Ludwig van Beethoven

The Transcendent German-born composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) began his compositional career essentially imitating the styles and forms he inherited from Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and W.A Mozart (1756-1791), but during his "middle" period (ca. 1803-1815) Beethoven expanded and personalized this inheritance, creating works that have come to represent the culmination of the Classical style in much the same way that the works of J.S. Bach (1685-1750) represent the culmination of the Baroque. During Beethoven's "late" period (ca. 1815-1827), he discovered new paths toward still more personal, even intimate, musical expression, and, despite the gradual and eventually total degeneration of his hearing, he forged the way beyond the Classical tradition into the Romantic.

Sonata for Horn and Piano in F major, op. 17

Beethoven has remained among the best known Western classical composer for two centuries, but when his Sonate pour le Forte-Piano avec Cor was first performed in 1800 it was the horn virtuoso Giovanni Punto (1746-1803) who attracted the audience rather than the then relatively unknown composer and pianist. Punto specialized in “low” horn playing, so with him in mind Beethoven made good use of the wide leaps and rapid arpeggios often required of the “2nd Horn” in orchestral works. Beethoven wrote the virtuoso piano part for himself to perform, so perhaps not surprisingly the piano often takes the lead in presenting thematic ideas.

--Intermezzo Sunday Concerts, January 13, 2008 (Aaron Brask, horn)

Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano in E-flat Major, op. 38

To anyone familiar with Beethoven's Septet in E-flat Major, Op. 20, his Trio, Op. 38, will be immediately recognizable as an arrangement of the composer's earlier best-seller. Dating from 1799-1800, Beethoven seems to have used Mozart's six-movement String Trio in E-flat Major, K. 563, as the model for the Septet. Beethoven's serenade became so popular with the music-buying public that others had started selling unauthorized arrangements for different instrumental combinations, so Beethoven made an arrangement for reduced forces himself, and issued it in 1805 with a new opus number. The original Septet was for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and string bass, and it was unusual for its time in that the clarinet was treated as an equal to the violin. Beethoven's Trio version allows for either clarinet or violin, with cello and piano.

Sonata No. 4 for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 23

Beethoven began work on both his 4th and 5th violin sonatas in the summer of 1800, while he also worked on his Symphony No. 2, Op. 21, and the ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43. The two violin sonatas were intended as contrasting companion pieces and initially were grouped together as the composer’s “Opus 23.” But the violin part of the brightly lyrical Sonata No. 5 in F major (now known as the “Spring” Sonata) mistakenly was printed using an oblong format rather than the tall format used for the darkly dramatic Sonata No. 4. This made it impossible to bind the two sonatas together, and it was cheaper to assign them separate opus numbers rather than re-engraving them. Thus, the fifth sonata became “Opus 24,” while the fourth kept the original work number.

Although Beethoven’s Sonata No. 4 dates from his “early” period, contemporary critics were already making note of the composer’s originality, even when they didn’t quite understand his innovations. The key of A-minor was a rare choice for chamber music compositions, made even more unusual by Beethoven’s retention of the minor mode for the first movement’s “second subject,” which is introduced in E-minor rather than in the “expected” relative major key centered on C. And although Beethoven retains the 3-movement outline favored by his mentors rather than using the 4-movement scheme with an added scherzo movement that he later seemed to prefer (and which he uses in the “Spring” Sonata No. 5), he nonetheless interjects the jesting spirit of a scherzo into the slower-paced middle movement.

SCORE (pdf): Beethoven Sonata No. 4, Op. 23

Beethoven Sonata No. 4 on YouTube:

1. Presto — 2. Andante scherzoso, più allegretto — 3. Allegro molto

Beethoven composed both Sonata No. 13, Op. 27, No. 1, and Sonata No. 14, Op. 27, No.2, in 1801, about the same time he began to lose his hearing, and he gave them both the same subtitle: Sonata quasi una fantasia ("Sonata in the manner of a fantasy"). This title is especially apt for Sonata No. 13, since its four, highly contrasted movements do not follow the "typical" ordering of Classic-period sonatas, and they are played without a break. Rather than being cast in an "expected" sonata-allegro form, the first-movement Andante-Allegro-Andante shapes up as an ABA song form.

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2,"Moonlight"

Since Beethoven first published the “Moonlight” Sonata it has ranked among his most popular works, but it did not get its nickname until a few years after the composer’s death. In 1832, a music critic compared the sublimely beautiful first movement to moonlight reflected on the surface of a lake, and that image stuck. The poetic tranquility of the opening is in stark contrast with the rather ferocious virtuosity on display in the 3rd movement—it was observed that when Beethoven himself played the tempestuous finale he would sometimes break the piano strings and hammers! Beethoven composed both of his Sonatas, Op. 27, in 1801, about the same time he began to lose his hearing.

