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( , H" I.)
BEETHOVEN 'S PIANOFORTE SONATAS A Guide fo r S t uden ts & Amateurs by
E D W IN FISCHER.
T ra nslated by STANLE Y G ODMAN
unth the collaboration of P A U L IIA MD U I\G E II
FADER AN D FABER 24. R ussell Squa re London
Fir-st published in mcmlix by Faber and Fab er L imited 24 Russell Square, London, W .e. 1 Print ed in Great Britain by W estern Printing Services L imited, Bristol All rights reser ved
This edition © Faber and Fab er Limited 1959
Origin ally published by I N SE L - VE RLAG , WIESBAD E N , under th e ti tle : Ludwig van Beeth ouens Klauiersonat en
TO THE MEMORY OF M Y MOTHER
CO
T E NT S
page 15
INT RO DUCTI ON F IRS T LECTU RE
15
Beethoven's Pi an oforte Sonatas The 5 Sonatas, Op . 2 Sonata in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1 Sonata in A major, Op, 2, No. 2 Sonata in C major, Op. 2, No . 5
19 19
22
25
SEC ON D L E CT U R E
29
Beeth oven 's P ian o Playing Sonata in Eflat majo r , Op. 7 Sonata in C minor, Op , 1 0 , No. 1 Sonata in F major, Op, 1 0 , No . 2 Sonata in D major, Op. 10, No . 5
59
THIRD LECTURE
42
On Pract ising Sonate pathetique in C minor , Op. Sonata in E major, Op . 14, No . 1 Sonata in G major, -o». 14, No. 2 Sonata in B flat major, Op. 22
55 55
58
46 48 50
15
51
54
FOURTH LECTURE
Beethove n's P ersonality Sonata in A flat major, Op, 2 6 Sonata in Eflat major, Op. 27 , No . 1 Sonata in C sharp minor , Op . 2 7 , N o. Sonata in D major, Op. 28
9
58 60 2
62
64
CON T ENTS
page 67
FIFTH L E CT UR E
Int erpret ers
Th e 5 Sonatas, Op. 5 ' Sonata in G major, Op. 5 ', No. 1 Sonata in D minor, Op, 5 ', No . 2 Sonata in Ejlat major, Op. 5', No. 5 T he Sonatas, Op . 49 Sonata in G minor, Op, 49, No. 1 Sonata in G major, Op, 49, No . 2 Sonata in C major, Op, 55
69 70
72
75 77 78 78 79 85
SIX TH LECTURE
Beethoven's I nstr uments Sonata in F major, Op, 54 Sonata in F minor, Op. 57 Sonata i n F sharp major, Op. 78 Sonatina in G major, Op. 79 Sonata in Eflat major, Op. 8lA
84 85 89 90 90 95
SEVENT H L E CT UR E
T empo an d Metronom e Sonata in E minor , Op. 9 0 Sonata in A majo r , Op , 1 01
95 96
E IGHTH L E CTU R E
1 00
Beethoven 's Circle of Fr iends Sonata in B flat major, Op. 106 Sonata in E major, Op . 109 N INTH LEC TURE
Beethoven Biographi es Sonata in A flat major, Op. Sonata in C m inor, Op. I I I
IQ
5 109 10
11 2 11 0
ILL USTR. ATIONS
Ludwig van Beethoven . From an engraving by Blasius Hofel after the dr awing by L ouis L etron ne ( 18 14) frontispiece The beginning of the third mov ement of t he Sonata, Op, 27, No. 2, in Beet hoven's h andwriting f acing page 64 Beethoven's Broadwood Gran d Piano The openihg of the Sonata, Op. 111, in Beethoven 's handwriting
Acknowledgment is made to the I nsel-Ferl ag f or supplying these illu strations which appeared in their edition of this book.
II
112
INTR.ODUCTION
In stu dying Beethoven 's piano sonatas one encou nters difficulti es, qu estions and problems the solut ion of which constitutes part of the entire artistic and human educat ion of a musician. The r ange of the collection compels us to occupy ourselves wit h matters of t echnique, form, h armony and te xt u al cr it icism; but the main requirement is an underst anding of t he artistic cont ent. A carefu l study of th ese works will transform us, for Beethoven will become our t eacher,and lead us to develop our own personalities an d characters. W ith this in mind I st udied the sonatas wit h my pupils in 1945 and the present volume is based on t he notes I used in t h at course. The analysis of each gr oup of son at as is preceded by an introduction on some gen eral t he me. These in formal talks make no claim to scholarly complet en ess or significance. They ar e thoroughly personal, and if they serve as a r eminder of the beautiful summer in which they originated I sha ll be content.
I}
FIRST LECTURE
Beethoven's Pianofort e Sonatas Ludwig van Beethoven's work ha s the qu ality of true greatness. What worlds h e traversed from hi s simple beginnings to the sublim at ion tha t h e ach ieved at the close of his life's struggle! Non e of us coul d bear the strain of the t en sions that hi s spir it was able to endure. W e have the result of these str uggles before us an d we can only say : The sou nd is a refl ection of the life. His piano works- 32 sonat as, 6 concertos, 1 tripleconcerto, numerous sets of vari ations, works for piano and strings, piano and woodwind, fantasias and m iscellaneous small pieces-constitute a m ajor part of h is life's work. Proc eeding, to begin with, from Johann Christian and Carl P h ilipp Emanuel Bach, h e touches the world of Mozart, absorbs a good measure of Haydn and Clement i, rea ch es a culminating point in Opp. 53 an d 57, and then moves increasingly int o transcendental sphe res . On one occasion h e reveals the future to us-in t h e 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, which constitute a summing-up and an anticipation of t he whole development of music from Handel t o our own t im e. If, in h is beginnings, sheer delight in the resources of the pia no predomin ate s, lat er on the inter est in str uctur e and symph onic form become s more and more evid ent. W ith Opp , 27 and 31 a more romantic, 'pianistic' , trend merges once more, bringing with it a freer treatment of form. These sonatas in fant asia style also introduce t he gre atest adva nces in the harmonic sphe re. T hereafter
15
FIRS T LECTUR E
Beethoven uses all m anner of forms, orchestral, var iati on , even fug ue, t o aid him in the portrayal of his visions; we have now those magnificent contests between Beethoven's personality and t he worl d, those demonstrat ions of his creat ive will . T his ph ase, in t urn, is followed by an urge t o wri t e more an d more simply. In the childlike t h em es which h e uses in Opp. 1 0 9 , 11 0 and 11 1 h e now achieves the ideal of symbolizing the highest in t erms of the greatest simplicity. What was, at t he outs et , the expression of a personal faith, is transformed into an expression of eternal, u niversal t r uth . His r eturn from orchestral writing to t he str ing qu artet is a t oken of th is developm ent . This journey from th e vir tuoso, through t he creator , t o the seer and mystic h as been divided into three periods. Li szt called t hem : the adolescent; t he man ; the god. Hi s piano style, in its tec hnical aspect , also passes t hrough t h ese phases, and it woul d be a r ewarding t ask in itself t o st udy t hese tra nsformat ions ; to demonstrate how rococo figurat ion devolves into noble, classical lines; how t he r ange of the writ ing gradually extends over the whole keyboard; how t he accompan ime nta l patterns expa nd, becom ing in creasingly in dividu al and instinct with expression ; how pedalling becomes mor e different iated; u ntil in th e final works t he form, purged of all purely p ianistic eleme nt s, becomes a m irror of ultimate spirit ual in sights. At this point I wou ld like to r efer briefly to Beethoven's deafness. No doubt it was extre mely inhibiting in h is intercourse wit h people and m ade h im suspicious and mistrustful. No doubt th ere w er e moments wh en on e woul d h ave been glad for him to h ave been able to enjoy t he full impact of sound. Yet h er e if anywhere is evidence t hat the spir it h ast ens on in advance of the world of matter . It
I6
BEETHOVEN'S PIANOFO RTE SONATAS
is not true t hat Beethoven's final works do not sound well. T here could be no better way of writing down what he int end ed to express. One rea lizes that, t he moment one attempts to make the' corrections' made possible by the extension of t he modern keyboard. Beet hoven int ended these sounds, t hese wide positions, an d he heard everyt h ing in his m ind exactly as it sounds to us wit h our undimin ished hearing. W hat is it that distinguishes Beet hoven's work from other styles, for inst ance that of the R omantic school? It is the symphonic element, the organic growth of his forms. T here is, with hi m, no mere juxtaposition of beaut ifu l musical ideas, nor a spinning-out of atmos phe ric moods. Hi s works are bu ilt , as it were, stone upon stoneeach based on the one below and bearing the weight of the one above. Every bar, every section acquires its fu ll meaning only in relation to t he whole work. Such is t he work's arch itecture that every element h as full significance only at , and by virtue of, the place where it occurs. There is no unnecessary re petition, no empty rhetoric. It is this relationsh ip of every note to the whole, t h is inner logic, t hat gives such delight and such strength and comfort, above all to the masculine spirits among us . Beethoven appea ls t o the list en er's sense of logical construct ion. He ach ieves his consistency, his orga nic growth, his sureness of aim by a supreme in t ellectual discipline. How much he elim inated, abbreviate d, simplified and refined! Strictly speaking, here is proof of h is moral stamina . T h is struggle with his daemon, th is repudiation of cheap effects, t his r estraint and renunciat ion an d control of his instincts is a revelation of hi s true moral greatn ess.
