the performer. is music has been hailed (see p. 51), the composer dispenses with the as a prefiguration of the brilliance of the later italian convention altogether in Op. 90. e c major Waldstein Sonata. like its companions sonata is dedicated to the composer’s patron in Op. 2, the third sonata is laid out in an ex- prince Moritz von lichnowsky. pansive four movements (in contrast to the e German indication for the first move- three movements more typical of Haydn’s and ment (“Mit lebhaigkeit und durchaus mit Mozart’s solo piano sonatas). emp findung und ausdruck”) might be trans- e allegro con brio first movement pres- lated “lively, with feeling and expression ents an abundance of material, including a throughout” and that for the second (“nicht surprising transitional thematic group in the zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen”) minor—a hint of the harmonic surprises scat- “to be played not too fast and in a very singing tered throughout this sonata. a lengthy devel- manner.” (e traditional lore from anton opment is balanced by the unusual bravura Schindler suggested Beethoven wanted to name required for the coda, for which Beethoven the movements “contest between Head and writes out a cadenza—as if he wanted to make Heart” and “conversation with the Beloved,” this solo sonata interchangeable with a public respectively.) concerto. in tandem with the expanded archi- e two-movement scheme—so different tectural proportions, he makes pithy use of the from that of the early Op. 49—additionally opening theme, enhancing a sense of organic singles out this e minor sonata as a work on unity. it even appears subliminally in the adagio, the threshold of Beethoven’s musical thinking in startling e major, where it is transformed into in his late style. Opus 78 from 1809 had likewise a new melody. an extended minor-key section been cast in only two movements, yet here the evokes pathos with the most economical of juxtaposition is extreme, as if to suggest the yin means, based on a sighing semitone figure. and yang of experience itself. instead of the raw Beethoven shows off his contrapuntal conflict of dialectical opposites, organized to prowess in the neatly dovetailing canon imita- resolve in a goal-oriented “victory,” both move- tions of the Scherzo. instead of offering repose, ments simply co-exist: night and day. as such, the Trio ripples past in restless triplets, while they foreshadow the design of Beethoven’s final the coda retreats into stagey whispers. Some of essay in the genre, Op. 111. the most dazzling flourishes (and technical de- e first movement sets up internal con- mands) are reserved for the allegro assai finale. trasts that remain unresolved. its opening e main theme of ascending chords (to be statement, structured as a call and response, played with a light touch) almost suggests an is declamatory, but emphatic and unyielding amiable parody of the early classical era com- rhythms give way to a flowing lyrical impulse. monplace known as the “Mannheim rocket.” e exposition is tight, compressed, yet in- into this movement Beethoven crowds power- tensely eventful, marked by dynamic contrasts ful crescendos, daring harmonic shis and hints and crashing dissonances, while the coda of still another cadenza (which never actually ar- opens up vast new mysteries. rives), with a fanfare of trills near the end. With a simple upbeat, the second movement shis to e major. notwithstanding the innocent Piano Sonata no. 27 in E major, Op. 90 suavity of its rondo theme, Beethoven makes a period of absence from the piano sonata it feel like the inevitable counterpart to the genre separates this work, composed in the declamatory outbursts of the first movement. summer of 1814, from its predecessor, Op. 81a, even through the digressions of the interven- which had been completed almost five years ing episodes, Beethoven’s writing here spells out earlier. even Beethoven’s tempo indications hint the implications of the opening lyricism with

2 Piano Sonata in A major, Op. 101, Fourth Movement, manuscript sketch in Beethoven's handwriting PROgRAM nOTES music that seems to pass beyond conflict and sonatas] that was publicly performed during the comes to a close with a heartbreakingly honest lifetime of the composer,” with Beethoven in at- whisper. tendance as part of the audience. He also re- ports that Beethoven named the first and third Piano Sonata no. 28 in A major, Op. 101 movements “impressions and reveries.” With Op. 101, Jonathan Biss enters into the Marked “etwas lebha, und mit der innig- realm of what is widely designated Beethoven’s sten empfindung” (“Somewhat lively, and with late style. completed in 1816, this sonata re- the most intimate sensitivity”), the gentle first minds us not only of the extent to which the movement conveys complex emotional intima- composer refined and expanded the formal and cies beneath its deceptively simple, flowing sur- stylistic ideas he had inherited from Haydn, face. Richard Wag ner not only greatly admired Mozart, and others. in his so-called late style, this music but learned much from it for his con- Beethoven radically reconsidered the essence of cept of “infinite melody.” the piano sonata as a creative act. e “lively, march-like” ensuing movement By this time, worsening deafness had forced shis unexpectedly to F major (like the Scherzo him to abandon his own career as a virtuoso of the a major Seventh Symphony). its con- pianist. e 45-year-old Beethoven dedicated trasting middle section builds on the canonic Op. 101 to Baroness Dorothea von ertmann, overlapping of voices. e adagio (“slow and a student who became a highly respected con- full of longing”) is not a stand-alone slow move- temporary viennese pianist—and at one time ment but serves as a meditative, improvisatory was regarded as a strong candidate in the quest interlude and introduction to the finale, incor- to identify the mysterious “immortal Beloved” porating a memory of the opening movement’s with whom Beethoven famously corresponded first theme near the end. Beethoven then in the summer of 1812. segues into the richly confident final movement another notable feature of the published (“swily, but not too much so, and with score is the fact that here, for the first time, Bee - determination”), which features elaborately thoven used a German word for the rapidly contrapuntal textures—another preoccupation evolving piano, settling on Hammerklavier of Bee thoven’s late style—above all in the de- (which would become the moniker of his sub- velopment section, which unfolds as a grand sequent sonata, Op. 106). His (notoriously un- fugue. in the final bars, Beethoven repeats his reliable) personal secretary anton Schindler trick of slowing and hushing the music before claimed that “this is the only one [of his piano bringing it back to tempo at full blast. —omas May

