DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (November 30, 2020)
In Part One, we discussed Beethoven’s two early cello sonatas—Opus 5–composed in 1797; and his middle sonata Opus 69, composed in 1808. Beethoven's late period really began in 1815, the year that the Congress of Vienna began to crush republican movements in Europe. He composed these two cello sonatas, Opus 102, for Joseph Linke, the cellist of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, who premiered so many of Beethoven's works.
Beethoven’s late period is sometimes characterized as Beethoven turning inward and writing for himself. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The previous three years of 1811-14 had been difficult for him, and without a lot of productivity. Beehthoven has never been a crowd pleaser; he always challenged peoples' axioms. Now his works would follow reason, and not easily recognizable forms. If they sometimes correspond somewhat to traditional forms, like the sonata form, that is likely because the development of thought follows such a form. (For instance, if you look at the magnetic lines of force as a flow, you can see similarities in fluid flows such as water (see diagram). Nature takes the most efficient pathway. So must thought.)
Critics of the time were perplexed by Beethoven's latest music, which they found difficult to follow according to their own norms. The “Allgemeine Musicalische Zeitung”characterized his two cello sonatas, Opus 102 as follows:
"They elicit the most unexpected and unusual reactions, not only by their form but by the use of the piano as well…We have never been able to warm up to the two sonatas; but these compositions are perhaps a necessary link in the chain of Beethoven's works in order to lead us there where the steady hand of the maestro wanted to lead us."
The first thing about the three-movement Cello Sonata No. 5 in D Major, Op. 102 No. 2, is that its heart lies in the middle movement—
"Adagio con molto sentimento d'affetto", which comprises about half of the sonata's length. Johannes Brahms told his students that a long “Adagio Cantabile” was the most difficult thing to compose, and certainly no-one could do it like Beethoven. We will provide a recording of the entire work with score, but let us begin with a very special recording from 1954, performed by the great 20th century cellist, Pablo Casals.
Pablo Casals was the world’s greatest cellist. In 1936, he announced that he will no longer perform publicly to protest the fascist government in his native Spain. It wasn’t until 14 years later, that some of his students and friends convinced him to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of Bach in 1950, and came to the small village, Prades, where he lived. The Prades Perpignan Festivals went on to produce some of the finest chamber music ever. This is a 1954 recording of Casals and Rudolf Serkin from that festival, of the Adagio. The movement is very dramatic, and goes through great emotional change:
The first movement, by comparison, is compact. It starts out with a simple motif, repeated twice (like the opening of the Fifth Symphony, but very different) four sixteenth notes, followed by a leap upwards to a dotted half-note. That motive appears frequently to lead us through the movement.
But the last movement shows Beethoven's greatest break with traditional form. He had already used the “fugue” brilliantly in his compositions, but now would make entire movements fugal. The movement starts out playfully with simple ascending scales, which then turn into the beginning of the fugue subject.
At about 2:47, Beethoven stops and begins a new slow fugue, which reminds us of the first few notes of "And He Shall Reign" from Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus". Later, he would use that quote explicitly in the "Missa Solemnis." The two subjects then combine.
Here is a video of the entire sonata with score.