T here is, however , more in Beet hoven t ha n r eason and B
I7
FlI\ ST LE CTU RE
will. The un con cious also plays its par t. Who can .r ival his pow l ' of evoking, wit h a few chord s, high solem nity and a s nse of r eligious awe? H e translat es fundam ental hum an emotions int o sou nd, an d it is best t o let the h ow and why r em ain h is secre t . Now a wor d about performance. It will always be a problem so long as t he playe r 's own personality is not at one with Beethoven's. It is unlikely , however , that the average pianist will ever be able to identify himself completely with t he im mortal m aster, that is to say, at t ain th e same heights of sublim ity. It is also impossible to enter fully into Beethoven 's every emot ional experience. Since it is only possible to expoun d and com municate t o ot he rs wh at one has exper ienced one self, albeit intuitively, Beeth oven 's work r equires for it s adequate performan ce a full m an, a life of exper ience . Ther e ar e two dangerous paths open to t he in t erpr et er: on e consists of using Beet hoven's language t o express his own passions an d the other is for the player simply to r eproduce slavishly the notes and direct ions of t he score. It is necessary t o steer between t his Scylla and Cha rybdis, avoiding on t h e one h an d an extr avagant portrayal of on eself through the music, an d on the oth er, t he dan gers of an excess of t errified respect for the ' letter' of the music. T he most h elpful cou nsel one can give is this: ' Lo ve h im and his work, and you will inevitably become h is serva nt and int erpret er and yet r emai n yourself. Your energy, yom war mth and your love will kindle his ene rgy, his spirit an d his love in t he hear ts of m en an d m ake th em sh ine t h er ein.'
18
SONATA I N F M INO R, OP.
2 ,
NO . 1
Th e Thre e S ona tas, Op , 2 These three son at as . wer e composed in ' 795, in Beethoven's twenty-fifth year . They were certainly pr eceded by other work s besides those dedicat ed t o t h e Elector M axim ilian Frederick an d composed wh en Beethoven was twelve years old, for such m astery of form as is found in Op. 2 is not ach ieve d by a su dden bolt from t he blu e. In connexion with t h e dedicat ion to Joseph H aydn there is a story that H aydn woul d h ave liked Beethov en t o have had it engraved as follows: ' Dedicat ed to his teache r Joseph Hayd n by hi s pupil Ludwig van Beethov en ' but Beethoven .r efu sed to accept t h e suggestion and preferred to leave it at: ' De dicate d t o Joseph H aydn.'
Sonata in F minor, Op , 2, N o . 1 T h is work is oft en called t he 'litt le Appassionata', probably because it ha s t he same key as Op. 57 and because the last m ovem ent s, wit h their uninterrupt ed figw'ation and excit emen t, r esemble each othe r . The,for m of the opening mov em ent h as an exe mplary conciseness. Beethoven copied t he first subject (bars 1-19) fr om Mozart's little G m inor symphony (K. " 9). The subject also has an affinity with t he last movement of lVlozart's great G m inor symphony. The second subject (bars 20-40) is in the relative m ajor key and approxim ates an inversion of t h e first subject . T he coda is marked con espressione. In t h is sonata we alr eady find t wo outsta nding ch arac -
I9
FIR T LECTU R E
t eri tics of Beethoven 's style : the sforzandos an d t he sudden pianissimos. The sforzandos must always be adjusted to the prevailing volume an d t o the ch ar acter of the work as a whole. It is wrong t o fire off the same kind of sfor zando in a gentl e Andant e m ovem ent as one would in a heroic work; Beethoven is said, whe n playin g himself, to h ave often emphasized the sforzandos by a slight rhythmi c delay. The sf-sign fr equ ently refers not to the whole chord but only to one not e, u sually a dissonance or a susta ined bass-note. The developm ent is alr eady concentrat ed, in the typical Beethoven manner. The r ecapitulat ion (bars 109 ff.) introdu ces t he second subject in t he m ain key of F minor. The actual coda is extended by five bars closing the t erse m ovement with sforza ndos. T he average player is faced wit h two difficul ties at this sta ge: first, t he tied notes against t he sim ultaneous stac cato of t h e oth er part in the brief sequel to t he main th eme (bars 11 ff.) and secon dly, the final chor ds. H ere the player m ust realize that t h ere are two possible ways of attacking the ch ords: either by playing them int o the keys and upwards, or away from the keys an d out war ds. T he former corresponds to t he violinist's upbow, the latter to his downbow. Quite distinct effects can be obtain ed by the use of these two kinds of movement an d they alone can give plasticity to certain phrases. T h e first version of th e second mov em en t is t o be found in a piano-qu artet dati ng from t h e year ' 785, when Beethoven was fifteen; only t he tr io-like D minor sect ion is m issing t her e. It is instructi ve to see how, afte r an interval of t en years , Beeth oven improved and enrich ed t he m elody. There is a modest simplicity about t his movement wit h its re miniscences of C. P. E. Bach and Mozart, The 20
SON AT A I N F MI TO R , OP .
2,
O.
I
limpid colour of its F maj or r equires round fing ers and a fine sense of phrasing, an d fluency in t he execut ion of th e exquisite fioriture. The t h ird movement is a genuine minuet, to be played quietly and 'in t he style of a dance. T he' cer ulea n ' Trio needs a perfect legato. R iemann has demonstrated that rest s h ave great expressive power- but one h as to feel them, to know whe the r they ar e breathing in or outwhether t hey signify the end or whether they are the empty space bet ween two columns surmounted by the arch of a m elody . Our attention is usually direct ed far mor e towards the not es than the silence- but the one conditions t h e oth er, and t he clear and precise t erminat ion of a chord is just as important as its beginning. The presnssimo fourth move me nt is a wild nocturnal piece full of shar p contrasts . I t appears t o me to be in son at a form, the development beginning with a great cantilena wh ich must be playe d with t he same excite ment as fills the whole movement. The movement is disproportionately difficult, the lefthand figure at the beginning making demands whi ch we do not encounter again until Chopin's ' Re volutiona ry ' Study . T he import ant th ing is to discover t he correct fingering. I play :
A supple wrist is import ant , and also perfect legat o playing of the octaves. The storm thunders unceasingly and demoniacally through this sombre portrait of the soul. 2I
FIRST L ECTU R E
Sonata in A major, Op , 2, No. 2 T his sonata, having the ail' of a bri ght spring day, provides a great contrast to No. 1 an d No. 3 of this opus. The loosen ess of the t exture, which is evident in the many r ests, the exuberance and ch eerfulness of the piece show that Beet hoven was capable of happiness as well as sorrow . In particular, the Scherzo and the last movement h ave a charm wh ich should be evoked by a corresponding light ness and grace in the performance, as well as by the ease of the player 's attitude. For we listen with our eyes as well as our ears, and t he artist m ust not convey t he slightest hint of difficulty or exer tion in th e performa nce of th is work. The construction of the first movemen t is norm al; the second subject begins in t he dominant m inor ; the development modulates through some flat keys t o C maj or and F major and hangs in the ail' on the dominant (bar 223 ) before the recapitulation ent ers. In view of the sudden cha nge of key from A major to C m ajor, it is curious that Beethoven wa nte d the secon d sect ion r epeat ed as well . Nor mally, t h is repeat is not played.r Now to the general qu estion of repeats. The repeats in Beethoven's sonatas are due for the most par t to an old method of writ ing which deri ved from t he dance suites where the r epeats were, if necessary, performed several t imes over to suit the danc ers. Even in H aydn and Mozart t here is ofte n no psychological re ason for a repeat. It is not 1 Thi s r epet it ion, found in some edition s, has been proved spur-ious . P.H .