3 Portrait of Beethoven by Joseph Willibrord Mähler (1778–1860), 1815 Sunday, October 13, 2019, 3pm Hertz Hall Jonathan Biss, piano

ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) e Complete Piano Sonatas (Concert 4)

Sonata no. 6 in F major, Op. 10, no. 2 allegro Menuetto. allegretto presto

Sonata no. 10 in G major, Op. 14, no. 2 allegro andante Scherzo: allegro assai

Sonata no. 18 in e-flat major, Op. 31, no. 3, e Hunt allegro Scherzo: allegretto vivace Menuetto: Moderato e grazioso presto con fuoco

INTERMISSION

Sonata no. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106,Hammerklavier allegro Scherzo: assai vivace adagio sostenuto largo: allegro risoluto

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33 PROgRAM nOTES

Piano Sonata no. 6 in F major, Op. 10, no. 2 light trajectory of, say, the Fih Symphony). For Beethoven as tragic, defiant, fate-protesting the performer, comic music requires nuanced hero: this quintessentially Romantic image comic timing. of the composer continues to casts its spell. e mood turns rather more serious in the it tends to overshadow many other aspects of F minor allegretto, which is graced by a trio in the man—in particular, the importance of D-flat major. in lieu of a temporary eden be- humor in his work. Jonathan Biss here presents tween storms (as in Beethoven’s “tempestuous” sonatas replete with Beethovenian humor, sonatas), this middle movement is flanked by presented side by side with the most ambitious the giddy spirits of the opening and the contra- of the sonatas in the entire cycle, the mighty puntally playful presto finale. We can practically Hammerklavier, which opens the way into new hear Beethoven laughing here, as if “revoking” ways of thinking about the genre, the instru- any attempt to take too seriously what had been ment, and the very nature of musical expression. presented in the allegretto. in his pathbreaking book e Classical Style, the scholar and pianist charles Rosen encapsu- Piano Sonata no. 10 in g major, Op. 14, no. 2 lates the significant role played by humor and e two sonatas published in 1799 as Op. 14 the comic spirit in general with regard to the (see p. 17 for more background) were intended stylistic language that Beethoven inherited and for private, domestic music-making. in contrast transformed: “e buffoonery of Haydn, Bee - to the ambitious, four-movement design of tho ven, and Mozart is only an exaggeration of the first four sonatas, this pair reverts to the an essential quality of the classical style. is three movements characteristic of Mozart’s and style was, in its origins, basically a comic one. Haydn’s solo sonatas. i do not mean that sentiments of the deepest Beethovenian humor is oen described as and most tragic emotion could not be expressed “gruff,” but it has other facets as well that come by it, but the pacing of classical rhythm is the to the fore in the Sonata in G major—as in the pacing of comic opera, its phrasing is the phras- rhythmic displacements so central to the lan- ing of dance music, and its large structures are guage of the opening allegro. in his commen- these phrases dramatized.” taries on the complete sonatas, the pianist as the biographer William Kinderman has Robert Taub observes that this is the first Bee - noted (see p. 23 for more background on the set tho ven sonata to begin with “no chords of any as a whole), the three Op. 10 sonatas published sort.” indeed, the feeling of fantasy imparted in 1798 share certain “comic” gestures by the opening measures is reminiscent of a of the sort perfected by Haydn, which take Baroque prelude. e movement unfolds with the form of “sudden contrasts and unexpected considerable grace and wit. turns.” He also points to “a whimsical, unpre- ere’s no shortage of chordal writing in the dictable humor [that] surfaces in the finales” of theme-and-variations andante in c major. e all three Op. 10 sonatas, “most strikingly in the variations actually transpire in the accompa- opening allegro” of this sonata in F major. niment. Unusually, Beethoven ends this sonata Beethoven even seems to mock his own ten- with a rondo-form Scherzo that seems to thumb dency to obsess over a phrase: listen to his treat- its nose at the four-square march demeanor of ment of the ornamental turn right aer the first the middle movement with comically eccentric two chords, which ends up being no trivial accents and pauses as unpredictable as a game decoration at all. For Kinderman, this opening of musical chairs. movement suggests something of the “tail wagging the dog” and is, as a whole, “anti- Piano Sonata no. 18 in E-flat major, teleological,” in that “the music appears to Op. 31, no. 3, e Hunt progress in fits and starts”—which is to say, as it is sonata, completed in 1802, did not appear were, anti-Beethoven (or a very cliched notion in print until 1804, and only in 1805 did it join of Bee thoven epitomized by the darkness-to- its companions as the third of the Op. 31 set

34 PROgRAM nOTES

The Beethoven Broadwood, manufactured in London in 1817

(see p. 46 for more on Op. 31’s publication though in different ways, in this sonata, which history). e lack of autograph scores has ex- carries the nickname e Hunt. (e moniker acerbated the editing issues that beset Op. 31 is not as widespread as the “standard” ones like from the start. What is certain is that Beetho - e Tempest, Appassionata, and Waldstein, but ven had become impatient to seek out a new became attached to the piece in some countries “path” as a composer—the image is his own, during the 19th century—in this case, mostly according to his student czerny, who recalled in France.) Beethoven expressing an intent to make a fresh according to Kinderman, the composer’s start on his creative work. e Tempest Sonata, “innovative tendencies surface more clearly” published as the second of the Op. 31 set, in these pieces, in which Beethoven “boldly stakes out daring new territory in Beethoven’s [explores] artistic territory that he soon consol- sonatas. His preoccupation with progressive idated in the Eroica Symphony.” cast in the musical ideas and forms is also apparent, Eroica key of e-flat major—but in no way akin

