Thread: TC Listening Club Part 8: Piano Sonata No. 16 (Beethoven)

Chosen by CarterJohnsonPiano

PURCHASE OPTIONS

There are many recordings of the Beethoven sonatas available, but here are some of them. Any additions to this list welcome:

Discs Containing This Work

Glenn Gould Plays Beethoven Sonatas, Op. 31 (Gould) (Sony)
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 7 (Jando) (Naxos)
Beethoven: Sonatas, Op. 31 (Lewis) (Harmoni Mundi)
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 8 (Perl) (Arte Nova)

Complete Sonatas

Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas (Brendel) (Decca)
Beethoven: The 32 Piano Sonatas (Kempff) (DG)
Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas (Barenboim) (EMI Classics)

YouTube LINKS

For those who require it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAwlCioH4Wk (Fischer)

With ‘color-coded’ analysis. There is also a performance by Glenn Gould available on YouTube in three parts and part of a performance by Daniel Barenboim.

OTHER INFORMATION

(From the BBC Radio 3 Website)

Although published as a trio of works, the three sonatas of Op. 31, composed in 1801 and 1802, show great diversity in style and content and it is evident that Beethoven did not intend them to constitute a unity. No. 1 seems to be the result of a commission from a female admirer for a revolutionary sonata on new lines. When this request was conveyed to him through his Leipzig publishers Beethoven replied with both indignation and sarcasm: 'Are you out of your minds, gentlemen? To suggest that I should write a sonata of that sort? During the fever of the revolution, well, yes, that might have been possible, but now, when people are simmering down; Bonaparte has concluded a concordat with the Pope - such a sonata, now? - Heavens above! In these new Christian times, huh! - No, leave me alone, I shall do nothing of the kind. The lady can have a sonata of mine... but I won't follow her scheme.' So, true to his word, the resulting sonata (which is not even dedicated to the 'lady admirer') does not bear the slightest trace of revolution and is on the contrary bright and serene. Indeed, it stands out from its neighbours in Op. 31 by its conservatism and conventionality.

The main feature of the first movement is a figure in which the left hand is anticipated by the right by a semiquaver, as if Beethoven is making fun of bad pianists who can't play both hands simultaneously. The second movement is an Adagio grazioso in a rather nostalgic mood, full of trills, ornaments and free, arabesque-like runs. The cheerful finale is a sonata-rondo in which the first theme is developed in the central section and the first, triplet-dominated episode reappears in a recapitulation to confirm its status as a second subject.

There is a lecture available online given by the pianist András Schiff here. Very interesting and well worth a listen!

http://audio.theguardian.tv/sys-audi...maj_op31-1.mp3

There is also some information on all the piano sonatas to be found here:

http://www.musiconmain.ca/uploads/Ro...oven_Notes.pdf

UPCOMING

The schedule for the next four Listening Club sessions will be:

PART 9: A Colour Symphony (Bliss) chosen by An Die Freude and starting 06/08/12
PART 10: Keyboard Concerto No. 1 (Bach, J.S.) chosen by Merve and starting 13/08/12
PART 11: Relache (Satie) chosen by cwarchc and starting 20/08/12
PART 12: TBC by emiellucifuge before 19/08/12 and starting 27/08/12

OTHER THREADS

You can still participate in past Listening Club threads here:

TC Listening Club Week 1: Symphony No. 1 in E Flat (Borodin)
TC Listening Club Week 2: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor (Beethoven)
TC Listening Club Part 3: Symphony No. 5 (Nielsen)
TC Listening Club Part 4: Symphony No. 3 (Rangström)
TC Listening Club Part 5: A Faust Symphony (Liszt)
TC Listening Club Part 6: Gruppen (Stockhausen)
TC Listening Club Part 7: Cello Suite No. 6 (Bach, J.S.)

NOMINATIONS

To sign up and nominate pieces for listening, use the following thread or PM crmoorhead.

The Listening Club

If a member does not nominate a piece before the deadline in the schedule, a piece will be selected at random from the list of pieces nominated by other members. Members will be given a reminder a few days before the deadline for their selection passes. Nominations must be available on YouTube.

There is also a Complete Beethoven Sonatas set for very cheap on Amazon.co.uk

Artur Schnabel Complete Sonatas of Beethoven

There is a bit of hiss on the recording but I can ignore that for such a low price. Pretty good if one is just wanting to sample some of the lesser known sonatas. Reviews are pretty favourable too.

HJ Lim recored a complete set and it is on i-tunes for 9.99 in the US.
The sound quality is excellent.

I'm not sure exactly what to say. I have a recording by Friedrich Gulda, digitized from a record.