22
SONATA IN A MAJOR , OP . z , NO . z
until we come to Beethoven t hat the r epeats appe ar to fulfil an emot ional need. Some of the expositions are so bri ef in comparison with the development that a better balance is obtained by a repeat. In public performances the player must decide for himself where a r epeat is psycholog ically necessary and where it would be m er ely pedant ic. One nee d not subscribe t o t h e n aivety of one of my teachers who said to me : ' If it went all ri ght, Fische r, then thank God, and go on.' There are, however, other considerations to be borne in mind, not necessar ily of a purely artistic nature . Someti mes external circumstances such as the state of the piano or t he t ire dness of the player may be a r eason for leaving out a repeat. In certain programmes, h owever , the execut ion of repeats may further the gen eral impression . The r epeats in Opp. 2 , 7, 10, 14 and 22 may well be om itted, wher eas in the lat er sonat as there is sometimes an obvious psychological case for a r epeat , for instance in Op. 1 0 6 wh er e the omi ssion of the r epea t would rob us of the beautiful lead-b ack. What composers themselves sometimes think about r epeats is evident fr om a r emark wh ich Brahms made to a young musician who was surprised that in a perform ance conducted by t he composer himself t h e exposit ion of t he first movement of t he Second Symphony was not r epeated. 'Earli er on ,' Brahms told him, ' whe n the work was new to audiences, the r epeat was necessary; nowadays it is so well known that I can proceed without it .' T o r eturn to our sonata: it should be not iced that at the st art of the r ecapitulation Beethoven did not put a dot on the crotch et afte r the demisemiquavers, in the second bar. The h olding of this note gives the figur e a differ ent character from what it ha d at the beginni ng of the 2}
FIRST LECTURE
movement : it becomes an answer . This int erpret ation is confirmed in the development.' The t urns of the second sub ject should be played on B, C and D, not C sh arp and D sh arp, since these notes would weaken th e subseque nt octaves. The fingering which Beethoven prescribes for the semiqu aver tr iplets shows t hat he h ad an unusu ally wide stretch," an d also th at the llgw'e shoul d be played m elodically, not in a virtuoso style . Many people, however , will find this fingering impossible. The Largo appa ssionato is a movement that invites orch estrati on ; but the trombone-like lines in the ri ght h and and the doubl e-bass pizzicati of the left can also be r eproduced on the piano. The movement is in compound bin ary form , with t wo episodes and a coda. A wellm aint ain ed rhythm will give t h e movem ent its inh er ent solemnity. The third movem ent, wh ich is entitled Scherzo: Allegretto, is no long er a dance pW'e and simple, but a Scherzo of the t ype t h at Beethoven lat er developed in the symphonies. The basic volu me of the Trio is piano, and it should be played perfectly legato. The last movement is a pure R ondo: A B A CAB ACoda. After the fourth appearance of the rondo theme, th ere follows in place of a new idea (D) a combination of A, Band C--in my opinion, the r eal coda only begins with the fifth r eappe arance of the rondo theme. The movem ent h as an encha nting grace and conta ins charming effects such as t he leap from E to G sha rp at t he beginning, the legato slur of wh ich is easier to execute optically than in reality. P edalling will h elp the slur , as The dot on the A in bar 2 is spurious. P, B . An alternat ive sug gestion , mad e by Scheukei-, is that the narrower keys of old pianos made this fingering feasible. P.H. 1
2
24
SO NATA I N A MAJOR , OP.
2,
NO .
2
well as t he rolling A m ajor scale in demisemiquavers after the minore sect ion , wh ich latter introduces a novel staccato effect . Concerning the use of the pedal it is well t o r em ember that it should be used m uch more cauti ously and sparingly in the lower r egisters t h an the higher. In the h igh est registers, the piano ha s no dampers at all, owing to the short sust aining power of those notes. The Mozartian spirit t hat hovers over this movement also ma nifests it self in th e many r est s an d t he lift ed not es of t he left hand. In a crotchet passage Mozart usua lly wrote, in the orchestral manner, a quaver note and a quaver r est in the bass-part whe re lat er on Beethoven and Brahms scored full crotc hets. These rests, wh ich should be gi ven their. full du e, bring light and air into the texture.
Sonata in C major, Op. 2, No. } The Sonata No. 1 , in F minor, has been calle d the' lit tle Appassionata', and we might call this on e the ' little W aldstein'. Its charact er is one of artistic virtuosity and brilliance. Opini ons differ, however , about the way it should be performed. No doubt it displays t he young Beethoven's delight in h is own unusual piani stic skill butit would be wrong to exagger ate the t empi and r egard virtuosity as the sole end of the work. After all, t he music is the body and the tec hn ique merely t he clothing. The themati c m ateri al of the first m ovem ent- Allegro con brio-comes from a Pi ano Quartet in C major which Beethoven wrote when h e was fift een . The movement re ally contains five ideas of which t he third and fourth may be consider ed as forming the second subject . The
25
FIRS T LECTU RE
thir d begins in G minor and the fourth is in G major, t he obligatory dominant. The fing ering of the opening thirds is: 434 3454
~ ~
'
"
The closing them e of t he first part rai ses a difficulty, the rhyth mically precise r endering of the group:
Here, the t wo semiquavers are oft en abbre viated into m er e grace-notes of the preceding trill. One ofte n h ears the same mi stake in the final e of the G m ajor Concerto. The development begins with this closing-theme, modulat es boldly int o D major, and int roduces a str etto on the two final crotch ets of th e opening motif. An old an d exper ienced musician thought that t h e sforzandos befor e t he recapitulation (bars ' 55 ff .) r eally pertain to the second quaver,
the accent on the first quaver being self-evident , and it being ch ar act er istic of Beethoven t o stre ng the n weak units of the bar. However, one coul d also maintain that the ifs, as printed, sign ify a str ength ening of the weak second and fourth beats; for with out them one might easily accent the first and third. Though our modern
26
SO NATA IN C MA JO R., OP .
2,
NO. 3
pianos wou ld enable us to doub le the octaves at t he end of the first an d second section we sh ould r efrain from doing so, since octave-doubling often makes for a rough, grumbling tone. The coda, introduced by a cadenza which begins in A flat major, bri ngs the movement to a brilliant finish . The fortissimo chords 9 to 7 bars from t h e en d should be divided for t he greater comfort of sma ll hands. T he second movement-Adagio- requires a skilful touch. It is not easy to shape the mo vement int o an ent ity owing to t he difference in character of its t hree subjects . The Form is A B CAB C A, t he episodes Band C being extended t he first t ime. T he t empo is best determin ed by the expressive rendering of t he sigh ing, grief-laden t h ird subject in which the left hand shou ld r elaxe dly cross over the right. Be careful to take t he left hand off in t h e ninth bar of the ma in subject wh ile the right hand sust ains th e octa ve. The fingering for the transition in bar 10 is: ]
,
2
Beethoven often referred to a du alism- a masculine and femin ine principle- in his sonat as, and the contrast is, I t hink, especially evident here. I would definitely regard subjects 1 an d 5 as feminine and t he subject in the minor mode as masculine. It is psychologically very in teresting-eomparable to a reconc iliation- that at t he end t he man (left hand) takes over the feminine subject ,
27
FIRST L E CTUR E
thus yielding as it wer e to the lady 's wishes afte r his several r efusals in the minor section . The main section of the Sch erzo is very orchestr al in style. The upbeat must not be played as a triplet ! The forte and piano must be played without transitional crescendos. It is possible that Beethoven never notic ed that bars 3 to 7 form the bass of the Trio. Many such discoveries, by commentators of t h ematic relationships or of the true int enti ons of t he composer, r emind me of t he mod ern composer who aft er r eading an analysis of h is work said: 'I h ad the feeling that I was dead and was being shown a list ofthe chemical elements th at h ad been discovered in my dead body . It is all quite n ew t o me.' The t empo of the main part of the Sch erzo should be det ermined by t he pace at which t he Trio can be taken. The last mov ement is a virtuoso piece, full of gloriously ebullient music. The t empo is A llegro assai, not P resto; the form is t hat of a Rondo, The episodes contras t happily with one another; the F major section, with its difficult legato octaves and chord s, is particularly charmin g. I n the first ep isode th e bass-line should be emph asized. Th e coda should be kept pian o u ntil the first fortissimo in bar 279. The difficult skips in bars 87 ff. should be ma stered by a clear mental awareness of the dist ances involved. T he difficulties of the first passage of semiquavers, like t he lightly bouncing first in versions of the beg inning, can be overcome only by keeping the hand relaxed, yet st ill giving its full value to every note qu ite deliberat ely- in othe r words, by aiming at t hat balance between t ension and r elaxation wher ein lies t he solut ion of most of life' s difficulti es.