35 After receiving word of Broadwood’s gift, Beethoven wrote: “My dearest friend Broadwood, I have never felt a greater pleasure than that given me by the anticipation of the arrival of this piano, with which you are honouring me as a present. I shall regard it as an altar on which I shall place my spirit’s most beautiful offerings to the divine Apollo. As soon as I receive your excellent instrument, I shall send you the fruits of the first moments of inspiration I spend at it, as a souvenir for you from me, my very dear B., and I hope that they will be worthy of your instrument. My dear sir and friend, accept my warmest considera- tion, from your friend and most humble servant, Louis Van Beethoven, Vienna, 3rd February 1818. PROgRAM nOTES to the “heroism” of the latter work—this sonata greatness.” Rosen adds that “it is just this ex- is laid out in four movements. interestingly, treme character which makes it a statement of Beethoven would use a four-movement design such clarity and allows us to see, as almost no again only in Op. 101 (where it’s actually am- other piece does, the principles by which he biguous) and Op. 106 (the Hammerklavier), worked, particularly at the end of his life; which concludes this program. through it we can understand how the total e allegro opens with a coy phrase—light - structure as well as the details of a work of years apart from the determination of the ird Beethoven have such an audible power.” Symphony—and even suggests “a continuation By the time Beethoven composed the Ham - of music that had already begun” (Kinderman). mer klavier, in 1817–18, the comic spirit of e harmonic ground shis subtly, even Ros sini had conquered vienna and the aging anticipating the instability of Wagner’s Tristan German (though only in his late 40s) feared chord. Yet the ambiguity coexists with an over- being regarded by his peers as old-fashioned. all cheerful air. ere’s a sense of rousing all his energy here e ensuing allegretto vivace Scherzo (in to prove that he was capable of the unprece- duple rather than triple meter) makes comic dented—not unlike the creative rallying that use of dynamic contrasts. curiously, Beethoven followed the Heiligenstadt Testament of 1802. follows this with a serious minuet (Moderato Beethoven dedicated Op. 106 to his friend e grazioso), concluding the sonata with a fiery and patron, the archduke Rudolph. e piece finale (presto con fuoco) built from obsessively has become known as the Hammerklavier by chasing tarantella rhythms (the origin of the way of reference to one of the German words Hunt nickname). virtuosity here shows its al- of the era for the then-rapidly evolving piano liance with wit and humor. (describing the keyboard’s hammer mecha- nism). Beethoven was on the point of com- Piano Sonata no. 29 in B-flat major, pleting the Hammerklavier when a gi of the Op. 106, Hammerklavier latest Broadwood piano from london arrived. e piano also served as a laboratory for Bee - according to the musicologist Tom Beghin, thoven’s innovative experiments with classical only the final movement corresponds to the forms and rhetorical expression: a testing span of this more “modern” piano. He con- ground where he could try out unconventional cludes that the Hammerklavier “is not some sonorities and bold new combinations of ideas. grand six-and-half-octave piece, but one that e results have le a continuing mark on piano actually combines two ranges” (the six-octave composition. More than two centuries aer it viennese keyboard of the time for the first was completed, Beethoven’s Große Sonate für three movements and the new Broadwood das Hammerklavier in B-flat major, Op. 106, with extended bass but actually a more limited remains a formidable challenge for performers treble span). and listeners alike. charles Rosen went so far as e grandest of Beethoven’s piano sonatas to claim that the Hammerklavier does not even in terms of architectural design—the duration sound “typical” of Beethoven, not even of late of the piece extends beyond that of several of Beethoven: “it is an extreme point of his style…. his symphonies—the Hammerklavier evokes a in part, it must have been an attempt to break sense of uttering “the final word” through its out of the impasse in which he found himself.” sheer scope and exhaustive treatment of its notable already merely for its unprecedented materials. Beethoven encompasses his ideas vast dimensions, “it was an attempt to produce within a four-movement ground plan that, like a new and original work of uncompromising the ninth Symphony—which he was simulta-

3 PROgRAM nOTES

neously beginning to sketch out—reverses the ral that clashes against the tonal context of traditional order of the inner movements, pre- B-flat major. ere ensues one of the most ceding the slow movement with a Scherzo. (in transportive of Beethoven’s slow movements, a letter the composer actually referred to the an extended sonata form adagio sostenuto in Hammerklavier as having five movements, con- F-sharp minor. e key choice continues the sidering the largo Introduzione to the finale as harmonic descent of a third (from the B-flat a separate fourth movement.) major of the first two movements) that is a Yet the classical architecture has been made signature of the Hammerklavier’s tonal plan- gigantic. With its sudden attack and massive ning. Bee thoven, unusually, marks it to be span of octaves, the allegro’s opening theme played Appassionato e con molto sentimento. juxtaposes forceful statements and prolonged e detailed pedal markings likewise point to silences in a way that recalls the concentrated the composer’s sensitivity to the ideal timbre he power of the opening motto of the Fih Sym - was imagining for this music. William Kinder - phony. e hugeness of this music is propelled man reminds us that this adagio was once by an unconventional harmonic engine: the likened to “a mausoleum of the collective suf- prominence given to progression by descend- fering of the world.” ing thirds, which drive the progress of the first Beethoven’s late-period fascination with movement’s development section toward the far- Baroque textures and forms is above all appar- distant key of B major. e shi by a half-step to ent in the final movement, starting with the the home key of B-flat major for the recapitula- mysterious largo transition to a vast fugal tion is, as Rosen puts it, “brutally abrupt.” edifice that, writes Kinderman, “seems not to Rosen reads the surprisingly compact Scher - affirm a higher, more perfect or serene world of zo (assai vivace) as a “parody” of the processes eternal harmonies, as in Bach’s works, but to explored in the first movement—notably, for confront an open universe.” example, in the insistent “wrong-note” B natu- —omas May

