Beethoven: Early, Middle and Late: Part 1

DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (May 13, 2020)

On the one hand we dislike dividing Beethoven's works into periods—the man was making progress and discoveries all of the time; On the other hand, no-one ever made progress over himself quite as Beethoven did—and there is a discernible difference between his early, middle and late works.

We have 32 piano sonatas, and 16 String quartets over the years, and we can examine such forms as “theme and variations”, “fugue”, etc, to identify his revolutionary progress. We will start by comparing single movements: today the first movements of 3 piano sonatas. Tomorrow, the 2nd movements (theme and variations), of the same three.

1. Early: The first movement of Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 14, No. 2 (composed in 1798–1799), played by Daniel Barenboim. Beethoven's virtuosity and creativity are already apparent.

https://youtu.be/fPsDwKAWN4U

2. Middle: The first movement of the stunning Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57, the "Appassionata", or "Grand Impassioned Sonata" (composed during 1804 and 1805), played by Maurizio Pollini.

https://youtu.be/QAO-TIAXHQk?t=5

The movement poses a puzzle from the beginning. It opens in F minor. Only a few seconds later, the opening phrase is repeated a half-tone higher in Gb major. Beethoven then examines that half-tone difference, alone, and in inversion.This is not standard theory. It is something new under the sun. The level of virtuosity, (the virtue involved in what a single individual can accomplish), is also something new under the sun, and unprecedented. But it is science, not Adrenalin.

3. Late: The first movement of his last Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 (composed between 1821 to 1822). If Op. 57 opened with a question mark, this one begins with a scientific experiment: a “Keplerian” examination of musical space (compare it to the opening of the String Quartet Op. 59 No. 3). It is not in a key, and does not have a melody. It is part of the C Minor Series, and it investigates the same intervals and their relations as other C minor compositions by Beethoven, and before him, Mozart and Bach. Played here by Annie Fischer.

When a "theme", finally emerges, at 1:50, it is anything but beautiful, and it is stated in bass octaves. Schubert identifies it as holding up the world by yourself and use it in his song, "Atlas." The theme is treated fugally, beginning at 5:37.