SECO
D LECTU R.E
B eethov en' s Piano Playing I should like to say a few words about Beetho ven 's piano playing by way of introduction to the present lecture. I once r emarked that players of a particular constitution ar e best suit ed for the performa nce of t h e works of composers with a similar constitution . For exam ple, thick-set players with t h ick fleshy hands ar e predestin ed for t h e interpretation of works by composers of similar frame, wh ilst tall, long-finger ed, sinewy players ar e likewise the best int erpr et ers of t he works of sim ilarly const it uted composers. If we take a look at some representati ve pianists from this point of view we shall find t his view su bsta nt iate d on the whole. Thus the Beethoven and Br ahms players R ubinst ein and d'Albert were thick-set types whereas Liszt and COI1:ot were Chopin and Li szt players par excellence. Somet im es the r esemblance between int er pret er and compo ser may even go so far as a sim ilar ity of features and of t he who le appearance. Fundamentally, however , it is all a matter of touch . Composers with soft , flabby hands and thick fing er-pads compose 'thick' music. Max R eger is an example of t h is t yp e. There was someth ing of the mollusc about hi s whole n ature; h is touch was unbelievabl y soft and his piani ssimo inimitable. Composers compose, as it were , for themselves. They unconsciously exploit their own qu alities and need kindred natur es to int erpret their work. The wid e spacing of a Henselt, t h e piano-technique of a Li szt came from long-
29
SEC OND L E CT URE
fing er ed h ands capable of wide stret ches . It was not for n othing t h at Busoni and Sau er were great interp ret ers of Li szt. T h e parallel cases of Liszt and P agan ini may also be in st an ced. Beethoven belonged more to the t hick-set typ e and his work r equir es a broad, full , singing t one. But h e was not only a ' broad ' t ype. Brah ms was th at far more tha n Beethoven. When one examines t h e plast er cast of Beethoven 's han d in t h e Beethoven House in Bonn one is amazed at the taper ing fingers, an d t he lat er assertion tha t hi s fing er-t ips were abnor mally wide is contradicte d by t h is evidence. Czerny said of h is playing : ' It was marked by enormous st re ngt h , chara cter , incr edible bravura and flu en cy . No one surpassed him in the spee d of h is scales, double sha kes and leaps. Hi s attit ude wh ile playing was perfectly calm , noble and beautiful. H e made not the slightest gr im ace ; his fingers were stro ng and their t ips flattened by m uch playing. H e deman ded t he kind of legato playing of which h e hi mself was t he unsurpassed master.' Hi s contempora r ies noticed the last-n amed qu alit y especially in hi s playing of t h e first inversions in th e C major Concerto, Op. ' 5. In t he manuscript of Op. 109, Beethoven marked in ligato and legate r epeat edly in red pencil (probably for a fri end). The pianos of his t ime wer e not st rong enough for h is gig ant ic playing. R eferring t o the chord-passage in t he first move me nt of Op. 5', No. 2 he said : ' T he piano must break.' Someon e who visited the Countess Malfatti in her old age h ear d h er speak with great enth usiasm about his playin g, bu t in gene ral, th ere seems to h ave been littl e appreciation of h is work as a composer in t h at circle. Many of his finger ings sh ow that h e was well aware of
}D
BE ETHOVE PS PIA NO PL AYI NG
the difficulties; h e also ma de use of alternating fingers, especially for the 'tremolo ' effect, wher eby t he second note is r epeated softly. I h ave in mind a passage in the Scherzo of the Cello Sonata, Op. 69, and t he Adagio of Op. 110 :
His sforzandos are particularly significant. With the m , he seems to h ave put something of his essent ial personality into his playing; he oft en uses them to stress we ak beats as though h e wish ed to counteract the exaggerated lightening pf weak beat s th at results from academ ically accenting the so-calle d st rong beats. Som e of the sforzandos in passages for both hands also suggest that h e was trying to facilit at e their synchro nizat ion . See, for example, Op. I l l , bars 26 ff. :
The subiti piani afte r a crescendo are a further cha racteri stic feat ure. Some of the crescendos which h e prescr ibed on susta ine d not es are unplayable but the men t al illusion is important. The greatest inventory of his pian istic art is found in the Diabelli Variations which point to the future mor e than any other work. He greatly promoted the art of ]I
SECO ND LECTU RE
pedalling, obt aining quite n ew effects. Let me quote a few examples. In t he Tr io of the secon d movemen t of Op, 110
the pedal notes must cont inue to sound until the entr y of the new harmony. This will best be achieve d by h alfpedalling. As a means of enlivening the rhythm I u se the pedal in Op. 101 from bar 29 onwards. Taking it always on the first and fourth beats will bl'ing out t he inher ent rhythm and the qui vering qu ality of t his passage . As an example of the exactness of Beet hoven's treatment of the pedal we may quote a passage from the end of the second mov em ent of the G m ajor Pi an o Concerto,
° P·5 8:
,
A
I"
"'
I-
0
." ' .'
f
... '. '
H ere, the quaver r ests are split up into two semiquaver re sts for the sake of the pedallin g . Beethoven also used t he pedal to veil the atmosph er e in mi st, as t houg h h e were paint ing a landscape. See, for example, the en d of the first movement of the Sonata, Op. 8 1A, t he r ecitative passages in Op. 3', No. 2, and also
J2
SONATA I N E FLAT MAJ OR, OP. 7
the Largo of the Pi ano Concerto No. 5 in C m inor . In all these cases t he player m ust decide h ow far the mod ern in strument allows him t o comply with Beethoven's instruct ions. He also u sed t he soft pedal, and his directions in t he sonatas, Op, 27, No. 2, and Op, 106 should be followed precisely. The t erm senza sord. (which refers t o the ' loud' pedal), m ust not be confused, h owever, wit h the 'soft' pedal which is m arked by una, due, Ire corde. Beethoven 's ene mies found t hat h e maltr eat ed t he piano, that h e m ade a confused noise wit h the pedal, and that his playing lacked clarity and purity.
cSona ta in E flat major, Op, 7 The Sonata, Op. 7, in E flat major, wh ich t he publisher called Grande Sonate, was dedicat ed in 1797 t o the Cou ntess Babett e de Keglevics, who lat er becam e Princess Odescalchi. This lady seems to h ave aroused Beethoven's inte rest in a high degr ee. T his did not, however , pr event him from giving h er lessons every morning in his dressing gown and slippers . As soon as it appeared the sonata was called t he Verliebte » It is a spirite d work, sustained by a strong feeling for nature, an d one wh ich, throughout its complementary movements, impresses one as a rounde d crea tion of u niqu e stamp. Beethoven only rarely portrayed t he same conste llation of feelin gs twice over in his major works . Once he h ad described one such emot ional world h e did not retur n to it. In this h e differed from Mozart, some of whose finales, for example, are interch angeable. 1
c
The' e namo ured 1.
}}
SEC OND LECTU RE
T he first move ment makes t he greate st dema nds on the player 's individuality . I n view of the insignificance of the first subject- it rather reminds on e of the first subj ect of the Ero ica which is also in E flat and sim ilarly inch oat e- t h e player must make the most of the Allegro molto e con brio. Above all, there must be no slackening in the opening phrases- the throbbing quaver rhythm must urge the movement on . The time is not r eally (J/8 but, as is proved by the harmonic progressions, each group of three quavers is the unit. The sforzando on the G flat before the trans ition t heme is a fine touch (bar 55). T he second subj ect in B flat seems to bring a feeling of calm but the qu avers reappear stra ight away and again the mov em ent rush es on impetuously. The semiqua ver figures in the coda (r ight hand) are t echnically difficult if one tries to bring out the hidden melody. The developm ent is rather scanty. T h e rhythmical struct ure of the t ied quavers marked sfz can be clarifi ed by th e use of the pedal on t he fourth quaver.
In t h e Largo, expr ession must be carried r ight across t he rests. The second and fourth bars should be given more weight. One always won ders wh et her a poeti c image wh ich one finds helpful oneself m eans anything to other people, and there is some truth in Pfitzner's remark that the descrip-
J4
SONATA IN C MI NOR, OP .
10 ,
NO .
1
tion of a piece of music is lik e the painting of a dinner. Nevertheless I will venture to suggest to you the picture of a summer lan dscape with gigantic cumulus clouds from which lat er on r aindrops fall (th e sta ccat o sem iqu avers in the left h and in A flat major, bar 25). The Scherzo h as a Trio of peculiar an d, for the period in whi ch it was written, nove l piani stic cha rm (compare the last mov em ent of Chopin's Sonata in B flat minor). In their opening notes the triplets contain a melody which must be brought out clearly, t hough not im portunat ely. The pedal should be used only at the fortissimos. The dry murmuring of t he qu aver triplets crea tes a ghost-like effect which is heighten ed st ill furthe r by t he su dden fortissim os: t hey illuminate t he gloomy landscape like flashes of lightning . T he sound of horns must be produced in t he coda. T he last mov ement is a genuine Rondo of great charm. T he minore in C minor offers some difficulty on account of the figure which the weak fingers are requir ed to play with vigour. W hether h e crosses over with his upper fingers or ch an ges the fingering accor ding t o the position of the black keys will depend on whether the play er is used to putti ng the thumb on black keys. The modulation via the note B to E major (bar 154) and th e return to E flat by means of the enh ar monic cha nge (C flat major) from B to C flat is a stroke of geni us. The sonorous coda conclud es not m er ely t he Rondo bu t also the sonata as a wh ole.