38 Sunday, December 15, 2019, 3pm Hertz Hall Jonathan Biss, piano

ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) e Complete Piano Sonatas (Concert 5)

Sonata no. 25 in G major, Op 79, Cuckoo presto alla tedesca andante vivace

Sonata no. 11 in B-flat major, Op. 22 allegro con brio adagio con molta espressione Menuetto Rondo: allegretto

Sonata no. 14 in c-sharp minor, Op. 27, no. 2, Moonlight adagio sostenuto allegretto presto agitato

INTERMISSION

Sonata no. 24 in F-sharp major, Op. 78, À érèse adagio cantabile: allegro ma non troppo allegro vivace

Sonata no. 30 in e major, Op. 109 vivace ma non troppo: adagio espressivo prestissimo Gesangvoll, mit innigster empfindung

Cal Performances’ 2019–20 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

3 PROgRAM nOTES

Piano Sonata no. 25 in g major, Piano Sonata no. 11 in B-flat major, Op. 22 Op. 79, Cuckoo While Beethoven compresses the sonata into an Dating from 1809—the year napoleon re- intimate essence in works like Op. 79, this work turned to again occupy vienna, when Beetho - proceeds in the opposite direction. His only ven was working on his Fih piano concerto other sonata in the key of B-flat major aside (Emperor) and the brilliant Sonata Op. 81a (Les from the much-later Hammerklavier (Op. 106), Adieux)—this sonata seems like a compara- Op. 22 marks the composer’s return to the tively modest effort. it ranks among the short- ambitious, four-movement sonata design he est of the sonatas, though it unfolds in three had most recently explored in the Sonata in movements. On the surface, its manner even D major, Op. 10, no. 3, of 1798. suggests something of a throwback to early published by itself and a work of which he Bee thoven. Yet a great deal is condensed into its was particularly proud, Op. 22 is the only miniature framework—the entire exposition is sonata Beethoven completed in 1800—the year well under a minute—and the extrovert attitude in which he introduced his First Symphony. of the start leads to moody detours and turn- His conception combines big, quasi-orchestral on-a-dime shis from major to minor. it’s also gestures with an outright virtuoso attitude. e possible to hear an anticipation of the humor boldly articulated sonata form of the allegro of the opening of the eighth Symphony, another con brio first movement makes do without a underestimated work whose “backward glances” coda but feels satisfyingly resolved. conceal an innovative spirit. We encounter Beethoven’s proto-Romantic Beethoven heads the first movement Presto lyrical grace in the adagio con molta espres- alla tedesca (referring to a German folk dance sione. e interplay of line and ornament evokes in triple meter that moves rapidly), but it has an unwritten opera scenario for some. Startling also become known by the nickname Cuckoo contrasts between the minuet and its trio (tog- because of the suggestive calls of the minor gling between major and minor) set the stage thirds that pervade the development section. for the surprising developments of the amiably (in the Pastoral Symphony, Beethoven had in- flowing finale. Overall, the Op. 22 sonata, so un- troduced another voice of the cuckoo, herald- fairly neglected, is a wise and superbly craed ing the summer.) ode to the style Beethoven had inherited and, all three movements are centered on the with full deliberation, was crystallizing into tonic G—the major outer movements framing something unprecedented. G minor in the andante, which looks ahead to the emerging Romantic aesthetic with its lilting Piano Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp minor, gondolier rhythm and its hints of erotic escape. Op. 27, no. 2, Moonlight e rondo theme of the vivace finale returns to ever since Beethoven’s own lifetime, commen- mirthful G major with an idea that Beethoven tators have been tempted to trace all manner would recycle for his Op. 109 sonata 11 years of biography into the notes—above all, details later. e musicologist Kenneth Drake even in- of the composer’s lack of a fulfilling personal terprets Op. 79’s last movement as a bagatelle— relationship. e intimacy of this sonata, for the miniature form to which Beethoven turned example, has given rise to speculation that Bee - in his solo piano writing aer he stopped com- thoven was here encoding the history of his posing sonatas and aer his epic final set of despair over his love for the dedicatee, also a variations (the Diabelli Variations). He notes piano pupil of his, the young countess Giulietta that aspects of late Beethoven are already ap- Guicciardi (one of the former candidates for the parent here “in widely spaced writing and also “immortal Beloved”). in the sketchlike transparency of the writing, But still another angle gave rise, posthu- in which rhythmic combinations and quick mously, to the nickname that has stuck. in the register changes that are otherwise not difficult 1830s, the poet-critic ludwig Rellstab’s re- sound complex.” marked that the first movement’s rippling tex-