It's Beethoven in his lyrical mood, also quite early so it still seems quite fiery despite the conservatism mentioned above. I think it would, as usual, be more effective playing it, or listening to someone else playing it live rather than a recording. A Beethoven sonata I always find reliable, but I have never liked them as much as the symphonies or quartets. They often seem to lack weight to me, and this is no exception.

I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem to have any outstanding or remote modulations in it that I can hear. It is much more thematically oriented (which is fine in its own way), sometimes contrasting thematic ideas with rhythmic ones (outer movements) or trills in the slow movement. I like the comic ending. It seems to try and put most weight in the last movement (development) which is a little strange, but seems to work alright.

Overall I quite like the piece, giving it a 7/10.

I knew the first movement a little but having listened again to the whole work a few times I am once again in awe of LvB.
His inexhaustible invention, wit and depth. The last movement is built upon the tiniest couple of motivic ideas and he spins out an adventure full of energy and humour.
I can hear also, some pre-echos of his last period introspectiveness, particularly in the slow movement.

It's pretty obvious that none of his 32 sonatas are going to disappoint even though they might not all reach the heights that some of the late ones do. But it's always nice to hear them afresh and be once again inspired by this greatest of minds.

Come on people.
You need to participate to keep this project going.
crmoorhead is putting in a lot of effort for us.
The least we can do is show our appreciation, it's a great way to be introduced to pieces that we haven't heard before.
Just finish listening to this one.
I enjoyed it, nothing too taxing, but not inspring, for me.
It was a pleasant way to spend 20 minutes.
I will listen to again
Overall I will give it 6.5 ouf of 10

Originally Posted by cwarchc

I enjoyed it, nothing too taxing, but not inspring, for me.
It was a pleasant way to spend 20 minutes.
I will listen to again

I agree. Often these pieces are better played I think than listened to. This is slightly ironic as Beethoven was the one who turned the piano sonata into a concert-type piece.

Listening to the Fischer one available on YouTube and the bargain version I posted earlier. I don't have a lot of experience with Beethoven's piano sonatas other than a double disc set I have of Brendel playing 'Favourite Beethoven Sonatas'. I've always found all 32 of his sonatas to be a daunting task when taken as a whole, though I am glad to have taken time out to listen to this for the listening club as it has reignited my interest in the sonatas again. I'll get around to purchasing a Complete Sonatas boxed set sometime, but it isn't high up on the list just yet.

Firstly, it does strike me that Beethoven's piano sonatas have a fairly unique quality to them. I can't pretend to be an expert in the period or piano sonata, but the personality of his sonatas seems to leap out at me. Perhaps that is something that is done by performers who want to inject some of Beethoven's personality into their own performance or it is inherent in the music itself. I don't know. When I first started listening to those few of the sonatas I know, I was pretty new to classical music. Now, however, I am more aware of the different styles of different composers, recognising them even in works I have never heard before, and it is interesting for me to note some progression there.

I always find it useful to research the history behind works while I listen to them, mainly because I can remember different works more easily if I have a story behind it. Andras Schiff's lecture was very illuminating for me, esp since he plays exerpts to illustrate his ideas. As far as the sonata itself goes, I'll echo the opinion of others in saying that it is quite pleasant to listen to, but not mind blowing. It is, however, maybe hard to compare this work given the general excellence of Beethoven's sonatas but especially since his more famous sonatas tend to overshadow the rest. This is not an exceptional work, IMO, but still a very good one that scores a 7.5 out of 10.

PS: The second movement of this work feels very romantic to me. Reminds me of Chopin, but with more trills.

Originally Posted by Ramako

I'm not sure exactly what to say. I have a recording by Friedrich Gulda, digitized from a record.

I got one of those devices from my girlfriend for my birthday a few weeks ago. Only tried recording a couple of things so far. A bit daunted by all the options with the software, to be honest, though I'll have to try a bit harder to record all my records to digital format.

Originally Posted by crmoorhead

I got one of those devices from my girlfriend for my birthday a few weeks ago. Only tried recording a couple of things so far. A bit daunted by all the options with the software, to be honest, though I'll have to try a bit harder to record all my records to digital format.

My father has a very good collection of records, and we've gotten through a good portion of them. For software we use Audacity mostly - and split up the separate pieces/movements manually. This latter part requires a lot of work, but he's very attached to them and doesn't mind doing it himself. I don't know if there's some way to do it automatically, but we've done so many of them now it's hardly worth changing the method.

I agree with the sentiment that these are more fun to play than listen to. This seems to be Beethoven in his most Haydn-esque mood, where the most engaging sections occur around quick harmonic changes, and everything is based around single motivic ideas (something he'd use for the rest of his life). My favorite is the very lovely last movement. In the grand scheme of things though, this is far from my favorite Beethoven sonata, and I generally prefer to listen to late Haydn rather than early Beethoven.