So na ta in C minor, Op , 10, No . 1 The work was composed in Beethoven's twenty-sixth year and shows how early h e achi eved his own unique )5
SEC ON D L E CTUR E
symphonic style . For me this sonata is t he most cha racteristic example of his organic mode of composition an d equalled in this re spect only by t he Coriolan Overture and the Fifth Symphony . All t hree movements h ave a classical quality. T he ma sculine opening movement, t he solem n Adagio and t he prest issim o Finale in sma ll not e-values with its modulat ions int o r emot e keys and its pauses before the en d ar e all genuin e Beethoven. The work was dedicat ed to the Countess Anna Margarete von Brown e, wife of the Cou nt Browne who presente d Beethoven with a riding horse- a gift wh ich Beethoven forgot u nt il he was u npl easantly reminded of it by a lar ge bill for fodder; his ser vant had been hiring t he horse out and keeping t he proceeds for himse lf. An ana lysis of th e first movement will show how closely and organically everything is fitted together. The subject consists of the rising C minor triad in dotted rhythm wit h a broad fem in ine ending by way of contrast; the open ing of Mozart's great C minor Sonata (K. 457) may have been the model for this. The bars which lead int o the secon d subject wh ich begins at bar 56, ar e related to t he opening by t he step of a sixt h derived from t he first subject . T he second subject too is r eally a variant of t he first four bars in t he m ajor . The t en sion is tremendous u ntil the secon d inversion of t he E flat m ajor triad is r eached ; the codetta (bars 94 to 105) is der ived from the femin ine en ding of bars 3-4. T he development: bar 106 begins with th e first theme in t he major. The octave jumps become tenths. Bars 118 to the rec ap itulatio n are an extension of t he transition to t he second sub ject, wh ich shows tha t Beethoven thoug ht this transition rathe r impor tant and possibly regarded it
)6
SONA T A I N C MIN OR , OP.
1 0,
NO.
1
as a secon d main idea. Bars 136 ff. ar e der ived from " 9/' 20. T he ch ords before the recapitulation are a cont raction of the triplet figure in bars ' 7- 20 (feminine ending) . T h e recapitulati on is based exact ly on t he expositi on. T he t wo fortissimos in t he left h and in bar 188 correspond to the oct ave ju mps and ar e r epeat ed at t h e end of the movem ent. T h e Adagio molto , in t wo sections, with a coda, is relat ed to t he Adagio of the Pathetique not only in key but also in t he triplet decor ati ons and t he repeat ed notes in t h e accompaniment of t h e second subject. T he t h eme of t he transition following t he first subject has its proto typ e in Bach 's Sixth Partit a, except t h at t he demisem iqu aver figur e is in verted. One is inevit ably r emi nd ed of 't h e first ubject of t he first movement . T h ese affinities, however, all ha ve t heir place in t he u nconscious. The player should be car eful not to hurry the h emisemidem iquaver figures (bar 28) an d should take a deep breath befor e the long peri od from bar 24 onwards in or der to feel as one t he whole passage leading to the r ecapitulat ion . T he epilogue should be a real after-th ought with the regularly syncopated E flat s producing the effect of a gra dual dyin g away. The fact t hat Beet hoven writ es pp in th e I I th bar from th e end an d t h en m akes t h e big decr escendo also en d in pp shows how re la tive such direct ions ar e. W hat is requi red is a gradual and gra duated lesseni ng of to ne and t his needs care ful cont rol and inner calm, as does t h e whole movement . The Prestissimo is in sonat a form and dem an ds a speed wh ich will enable the left h an d t o perform quit e clearly the chords in bars 9-12. T he second t heme (conceived for wind instruments) also prohibits an excessive pace. The development contains t he famous ant icipation of
J7
SEC OND LE CTURE
t h e Fifth Symphony. In t h e coda, the modulation to D flat maj or and the return and combination of both the m ain ideas in the major ar e ingenious. Ghostly as is t he whole movement, th e th eme vanishes with the rhythm derived from the accompany ing figme in bar 12.
So nata in F majo r, Op, 10, No. 2 The cheerful ch ar acter of this sonata, its am iability and humour , also account for the somewhat loose t exture of t he work. This is the way in which Beethoven m ay h ave improvised, ta king for a start of the development the last bar of the exposition of the first movem ent and going on to invent a new section . The omi ssion of a second theme in the last movement, t he r elaxing of its fugato into a pianistically inv iting end-piece show how easily the composer's ideas fluctuated during the writing of th is enchanting work. To prov ide a serious element, t h e Allegretto is in t he minor, t hough it is mitigat ed presently by the soft Schubertian D flat major of the Trio. First movement: Ri emann calls th e first four bars a 'curtain' and finds the h eart of t h e subject in bars 5-8. From t h is Beethoven develops the counter-statement in C major' wh ich almost ma kes a stronger impression than th e actual second subject (bar 38). The codetta should be played very clearly. T he development is a very simple variation on the last bar of the exposition . The anticipati on of the opening in D major befor e the recapitulation proper is delightful. 1 Strictl y speaking ) th e second subject group starts here, wh ere the dominant is fully established . P.H .
}8
SON AT A I N D MA J OR, OP .
10 ,
N O. 3
The main subject should soun d like qu estion and counter-question rathe r than qu estion and answer . The pedal should be use d very spar ingly . The whole of the development should be played pellucidly, with the t hu mb of the r ight h and bearing the melody in t he semiqu aver triplets . The D major section sh ould be played very gently so t hat t he r eturn to t he vigorous opening in the r ecapitulat ion m akes a real contrast . The second move me nt, which is marked Allegretto, is akin to t he Allegro molto e vivace fro m Op. 27, '0. " an d should be played wit h the most beauti ful legato, without pedal, possibly con sordino. The Trio should be simple an d t ender. Not e the Schubertian cast of the melody . T he Finale is a mi xture of sonata and fugato and demand s a good technique . The P resto should not be overdone, with a view to bars 87 ff. Despite t he if, the subject in the bass h ere should not impede t he clar ity of t he ri ght-h and figures . Bach's t wo-part Invention in F may h ave bee n the model; the passage is also akin to the secon d movement of the First Symphony . Its difficulty is best overcom e by slight rotation fr om a loose wrist.
Sonata in D majo r, Op, 10 , No . ] This is the greatest of the t hree sonatas, its four move ments forming a wonderful u nity . T he ha ppy distr ibut ion of int erest among contents, formal beauty an d pianistic brillian ce has made it a great favourit e in the concert h all . If the first movem ent provides th e piani st with a r eward ing task, the L argo is one of the deepest inspir ati ons of Beethoven the m elan choly. Great delicacy J9
SECO ND LE CT URE
of feeling is required in passing dir ectly from the L argo into the Minuet: if one begins t he Mi nuet gently and calmly it will give a sense of relief; t oo h eavy-handed a sta rt will m ake the ch ange of feeling sou nd t oo abrupt. The Finale is full of humour r eminding us of Beethoven 's liking for jokes and puns. The for m of t he first movem en t is quite st ra ightforward. The main subject, the first notes of wh ich const itute t he basic motif of the whole movement, should be ph r ased t hus: r..
'UII II\ ~ P
.. .
.
..
,
The second sub ject (bar 53)
r equir es a short appoggi atura since it was Beethoven 's custom t o wr ite out long appoggiaturas in four quavers. The theme of the preceding transition in B minor suppli es a gre ater contrast t han t h e actual second subject . The accompaniment must be transparent: the pedal should be used carefully, ju st to underl in e the bass line. The ifs after the second subject r efer only t o the single, horn-like notes. The L argo e mesto is said t o ha ve been composed under the imp act of r eading the description of Klarcheri's death in Goethe's Egmont. Ther e is a striking affinity in the final bars wit h Schubert's D eath and the Maiden . The form is t ern ary, with elements of sonata form . T he second m ain idea, in A minor, is r eminiscent of T ristan:
4°
SON AT A I N D MA J OR , OP.
10 ,
NO.
s
wild despair alternates with lam ent at ion . The penultimate sect ion of t he coda r equ ir es the most careful differentiation of th e demisem iquavers u nt il t hey finally die away. T he M inuet, wh ich begi ns u nder the impact of the foregoin g elegy , should give a sense of release like the gentle chords aft er th e storm in t he P astoral Symphony . In the second section t h e sforzandos shou ld be moderate. In t h e Trio th e differ ence bet ween st accat o and legato in th e left h and should be brought ou t very clearly. The last m ovement, a Rondo, m ust not give an imp ression of anti-clim ax. T he player must h ave a vivid sense of the qu est ioning and answering, t he cont inual ru nn ing hither an d thither , t he hide-and-seek game th at Beethoven carrres on with t he t hree not es of th e subject. The same notes, n amely th e step of a second followed by a t hird, are found in the main subject of t he first movement, at the beginn ing of t h e L ar go, in th e Trio of the Mi nuet (in the bass), an d also in the splendid syncopate d chords at t he end of this last movement (bar 1 0 2 ) . The whole movement is lit up wit h flashes of sum mer lightning. Every r eturn of t h e rondo th em e should be given a differ ent colouring: it will h elp if t he orn ame n ts in bars 4, 28, 59 and 67 are given varied t reatme nt . T he final passages in the r ight hand need careful study. W e leave this work with th e sense of having met a 'personality who is st ill you ng bu t who h as already exper ienced t he m ain eleme nts of human feeling, tast ed soaring ecstasy as well as deepest grief, t he blessings of consolat ion an d the exuberance of an eternally creat ive nature.