4 PROgRAM nOTES tures reminded him of the moonlight over lake it’s as if Beethoven found a way of proceed- lucerne. in “Because” on e Beatles’ Abbey ing beyond the Appassionata’s powerful com- Road album, John lennon paid a tribute of his bination of breathtaking bravura and expressive own by adapting the famous arpeggiated chords intensity by changing tack, opting for relative of the adagio sostenuto first movement. brevity and avoidance of grandiose sonorities. e musicologist Timothy Jones has pro- But we should not mistake the extraordinary posed a thought experiment: Why not imagine intimacy of Op. 78 for mere modesty of design. the subdued, muted-pedal sonority that pre- like the similarly neglected Op. 54 (overshad- dominates here as an image for “Beethoven’s owed by its companion, the Waldstein), Op. 78 impaired auditory world and—at the same is cast in only two movements that are both time—a lament for his loss”? He goes on to in the same key (F major and F-sharp major in caution: “it is all too easy to let such speculation Op. 54 and Op. 78, respectively). run wild.” e truly astonishing achievement of Beethoven dedicated Op. 78 to his pupil this c-sharp minor sonata, which Beethoven countess érèse von Brunsvik (it is sometimes completed in 1801, is the impression of fantasy known as the Sonata à érèse). She was one that is sustained in the nocturne-like opening of the two sisters, as it happens, of the Appas - movement, though it does refer to sonata form. sionata’s dedicatee (count von Brunsvik) and like its companion, Op. 27, no. 1, he titled this yet another candidate for the elusive “immortal score Sonata quasi una fantasia (“Sonata in the Beloved” to whom the composer later sent his manner of a fantasy”). famous confession of love in 1812. e essen- Whatever associations of improvisation the tially lyrical nature of the longer first movement music evokes, this sonata is constructed as a seems only to enhance that potential associa- finale-centered structure whose culmination tion. as for its compressed distillation of ideas, seems inevitable. e presto agitato drowns out von Bülow rhapsodized over the brief adagio whatever residual serenity remains of the brief, cantabile introduction, which lasts all of four almost insouciant intermezzo separating the bars but contains an immensity of melody and outer movements. its raging arpeggios and self-revelation. Tantalizingly, the melody itself brutal attacks reconfigure the rippling motions never returns, though it does provide the mo- of the preludial first movement. tivic cell for the main allegro ma non troppo. Beethoven juxtaposes various rhythmic treat- Piano Sonata no. 24 in F-sharp major, ments of the material, first in quarter notes, Op. 78, À érèse then in sixteenths and triplets. composed in 1809, like the sonata with which Meanwhile, as Robert Taub observes, “dis- Jonathan Biss began this program, Op. 78 is the tinctions between melody and accompaniment only one of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in the key begin to dissolve,” thus posing a particular of F-sharp major. is is an inexplicably over- challenge for the performer to delineate “each looked gem among the cycle—even though the theme individually but nonetheless to weave composer himself counted it (along with the them all into a carefully constructed, lumines- Appassionata, its predecessor) among his fa- cent musical fabric.” vorite achievements at the keyboard. We en- e shorter allegro vivace, while in the counter here an alternative to the “heroic” same key, manifests a character notably differ- mode as well as the epic scale that the com- ent from that of the quasi-Schubertian first poser had perfected in the Appassionata and movement. its saucy rhythmic slurs and dy- Waldstein sonatas. in Op. 78, “the concentra- namic contrasts update Haydnesque wit, while tion on small thematic motives is characteristic the main theme incorporates a tongue-in- of the organic, meticulously composed works cheek reference to the tune “Hail, Britannia” of the last period… in which every nuance is (for which Beethoven had written variations an integral part of the whole,” observes the pi- in 1803). anist Robert Taub.

4 PROgRAM nOTES

Piano Sonata no. 30 in E major, Op. 109 local contexts. e opening movement of this in 1820—a year that marked the resolution of sonata in e major, for example, juxtaposes vi- a long period of emotional turmoil and crisis, vace against adagio espressivo and uses a change as the composer was nearing 50—Beethoven of meter to distinguish the chorale-like first accepted a commission from his Berlin pub- theme from the improvisatory texture of the lisher to write three new piano sonatas. e second. e prestissimo second movement, in biographer Maynard Solomon notes that the e minor, deploys dynamic contrasts of so and composer, who was “battered and torn from violently loud. the stresses” of the previous years, could now e first two movements are in tightly com- “set about reconstructing his life and completing pressed sonata form, but together they are his life’s work.” Beethoven took until 1822 to fin- dwarfed by the final movement. Here, Beetho - ish the last of these sonatas; his only other major ven juxtaposes languages to delineate his tempo work for piano to appear aer them would be the and expressive markings, using italian and Ger- monumental Diabelli Variations. Signifi cantly, man: Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung Beethoven assigned each of these three sonatas (“songful, with innermost feeling”) and Andante a separate opus number, and each embodies a molto cantabile ed espressivo. distinctive character and even philosophy. is finale unfolds as a set of six variations Jonathan Biss has made these works the respec- (only the first four of them numbered as such) tive culminating points of each of the last three on the two-part theme whose rhythmic pro- programs in his complete Beethoven cycle. file has been compared to that of a sarabande, at the same time, there are connections the ceremonial Baroque dance in triple meter. among these three sonatas. all of them trans- Beethoven’s procedure here is to expand the form musical elements familiar from classical scope of the underlying theme that is being var- vocabulary into novel new formations. eir ied into unexpected realms, including a fugato scores are filled with curious reversals of signi- for the fih and a rhapsodic efflorescence in the fication as well: “major ideas” become com- sixth and final variation—all capped by a return pressed rather than elaborated, while trills and to the stark simplicity of the theme itself. as in arpeggios, devices normally associated with the parallel return to the aria in Bach’s Goldberg mere ornamentation, are glorified into signifi- Variations, Beethoven leaves us with a feeling cant but elusive gestures. that its essence has been informed by the in- also shared by the final trilogy is a singular tervening experience—and thus permanently use of contrast, both on the large scale and in changed. —omas May

42 St. Michael’s Square, Vienna, ca. 1800. Burg theater (the German theater) is far right Portrait of Beethoven in 1823 by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller Saturday, March 7, 2020, 8pm Hertz Hall Jonathan Biss, piano

ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) e Complete Piano Sonatas (Concert 6)

Sonata no. 19 in G minor, Op. 49, no. 1 andante Rondo: allegro

Sonata no. 16 in G major, Op. 31, no .1 allegro vivace adagio grazioso Rondo: allegretto

Sonata no. 7 in D major, Op. 10, no. 3 presto largo e mesto Menuetto: allegro Rondo: allegro

INTERMISSION

Sonata no. 2 in a major, Op. 2, no. 2 allegro vivace largo appassionato Scherzo: allegretto Rondo: Grazioso

Sonata no. 31 in a-flat major, Op. 110 Moderato cantabile molto espressivo allegro molto adagio ma non troppo