--Intermezzo Sunday Concerts, March 18, 2007 (Gary Smart, piano)

Seven Variations on Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen, WoO 46

Along with J.S. Bach, Beethoven is arguably the best known Western classical composer, but over the past few decades works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) have become almost as recognizable, especially after the success of the 1984 movie of Peter Shaffer’s play, Amadeus. Himself a big fan of Mozart, Beethoven used the show-stopping Act 1 duet between Pamina and Papageno from Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute") as the inspiration for Seven Variations on Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen, WoO 46. By 1801, the year Beethoven wrote these Variations, the 31-year-old composer had already suffered acute hearing loss, which he described in his letters. For the last decade of his life Beethoven was completely deaf, but he continued to produce revolutionary masterworks that still provide benchmarks other composers strive to attain.

Sonata no. 9 for Violin and Piano, op. 47, "Kreutzer"

Beethoven wrote his “Kreutzer” Sonata (Sonata no. 9 for violin and piano, op. 47) in 1803, two years after he began to lose his hearing. The "Kreutzer" gets its nickname from its dedicatee, Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831), a French virtuoso Beethoven had seen perform in Vienna. Ironically, Kreutzer deemed the work virtually unplayable and never performed the remarkable sonata that has secured the violinist's place in music history.

True story: Kreutzer wasn’t the work's original dedicatee. That suspended honor went to George Bridgetower ( ca.1778-1860), an Afro-Polish virtuoso employed by the British Royal family. Bridgetower was apparently something of a cut-up: the original dedication read “Sonata per uno mulaticco lunattico.” When he and Beethoven premiered the work in Vienna on May 24, 1803, the ink was barely dry on the score, and for the second movement George had to read from the piano score over Ludwig’s shoulder. During the performance Bridgetower altered the violin part somewhat, much to Beethoven’s delight, and at some point Beethoven rewarded him by giving the violinist his tuning fork (now in the British Library). But, as the story goes, the two went out for a drink afterwards and Bridgetower made an off-color joke about a woman who turned out to be a very dear friend of the composer—Beethoven took the insult personally and broke off all ties with the violinist, and changed the dedication in the process.

--Intermezzo Sunday Concerts--Premiere Concert, February 26, 2006 (Shiao/Smart: The Kreutzer Project)

--Music @ Main, June 10, 2009 (Huls Clark Duo)

Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57, "Appassionata"

Beethoven began composing his Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 in 1803 and continued to work on it for several years, finally publishing it in 1807, but the tempestuous work did not receive its nickname until 1838, well after the composer's death. The final movement, in sonata-rondo form, has the feel of perpetual motion, and noted British musicologist Sir Donald Francis Tovey (1875-1940) observed that this is one of only a few sonatas by Beethoven that ends in tragedy rather than triumphing over it.

Piano Trio No. 5 in D major, Op. 70, No. 1 "Ghost”

Beethoven wrote the “Ghost” Trio, Op. 70, no. 1, in 1808, and, together with his “Archduke” Trio, Op. 97, he created what have remained the best-known works in the genre for two centuries. Although composed immediately following his “Pastoral” Symphony (No. 6), Op. 68, the “Ghost “ Trio actually shares some thematic material with his Symphony No. 2, Op. 36. Beethoven’s “Ghost” Trio got its nickname from Carl Czerny (1791-1857), a pupil of Beethoven who became a famous musician in his own right, because the tremolos in the slow movement reminded him of the ghost scene in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This association with Shakespeare and the supernatural is perhaps not entirely fanciful: Beethoven’s sketches indicate that as he worked on the Trio he was toying with writing an opera based on Macbeth!

--Music @ Main, January 12, 2009 (Trio Solis)

Piano Trio No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 97, “Archduke”

Beethoven himself played the piano part of his Piano Trio No. 7, Op. 97 (“Archduke”), for the premiere of the work, but his deafness was already so advanced that it proved to be his last public performance as a pianist. The “Archduke” is Beethoven’s last piano trio, and it is among 14 works he dedicated to his pupil, patron and friend, Archduke Rudolph of Austria (1788-1831)—hence the trio’s nickname. The captivating Allegro moderato is the first of the work’s four movements.

--Music @ Main, March 3, 2009 (Trio Florida)

Piano Sonata No. 28 in A Major, Op. 101

Elegischer Gaesang (Elegiac Song), Op. 118

In his Elegiac Song, Op. 118, composed in 1814 for a friend whose wife had died in childbirth, Beethoven tenderly sets an anonymous German text, which translates:

Gently, as you lived, thus have you died, too holy for sorrow!

Let no eye shed tears for the heavenly spirit’s return home.

--Intermezzo Sunday Concerts, February 10, 2008 (UNF Chorale & UNF Chamber Singers)

An die ferne Geliebte

Ever the revolutionary, with An die ferne Geliebte (1816) Beethoven invented the song cycle by composing six interconnected songs, to poems by Aloys Jeitteles (1794-1858).

--Intermezzo Sunday Concerts, September 16, 2007 (Biernacki/Smart: Love Songs and Cycles

Both the “Spring” Sonata and String Quartet no. 5 were published in 1801, placing them in Beethoven’s “early” period. Among Beethoven’s 10 sonatas for violin and piano, his “Spring” Sonata (No. 5) is second in popularity only to his “Kreutzer” Sonata (No.9). For his String Quartet No. 5 in F major, Op. 18, No. 5, Beethoven used Mozart’s String Quartet No. 18, K. 464 (one of Mozart’s “Haydn” Quartets), also in F major, as a model.