THIRD L E CT UR E
On Practising As with most cultural activities, so with pract IsIng , methods differ from one in dividual to another according to the stu dent's t emperam ent, ph ysical const itut ion and m ental attit ude. One thing applies to all, however: thoughtless re petit ion sh ould be esche wed. Whether it is a m atter of memorizing, of m astering particular tec hnical problems or understanding th e structure of a work, the player who thinks, and thinks intensely, will make t he greatest progress. T echnique res ides in the head, not in the fing ers. Baron van Swiet en , Maria Theresa' s gentleman-in wa iting, and a fr ien d of Mozart 's, was instr uct ed by the Empress to r eclaim the county of Glatz from Frederick t h e Great. The King list en ed to t he proposal and re plied : , Appare ntly t he powers that be in Vienna t hink I have the gout in my head and not in my legs.' Int ense self-observation , awa re ness of the processes of movement, of the difficulties and their causes will lead one to det ect a problem, an d t o solve it by exclusive attention to it . Alfred Cortot says, in the Preface to hi s edition of Chopin 's Etudes: "Travaillez non seuleme nt le passage difficile, m ais la difficulte m em e, qu i s'y trouve cont en ue, en lui r estituant son caracter e element aire .' (' Do not mer ely practise t he difficult passage, practise the difficulty as such which is containe d ther ein by restoring to it its essential chara cter.') That is excellent counsel.
42
-
---,. - - -- - --------- ------~-~~----
ON P RACTIS ING
One of t he basic movements in the world is t he opening and closing of t he unicellular creat ures of the sea, or of the mussels and oyst ers. The movements of the human heart and lungs, t oo, com ply wit h th is basic movement which is com mon t o all cre atures. This contract ion and expansion also underlies the work of the muscles. We must attend not only to the contrac tion but in particul ar to the expansion . Fu nd am ent ally, there ar e r eally only five or six basic movements an d their combinations in volved in pianoplaying. T he difficulties arise ma inly from t h e alt ernation of the movements or the use of opposite movements in the two h and s; the persist ent repetition of one and the same mo vement can also be a great strain . T he contracti on of t he muscles is nat ure's protective reaction to every difficulty ; bu t t his prevents t he ir recovery and the supply of fresh blood. The supreme law is to man age with the minimum of movem ent, exert ion and contraction. It is in credible the amou nt of ene rgy that is being squa ndere d unnecessaril y ; yet it is only by a r elaxed touch that we can give our playing bea uty and conviction. The in ability to r elax is our ene my in life in gen eral as well as in piano-playing. The Indians h ave been teaching the m anagement of t ension and r elaxation for thousands of yea rs. Whether in breathing or in higher pu rsuits, every exert ion must be followed by r elax ation. W ha t is the best way, then , to set about stu dying a work ? To begin wit h, I must menti on a new method which you will find describ ed in the well-known book by L eimer-Gieseking and practised in Switzerland by Frau L an genhahn-Hirzel. It is based on our ability to imagine a piece of music without actually playing it . At the outset,
43
T H IRD L ECTU RE
the st udent is merely given t h e score of the work. It is subjecte d to det ailed analysis and only when t he st udent has assimilated t he piece mentally , and in fact knows it by hear t , does work begin at the in strument. Her e again, t ech nical problem s are m ade conscious by analysis. T h is system , t he ben efit s of which ar e m any, provides, first an d foremost, a st upen dous train ing of t he mind and one's ability to concent rate, such as was provided cent uries ago, by t he schools of t he church, We have been tremendously spoilt by the inv ention of music-printing , and it is impor tant t o r em ember t hat to begin with music was crea te d from the mind and t he memory . ' Knights of t he keyboard ' was how Bach scorn fully du bbed players who were lost without t h eir instrument . Despite t h e trut h of t h e conception on which t his t eaching is based and th e splendid r esults it obtains wit h many students, I cannot h elp feeling critical about the principle it in volves, namely the pur ely m ental assimilat ion of music. I regard it as part of t he r at ional, int ellectual view of t he worl d which attempts to subdue everyth ing to the int ellect and the m ind, the view ofthe world which h as brought about this tech nical age wit h its many admira ble feat ures, bu t which leaves out of its r eckoning t h e whole wide field of th e psychic and emot ional capacities in man . It is very easy t o dem onstrate t he process of cause an d effect in mechan ical and t ech nical matters, but very difficult to descr ibe t he forces t ha t ar e truly creat ive. Why leave out of account these great energies which give us so much ? W e also have a ' motor' memory wh ich h elps u s t o r emember the movements of the fing ers. This has ofte n saved me wh en my conscious memory h as let me down. Then ther e is th e visual m emory wh ich makes it impor-
44
ON PRA CTI SI NG
tant always to use the same edition of a work. Ther e is also t he melodic and h armonic memory . Best of all, however, is t hat unconscious co-operat ion of all t hese kinds of memory wh ich operates so clearly in t he child prodigy . How shoul d one beg in prac tising a work ? L et us assume t ha t one is qu ite new t o the work. First of all, play it stra ight through ; then analyse its form, separating wh at is r epeated from wha t is new and only occurs once in th e work . T h en you will already be able to see where the problems, specifically those of t echnique, lie. Working at t he m for short periods over a long ish stre tch of ti me, during which you m ay stu dy other works , is better t han drudging awa y at one proble m for a long t ime without a break. The in ter ven ing nights, in which you ' sleep over ' yOUl! problems, are also of import ance. '~TOl'ki ng in th is manner, t he average player will find after a wh ile t hat he knows t he piece by hear t. Conscious attent ion, to be sure, must be given to the so-called 'track-points', i.e. the passages t ha t diverge in repeats . W hen the t im e is r ipe for attending t o matters of int erpr etati on you m ust str ive to get all t he feeling, rhythm and beauty out of th e work which you can find in it. T his is where your im agination, your emot ions and passions must be act ive in t he highest degree. A per iod will follow in wh ich one should attend to t h e product ion of beautiful t one and fluen cy. It is impor tant at t his stage to take into account t he composer 's personal style and the style of t he particular work, as well as the sty le of t he peri od. Next comes a living conception of form, a search for int ernal balance. Finally t here should be a chec k to see t hat all the composer's direct ions (dynamics, rhythm, ph rasing) ar e bein g scrupu lously observed. Then, play the work through several t imes tr ying to com bine all the
45
THIRD LECT URE
requirements we h ave mentioned, not forg etting to keep the body as relaxed as possible. It is salutary to put on one side for a t im e works that on e h as st udied in this way. T aken up again afte r a fairly long r est, they will r eveal n ew facets . Some th ings will seem easier than t hey did to begin with, while n ew beauties and deeper meanings will be perceived by a rested ear.