Cal Performances’ 2019–20 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

45 PROgRAM nOTES

Piano Sonata no. 19 in g minor, Op. 49, no. 1 they need to be laser-precise in timing. He ex- Disregard the relatively high opus number of tends this ploy so that, when the hands do finally this work. e music is a product of Beethoven’s come together in very demonstrative fashion, years as a performing virtuoso in vienna in the the result is genuinely comic. Harmonic adven- late 1790s. He merely waited to publish this set ture also abounds as Beethoven veers toward of modest sonatas until nearly a decade later. keys not expected or prepared for in conven- (See p. 27 for more background on Op. 49.) tional classical style. e gently doleful theme of the andante e adagio grazioso—one of the longest of that opens this sonata—so far removed from Beethoven’s slow movements—contains another the breathless pathos Mozart associated with brand of humor. in part, this may be construed this key—reminds us of the melodic gi with as parody, starting with the exaggerated trill which Beethoven charmed his audiences. in the that launches the movement. almost absurdly Rondo: allegro, which turns to G major, good- drawn-out ornamentation begins to sound humored rhythmic frolics alternate teasingly be- suspect. Beethoven’s target here is the frivolous tween light and shade. salon music of his peers, as well as the preening of contemporary italian opera. at the same time, Piano Sonata no. 16 in g major, Op. 31, no. 1 moments of seemingly straightforward affect e publication history of Op. 31 is unusually complicate the picture. complicated. Beethoven agreed to write three playing with expectations is again a theme of new sonatas for zurich-based publisher Georg the Rondo finale, where rhythmic displacement nägeli during the half year he spent in the vien - and pauses are used with cleverly subversive nese suburb of Heiligenstadt in 1802. When the intent. in the coda, Beethoven speeds the music first two sonatas of the set came back from the up to a breakneck presto in a gesture that Sir printer in 1803, the enraged composer worked Donald Tovey likened to “fitful giggling.” out a re-publication deal with another publisher on account of the sloppy editing, which had Piano Sonata no. 7 in D major, Op. 10, no. 3 resulted in a profusion of errors—and even the Of the three works gathered as Op. 10 (see p. 23 arbitrary insertion of a few measures composed for more background on the set, which was pub- by the publisher. e three sonatas that com- lished in 1798), this D major sonata is the most prise Op. 31 appeared together only in 1805. Still ambitious. Some regard it as the first real another publisher, based in vienna, brought out “masterpiece” of the 32 sonatas, particularly all three that same year, but under a different with regard to its intricate crasmanship. its two opus number. e autograph scores have disap- companions are cast in three movements each, peared, so editing questions continue to bedevil but here Beethoven calls for four movements these works. Unusually, there are no verified that encompass an extraordinary emotional dedications. spectrum. e forward-looking, experimental e first sonata of the Op. 31 set has been humor of the Op. 10 set as a whole—and humor overshadowed by its dramatic neighbor, the represents one of this composer’s most radical D minor sonata known as e Tempest (no. 2 in tools—frames a tragic slow movement in the the set, though it was finished before this piece). minor key that Tovey hailed as nothing less than likewise, the sense of subversive humor that this a “landmark in musical history.” e large-scale G major sonata manifests is a quality that architecture of this sonata is rooted in the use has been relatively undervalued in Bee thoven’s of the same tonic (D—major and minor) for all music. is is especially so with regard to the four movements. idea governing the allegro vivace first move- charles Rosen reminds us of the importance ment. Beethoven begins with tricky synco- of Beethoven’s mastery of the Well-Tempered pations that create an auditory illusion of the Clavier as an adolescent. e presto first move- pianist’s hands being off kilter—precisely where ment derives from the most elemental mate-

46 PROgRAM nOTES rial—the descending D major tetrachord (four duces the second theme. Our images of the re- notes) played as octaves at the outset. “For the bellious young Beethoven notwithstanding, the capacity to draw inspiration from the smallest young artist worked hard to learn the art of motif, Beethoven has no rivals in music his- counterpoint, which is proudly on display here. tory with the possible exception of Bach,” Rosen as we experience so oen in the later sonatas, observes. e dynamism generated by this his acclaimed virtuosity at the keyboard is allied movement is thrilling, dramatic, and bracingly to spellbinding wit and imagination. optimistic. ere follows a prayerful song-form largo e slow movement is designated largo e appassionato (what a curious descriptive for mesto. Only in the adagio of the String Quartet a slow movement!), accompanied by a kind of no. 7 (Op. 59, no. 1) does Beethoven again use walking bass line beneath slow-moving hymn the term mesto (“mournful”). it’s interesting to chords. a dramatically extended coda suggests note that among Beethoven’s other works from an operatic farewell. e allegretto Scherzo the period of Op. 10, the adagio of his First recalls something of the sparkling, elegant String Quartet (Op. 18, no. 1—also in D minor) dynamism of the opening movement, with a has been suggested as similar in tragic profun- swerve to a minor for the trio. Marked Grazi - dity. at this point in his life (only in his late 20s), oso, the finale integrates an ingratiating arpeggio Beethoven’s ability to convey despair and emo- sweep into its cheerful theme. another return tional darkness is already remarkable. as in the to a minor spices the central episode with chro- later Eroica’s Funeral March, he stages a pattern matic drama—but how quickly Beethoven dis- of emerging solace, only to be crushed again by pels the clouds, freeing the way for a deliciously futility and hopelessness. subtle ending. e Menuetto provides relief while also pre - paring, with its Trio section, for the rousingly Piano Sonata no. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110 comic spirit of the finale (which nonetheless Referring to Beethoven’s late quartets, Schu - makes reference to the tragic slow movement mann once observed that they are works before brushing that aside). in this allegro, “for whose greatness no words can be found.” Beethoven again gets enormous mileage from countless listeners have experienced similar the simplest material, playing with contrasts and reactions to the final series of piano sonatas, in pauses to confound our expectations. which Beethoven forged the language of his late style. and it is above all in the last three sonatas Piano Sonata no. 2 in A major, Op. 2, no. 2 (Op. nos. 109, 110, and 111 [see p. 42 for more Beethoven obviously intended to make a bold biographical background on their composi- statement with his first official batch of piano tion]) that the piano—the instrument Bee - sonatas. (See pp. 17 for more background on thoven could no longer play in public—becomes Op. 2.) Or, rather, a series of bold statements: the medium for a music of ineffable, visionary a powerful, dramatic sonata in the minor to intensity. open the set (the Sonata in F minor), a brilliant, like a shed skin, the materiality of sound at times almost symphonic closer (the Sonata itself—by now a ghostly presence for the deaf in c major), and this vividly inventive, ani- composer—seems to dissolve as Beethoven mated work. voices the sorts of deeper intuitions about like the D major sonata we heard at the end existence that we associate with religious or even of the program’s first half, this Sonata in a major mystical thought. around this time, Beethoven begins with a straightforward, call-to-attention was also preoccupied with his ongoing Missa octave statement in both hands. But the direc- solemnis project. alfred Brendel famously tions this allegro vivace then takes are anything likened the third movement of Op. 110, with its but straightforward. notice especially the har- interplay of Baroque forms of arioso and fugue, monic stealth with which the composer intro- to “passion music.” continued on p. 52 4 Beethoven's funeral on March 29th, 1827, by F. Stober; his funeral procession was attended by an estimated 20,000 Viennese citizens. Sunday, March 8, 2020, 3pm Hertz Hall Jonathan Biss, piano

ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) e Complete Piano Sonatas (Concert 7)

Sonata no. 8 in c minor, Op. 13, Pathétique Grave: allegro di molto e con brio adagio cantabile Rondo: allegro

Sonata no. 22 in F major, Op. 54 in tempo d’un menuetto allegretto

Sonata no. 26 in e-flat major, Op. 81a,Les Adieux adagio: allegro andante espressivo vivacissimamente

INTERMISSION

Sonata no. 32 in c minor, Op. 111 Maestoso: allegro con brio ed appassionato arietta: adagio molto semplice e cantabile

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4 PROgRAM nOTES

Piano Sonata no. 8 in C minor, Piano Sonata no. 22 in F major, Op. 54 Op. 13, pathétique While craing the Op. 53 Waldstein Sonasta in Jonathan Biss has framed this final installment 1803–04, Beethoven wrote a full-scale slow of his epic sonata cycle with two c minor sonatas movement that he ultimately decided to reject that encapsulate the astonishing odyssey of Bee- (it was thought to make the Waldstein overly thoven’s art between his early sonatas and the long) and publish separately. is became known work with which he took leave of the genre. as the Andante favori (WoO 57) in F major—the When listening to a committed performance key of this Op. 54 sonata, whose opening theme of the Op. 13 sonata, we can readily imagine the shares something of the Andante favori’s easy- impression young Beethoven must have made going nature. at the same time, its dotted rhythm on his contemporaries—both in his style of anticipates the start of the Appassionata Sonata, playing and in the expressive power of his imag- which Beethoven was already sketching out. ination as a composer. ough this piece al- at Op. 54 is surrounded by these two fa- ready marks more than a quarter of the way mous and powerful giants (the Waldstein and (numerically) through the 32 sonatas (the two Appassionata) might explain why this modestly Op. 49 sonatas were written earlier), the Pathé - proportioned piece ranks among the least- tique is an early work, dating from 1798, when known works in Beethoven’s sonata cycle. Beethoven was still in his late 20s. already he perhaps, though, this neglect also results from has appropriated the tonality of c minor and Op. 54’s arch ambiguity: in a sense, the F major given it a personal stamp. Here, as in the ird Sonata is a piece of meta-music that playfully piano con certo and Fih Symphony, he im- interrogates the genre’s identity. bues the key with a defiantly tragic pathos. e prototype of a two-movement sonata was is is the first of Beethoven’s sonatas to bear not Beethoven’s invention. ere are many a familiar nickname. e French adjective, precedents in Haydn, whose presence is keenly meant to evoke the music’s particular emotional felt here. at the same time, Beethoven’s formal quality, is in this context closer to the connota- economy—an intense concision that never- tions of appassionato. e influence of French theless allows for striking contrasts—anticipates musical rhetoric on Beethoven’s language is also the experiments of the later sonatas. e open- manifest here. its most obvious markers are ing movement even swerves away from sonata the dotted rhythms and dignified tragic air of form. it’s as if he decided to leave out an open- the opening slow introduction. a striking ing movement and begin off the bat with a structural feature of the Pathétique is the recur- dance movement that alternates between two rence of music from this slow introduction radically different themes. e relaxed grace of within the allegro di molto e con brio. Beetho - the first theme is rudely pushed aside by the ven splices it several times—in an almost thorny accents, in double octaves, of the second. cinematic manner—into the body of the first near the end comes a moment that foreshadows movement. He also uses accentuation and sfor - the andante con moto of the Fih Symphony, zando to startling effect. on which Beethoven had also begun working. Have you ever heard the nonsensical claim e second movement is also in F major. that Beethoven had a hard time writing a sim- it spins out a single theme in perpetual mo- ple melody? You need simply point to the tion—another feature that links it to the ideas adagio cantabile for a heavenly example of his Beethoven was shaping for the Appassio nata lyrical gi. in the midst of this slow movement, Sonata, whose finale is in the same meter and Beethoven unleashes a brief tempest, but the similarly restlessly driven. Sturm und Drang is soothed by the potency of astonishing harmonic detours give variety the main melody. e theme of the finale sub- to the monothematic material. like the two liminally recalls the agitated second theme from sonatas surrounding it, the F major Sonata ends the first movement. with a coda in accelerated tempo.