S ona ta in C m inor, Op, 1 J (Sonat e Pa the tique) T he popularity of this sonata is probably du e to t he public's affect ion for t itl es. Anyway, t he popular sonat as are the ones with titles. In th e present case the title came from Beethoven himself and h e probably wanted it t o be understood in the sense of pathos, i.e. suffering. Incidentally , Tchaikovsky's Sy mphonie Paihetique has a similar main subject (in E minor). To my mind, this sonata is not so perfect and homogeneous as some of the lesser-known ones. The first movemen t is like an excerp t from the piano arrangement of a symphonic work ; the last m oveme nt is not commensurate with th e first t wo. The secon d movement , h owever, is perfect in every respect . T he sonata was written in 1798 and dedicated to Prince Karl Lichnowsky . This patron gave Beethoven a quartet of Italian st ring instruments and an annuity of 6 00 florin s. The first movement is m arked by a magnificent int roduction. Is it an introducti on or r eally part of t he main movement? The r epeat Jigns claim our decision on -t his point. If it is part of the main mov ement we must repeat from the beginning; if it is an introduct ion , only from
4°
SONATE PATHETIQUE IN C MINOR, OP. ' 3
the Allegro. R iemann argues t hat t he first idea (Grave) is introduced again before t he development an d at t he end. But it seems to me that t he fact t hat Beet hove n omits the Grave idea in the recapitulation suggests t hat he only wanted t he repeat to start from t he Allegro. T o repeat t he whole of the opening Grave would make the exposition unduly protract ed in r elati on to the other sections. It is obv ious t hat t he Allegro sub ject and, lat er on, it s continuation in t he development are re lated to the Grave theme. The second subject is also re lated to it. T he re is a difficulty h er e : the mordent. P erfor med on the beat, it will, considering its speed , easily result in a triplet . An anticipation, however , m ight lea d to sentimentality. T he r ight way is anyone's guess. T he fp of the very first chord offers a further difficulty; should th is be playedfto beg in wit h an d then the whole chord p u ntil t he demisemiquaver? Difficult thoug h it is to re pro duce today, t he orchestral effect of t he fp is t o be preferred because it is more in accord with the idea of pathetique. No crescendo should be made befor e the reca pit ulat ion . T he sem ibreve passage before t he final Grav e gives r ise to t he five bars of staccato chords at the end. T he second movement . is one of Beethoven 's most glorio us in spirations. Despit e its emotionalism , it h as to h ave classical sta nce , and despit e it s classical simplicity, it has t o be full of feeling. How to do th is? Give an expressive tone to the melody and obt ain simplicity and symmetry by keeping the rhyth m even. The two -part writi ng of t he last moveme nt is h ard t o bring off. If one takes t he light ron do character of t he Allegro Q: as a guide the move ment will contrast overmuch wit h t he othe rs; if one plays it slowly, with
47
THIRD LECTURE
meaning in every note, it may easily become wooden and clumsy. I, at any rate, play the opening sotto voce and not too fast, trying, at the same time, to give it some inner excitement. To m y m ind, the first E flat m ajor theme is t he r eal second subject , and the strain in crotchets merely an append age (bar 44). The former is t he inversion of bars '3 to 15 ofthe ma in subject . That Beet hoven attaches mor e importance to t his theme (bar 25) is indicat ed by his direction dolce . The triplet figures (bars 51 ff.) should be well ar ticulate d. The central episode in A flat wit h its minims should be played warmly an d cantabile, not didactically. In t he coda (bar 193) t he movement resu mes again the general character of this work . Harsher dynam ic accents are h ear d; the composer leads us to A flat major, and just as h e seems to be introducing the subject again in A flat major, he suddenly returns to th e tonic C minor.
So nata in E majo r, Op, 14 , N o. 1 The t wo sonatas , Op. '4, are usually st udied first because they ar e the easiest to play (besides Op. 49). Like all such works, including the poems one is forced to learn by h eart at school, it is difficult to appreciate t hem in lat er life. Dissection an d repetiti on have ma de us insensiti ve t o their charm and beauty. For me, however, t hese sonata s are among the sweetest and most sympat het ic ch ildren of Beethoven's h eart. Another trouble is that the masses, these ' t err ible simplifiers ' , are incl ined to label composers and, needless to say, the label t hey attach to Beethoven is ' t he heroic ' . They r efuse to believe t hat t here can be gentle he roes,
48
•
SONATA IN E MAJ OR, OP . 14 , NO . 1
heroes of goodness and long-suffering. L et us not forg et Beethoven's gentle side. The E major sonata was composed in 179 8. It has three movements and is elegiac in ch aracter. By way of except ion, the middle movement provides the serious and austere element and sta nds, in the m inor , between the sunlit movements in t he major . T he form of the open ing movement is normal. The first subject h as one appen dage, the second has two . T hat the tempo is 4/ 4, not <1: , is proved by t he second subject. The C major in the r ecapitulati on, with its firmer accompa niment, is magnificent. I should like to draw attention t o t he customary octave doub ling of t he E in the coda (bar 151), wh ich is perhaps contrary to Beethoven's intentions. According to Sch indler, Beethoven himself played the secon d movement Allegro furioso; but we may perhaps presume that Schindler had envisage d an easy-going Allegro and was taken aback by Beethoven's performance. All the sam e, in spite of t his tradition, too fast a tempo should be avoided. On the other hand, t h e observation that Beet hove n lin ger ed on t he C sfz shows that t he master had an entirely personal style wh ich included agogic accents for special events, such as strong dissonances, r ests and clima xes. At t he t ransition int o the maggiore, th e cr escendo on the high E and t he portamento are a r eminder that Beethoven arranged the whole son ata for string quartet. Both directions must remain illusory on th e piano but I would not like to live without illusions. The last movement, Rondo : Allegro com m odo, is in the form A B A C A B-Coda. The affinity which Rieman n sees b et~een t h e main subject of the first movement and D
49
•
T HIRD LECTURE
t he first subject of the last reminds me of t he English t each er who derived Ross from Hors e by a transposit ion of the letters. T he second subj ect (first episode) is (bars 21-5) :
The central episode is a sort of Trio in G major which must not be allowed to destroy the poetic framework of t he movement as a whole. The transit ion into F m ajor is delightful (bar 104). The bass-part preceding the coda shows how Beethoven makes the most of the t in iest motifs; the gradual dissolution of the ma in theme in a syncopat ed variation and later in qu avers is like the observation of a n atural phenomenon on the part of Beethoven: compara ble to a slowly dissolv ing blanket of cloud that r eveals more and more fr agments of blue sky . And so we leave this lovely, warm piece in E major, the key to which Beethoven ent rusted so many of his h appi est move me nts (Op, go, secon d movement ; Op . 109).
Sonata in G major, Op, 14, N o. 2 T his su nlit forest-scene might be called 'The Bird as Prophet', so prophetic is it of Schumann . All the movements ar e written in a r elaxed style. The syncopat ed chords in the secon d mov ement and the bass-accompanim ent in the second subject of the last m ovement are Schumannesque. Above all, ther e is an int imat e feeling
5°
SO NATA I N B FLAT MAJOR, OP. z z
for nature wh ich anticipate s the Romantic composers. The A llegro of the first mov em ent sh ould not be t aken too fast in ord er t o give the little birds in t he right hand time t o sing their songs . Observe how on e motif gro ws out of the other as organically as leaf upon leaf sprouts from a bough, and how from the beginning to the developm ent, one melody flows on the whole time. The boughs of the tree sha ke in the second subject; in the coda darker sha dows fall. How delightfully staccat o alte rnates wit h legato in the secon d movement with the three variations ! The var iation with t he syncopated qu avers moves along so gently that we must be car eful not t o play the sforzandos too violently. The duple rhythm wit h in the triple barring (5/8) of the last mo vement shoul d fr ee us from the bar-line. Pl ayfully, like insects, the motifs dart about in the clear air of this G major.
S onata in B flat major, Op, 22 No doubt it was its grateful, florid piano-writing that made this work formerly so popul ar ; like all Beethoven's less dr am atic works it h as lost some of its popul arity in our day. W ell played, however, it can afford gr eat pleasure by r eason of its smooth ness of form and charming sou nd effects ; even the r ather Italianate an d aria-like Adagio is gi ven grandeur by t he breadth of its ph rases. The Rondo seems to me to be the most significant movement, significant by virtue of it s we alt h of ideas, t he matic r elationships and its blend of var iat ional and contr apuntal t echnique.
51
THIRD LE CTURE
The first movement is in st rict sonata form . T hematically everyth ing is again absolutely consiste nt . T h e development is form ed by th e codetta theme and the ma in th em e, but everyth ing flows along so naturally and easily that one is unawar e of th e t he mat ic structure, only pleasan tly moved by the organ ism as a whole. In the Adagio the sonata for m is evide nt. The beat is J. , with t hree t imes three qu avers making a rhythmic unit. The seque nce of events is: first subject, second subject, developm ent, recapitulation. The developm ent, in particul ar, with its fr equent r epetition of the figure:
shows that the quavers must be played in a flowing te mpo. It is wonderful how Beethoven, in the recapitulation, dovet ails th e first-subject group and the transit ion, and continues the latter in the minor (bar 59) in order to introduce the second subject in E flat major. The phrasing of the Mi nuet is debat able. Should it be:
or :
~~" i _ ~
etc.
If the secon d is more natural, the first is more graceful . The m ain them e of the Rondo should be played with ami ability, and the ensuing octa ves with suppleness. T he
52
SO NATA I N B FLAT MAJOR , OP . es
first episode (bar , 8), whi ch later elaborat es the qu aver figure of the rondo them e, has already more int ensit y ;
and the minor sect ion (central episode) works up to the pitch of a contrapuntal struggle in st ring quartet style (bar 80). T he demisemiquaver figure ofthis section , too, is a t ransfor mation of the ron do them e. T he coda of t h is movement m akes one feel t ha t Beethoven in t ended it to form a conclusion to th e sonat a as a whole, not merely to the fourth movement.