5 PROgRAM nOTES

Piano Sonata no. 26 in E-flat major, tempo designation Vivacissimamente, Beetho ven Op. 81a, Les adieux leads into the main rondo theme through a pro- Opus 81a is Beethoven’s only explicitly (though logue of passionate, almost erotic, frenzy. in the broadest sense) “programmatic” sonata. e sturdiness of this theme arrives as a huge it was published with the composer’s own de- relief and counters the instability preceding it. scriptive title: Das Lebewohl. ironically, in light But reminiscences of what has been experienced of the French invasion of 1809 that inspired intrude in new harmonic digressions. Much of it, the work has become better known as Les Beethoven’s figuration here has a concertante Adieux. e publisher insisted on the French quality that practically implies an orchestra. e phrase as being more marketable, much to the coda, slowing for a spell to poco andante, offers chagrin of Bee thoven, who protested that the a powerful retrospective glance before a final German word more closely conveyed the spirit headlong rush to rejoice in the safe reunion. of the music. Lebewohl, he pointed out, “is said in a warm-hearted manner to one person” (in Piano Sonata no. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 this case, the young archduke Rudolf of austria) a leave-taking of the most profound sort is rather than to a collective. e narrative, such staged in Op. 111. Here, Beethoven bids adieu to as it is, however, is minimalist. Rather like the his piano sonata oeuvre by composing a sonata presentation of single “affects” in Baroque style, that consists of only two movements. Retro - each of Op. 81a’s three movements focuses on spective, forward-looking, and timeless qualities one stage in the sequence “Farewell,” “absence,” all coexist in this music. its expressive range has and “Return.” prompted many commentators to resort to the a substantial slow introduction signals the language of religious revelation and philosophi- intensity and emotional weight that distinguish cal speculation. Hans von Bülow, himself a vir- this masterful sonata. e first three chords tuoso pianist, found in the pairing a musical encode the cell for the entire first movement (the counterpart to the Buddhist ideas of “Samsara “Farewell”—three syllables in the German, Lebe - and nirvana,” while the english music writer wohl), their descent veering from an implied Wilfrid Mellers suggested a metaphysical oppo- e-flat major to c minor. is poignant ambigu- sition of “becoming and being.” ity colors not only the introduction but also the in his novel A Room with a View, e. M. character of the richly developed allegro, whose Forster has his heroine lucy Honeychurch play widely ranging first theme and energetic contour the first movement, which the musicologist metaphorically suggest the image of wandering Michelle Fillion interprets as “an emblem for (and the anxiety of those le behind). e de- lucy’s yearning to escape this stranglehold of scending “Farewell” motif is threaded into the the Ewig-Weibliche [eternal feminine] and join second theme and then sent through various the ranks of the new Woman in a man’s world.” harmonic detours in the development. Bee - it’s interesting to note that while Beethoven tho ven reorganizes sonata form itself to explore dedi cated the first edition to archduke Ru - the concept of departure (and hoped-for return); dolph, the english edition bore a dedication to tellingly, the coda is even more extensive, ending antonie Brentano, another of the candidates for with a touching series of elegiac envois. the composer’s “immortal Beloved.” e interlude-like structure of the Waldstein e first movement immediately summons Sonata’s middle movement is echoed here in both the defiantly tragic and heroic aspects of the the andante espressivo movement (“absence”), c minor persona we encountered in the Pathé - which similarly suggests a suspenseful recitative. tique. is is distilled through a neo-Baroque Dissonance and harmonic irresolution intensify sensibility, in terms of rhythmic aspects (per- the pain of separation—and the overpowering petual motion and dotted rhythms) as well as joy that bursts out in the finale (“Return”), which density of texture (the intricately contrapuntal follows without pause. calling for the unusual working out of ideas). e thunderous chords of

5 PROgRAM nOTES

the maestoso introduction—which look ahead what characters this song encompasses, in its to the ninth Symphony—establish a scenario profound simplicity? Beethoven’s variations that requires resolution. gradually speed up, reaching an ecstatic state of Yet Beethoven revokes the dramatic dialectic jazz-like rhythmic grooves, before being pared of classical sonata form in favor of a paradoxical down and leaving us with a vision of other- simplicity. e effect is of profound peace at- worldly serenity. tained aer great struggle. c minor’s major-key according to charles Rosen, the arietta final antipode, already introduced quietly at the movement “succeeds as almost no other work end of the first movement, prepares the way in suspending the passage of time at its climax.” for the slow variation movement (adagio molto and in this final sonata, Beethoven proves to be semplice e cantabile), whose theme is as free of “the greatest master of musical time.” guile as a child’s song. Who could have expected —omas May

PROgRAM nOTES (cont. from p. 47)

a drive toward concision marks the first Here, Beethoven seems to look ahead to the move ment of this sonata. ecstatic arpeggiations interplay of voice and instrument that would anticipate the prelude to Wagner’s Parsifal by emerge in the finale of the ninth Symphony of more than half a century. ey contrast with the 1824: the implicit vocalism of the minor-key muscular, syncopated chords of the Scherzo, arioso dolente (“songlike lament”) is juxtaposed which lead directly into one of Beethoven’s with an animated fugue whose theme derives strangest formal conceptions: a fusion of oper- from the opening movement’s main theme. e atic and instrumental idioms from the Baroque second appearance of the lament breaks off in setting the stage for a powerful finale that a startling passage of repeated G major chords, serves to anchor the entirety of Op. 110. announcing the return of the fugue, in varied form—and with it, a reaffirmation of the will, an assent to life itself. —omas May

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