53
F OU R. TH L E CT UR. E
Beethoven's Personality Beethoven's family h istory confirms the theory that musical genius of the first r ank never sudden ly appea rs from a ba ckground lacking in cultural interests . In the case of m usicians, generations are n eeded before the ultim at e h eights are reached by one solita ry m ember of a family. If painters shou ld see m in a differ ent case, this is mere ly a delusion. Great painters who come from peasant stock (van Gogh, Rubens, Segantini, Nold e) enter into ways already pr epar ed for them since the peasant lives w ith the forms and patterns of nature, light and shade, lan dscape and animals, and is constantly assimilat ing optical impressions; h e can estim ate distances, r ead the weather from the atmosphere, thus preparing for th e birth of an artist in light . The ance stors of the Bachs, of t he Haydns, Couper in, Mozart, Beethoven and Sch ubert we re all musicians, or at least engaged in allie d cultural purs uits, T he ar ist ocratic sense, the feeling for arch itectural beaut y, for traditional custo ms was also a daily exp er ience for m ost of t h em since t hey served at courts or in ecclesiast ical establishments . On the other h and, genius is brought to maturity by hard and difficult circumstances. All these great masters had a h ard youth; one m ight almost say they received more blows than food, the blows usu ally taking the form of hard work, often lasti ng far into the night. It is remarkable to observe how in their struggle for existence, for
54
BEETHOVEN ' S P ER SO NALI TY
success, for income, first as child prodigies, then as employees or independent m usicians, the work of all these masters was det ermined by the true artistic spir it , the spir it of service, an d by a sense of profound moral obligation. None of them was more conscious of this spirit and more u ny ielding t o the dem ands of the public than Beethoven . L et us look for a moment at the musical nourishment th at h e r eceived. As he was early employed as an organist in Bonn it was church music that impressed him first ; besides, h e heard at the concerts h eld at the Archbishop's court the music of Stamitz, Gluck, Gretry, Benda, Ditt ersdorf, Paisiello, Bach and Handel. It must not be imagined, however, that h e possessed compl ete edit ions of Bach an d Handel. He knew only a t iny fra ction of Bach's work, including some ofthe 'Well t emper ed Clavi er ' , and h e r eceived H andel' s work s as a present from London when he was alre ady on hi s death-bed . In Vienna he became acquainted with many of t he works of Haydn and Mozart, and I should like to corr ect the statement one often h ears that t h is or that passage in Mozart already sounds quite lik e Beethoven. Beethoven was seve nteen when h e visit ed Mozart in Vienna. W he n Mozart died Beethoven was t wenty-on e, and all these surprisingly Beethovenish passages in Mozart ar e entire ly original. Beethoven was influenced by Mozart, not vice versa . Without Don Giovanni the Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2 would n ever ha ve been wr itten , nor Op. 10, No. 1 without Mozart's C m inor Sonata, nor Beethoven 's C mi nor Concerto wit hout Mozart's concerto in that key. In spite of the Mozartian infl uence, however , t hey all bear the marks of Beethoven's personality. Italian music occupi ed a prominent position, particu-
55
F OUR TH L E CT U R E
larly in opera. It was from t he Italians that Beet hoven acqu ire d his sense of sym me try an d beauty of form, as well as the skilful treatme nt of stringed instrumen ts . The French clav ier composers did not influence him ; but the solemn Glu ck did. What was it like in Bonn and Vienna in Beethoven's t ime? T hey only had candlelight; no large concert-halls t hat could be h eated in t he winter-t ime; the re were no musical societies; musical events t hat did not take place pri vat ely h ad to be labori ously orga nized by the musicians themselves; on the other h and, one of the compe nsat ions was that Nature still reached right into t he heart of t he city, an d to listen t o her sounds it was not n ecessary to travel half an hour on th e underground. By h is selfassurance, which also expressed itself in coarse ness an d fits of bad temper, and also by the in nat e nobility of hi s h eart, Beet hoven ra ised t he social sta nding of t he m usician tre me ndously . W h ereas t he bewigged Bach could still write in 1750 : ' Your Grace's utterly devoted ser vant and most obedient subordinate ' , the wigless Beet hoven signe d hi mself: ' Your fr iend, Beethoven' when writ ing to the Arch duke R.udolf. Beethoven was appar ently a child ofthe French R evolut ion , of t he T hir d Est ate; h e acknowl edged no prerogative of birth or money though he was aware of his own import ance as a prince of music, with all th e social obligat ions tha t devolve on such an exalted public ser vant. At any r ate he was not one to h anker afte r t h e favour of the masses, and h e was a passionate cha mpion of individu al free dom on an et hical basis. His r eading included Marcus Aureliu s, Plutarch , Shakespeare , Klopstock (of whom h e said' He always begins r ight up at t he t op, always maestoso! D flat !'), Schiller and Goeth e,
56
BE ETHO VE N ' S P ER SO NALIT Y
whom he especially r ever ed. Of conte m porary poets he came in touch with Gr illparze r, Kotzebue, Collin, M atthison (Adelaide) an d Rochli tz. T he re are various approaches to life, and each of us incli nes more or less to one of t he following categories : Ther e is the outlook of the average person who is entirely wra pped up in t he events of t he day and hour, t he shocks and blows, t he pleasur es and joys of t he passing moment; his hea d scarcely ever r ises above t he sur face of everyday happenings. The pit iless mac h ine of eternal recurre nce is his sad lot-s-of whi ch h e is, mercifu lly, qui t e oblivious. T hen there are the roman tic natures who are carried away by impressions and dr eam s; t he y are, as it were, a r ealizati on of nature' s dr eams, the h uman voice of eternal nature. T h irdly ther e are t hose who try to make t he ir own building out of t he material t hat life puts into their han ds. They ignor e t he trivial and th e commonplace, attribut ing no great value to it. T he strongest of these are followers of Prometheus, essentially' creative ' types. Beethoven was a su preme example of this cat egory, and h is counterpart Michelangelo greets h im across t wo cen turies .
Apart from t hese three types there is another and r ar er kind of ma n for whom life is a mere sport in the Greek sense . Destiny is in evitable, law etern al and predetermin ed. Inviolate and timeless, the gods look down on human sorrows and human destiny, at t his motley game that is playe d out on earth; and in a sim ilar way cer tain great m en look at the worl d. In their works we find not m erely sh in ing h eroes but characters of various kinds in changing hues. The fool is as dear to the m as the
57
FOURTH LECTURE
king, and even the murderer is still a human being ; the poet does not ju dge. W ith a h eart of w isdom h e allows everything to pass before our eyes as a divin e sport . Among such m asters I count Sh akespear e, R embrandt and Mozart. But Beethoven wa s not of this kind . It is true that h e gradually develop ed from t he in dividualistic fighter into an artist of more universal feeling, and in his last wor ks h e draws a fin e veil of myster ious immateriality over hi s music-fundam entally, however, h e was one of the P romethean, dynamic m en wh o struggle with their own gen ius an d fjght for t he realizati on of their ideals. In this sense h e h as h ad a profound influence on lat er ge nera t ions.
So nata in A flat major, Op, 26 I n thi s son at a we m eet for the first t ime one of t hose creations which I should like to call ' psychological compositions' since they are intim at ely person al utterances and, strictl y speaking, represent transitiona l st ages in Beethoven 's development. At first glance, t heir form seems fr eer and more u ncon vent ional, t hough in fact it is as closely wor ke d and st rictl y controlled as that of other sonatas. The normal sequence of movements is oft en changed h ere, but t he psychological links between t hem are stronger and the demands m ade on th e inter pr eter great er. To this group I assign Opp . 26, 27, No. 1 an d No. 2, 78 , 8 1A, 101 and 109. In the present sonata Beethoven begins w ith a quiet vari ati on movement follow ed by a forceful Allegro; t he famous Funeral March is followed by a Rondo. It is not
58
SONATA I N A FLAT MAJOR , OP. 2 6
easy t o make the unity of the work felt ; ill particular t he last two mov ement> seem to be irr econcilably opposed t o one another. Som e critics t hink it n ecessary to introduce the principle of opposites to explain t he last two movements. T hat app ears to me to be r at he r t oo facile an explan ation, suggested by the apparent velocity of t he Rondo. 1 prefer to moderate the A llegro of t he last movement, attaching great importance t o Beethoven's piano, thereby est ablish ing a link with the Funeral March. It is as if a shower of r ain fell after the funeral, veiling the burial ground in a consoling grey m ist. One could say the st age is now empty, and Nature has the last word; rather as Chopin 's Funeral March is followed by the notably difficult Finale in m odo di Goya. W ithout such modificat ion, t h e piece will become a sort of Cramer study-and t hat was surely not Beethoven's intention . I t is not easy to decide on t he tempo of the first movement if th is is to be maintained throughout the variat ions. One should try and choose a golden m ean. Above all, beware of playing the fourth variation twice as qu ickly-a common mistake. The second variation is an anticipation of the brilliant violin variation in the Kre utzer Sonata . It should be played loosely an d softly. In the Scherzo, the figur e in t hirds (bar 27) should be firmly committed to t he m ind befor e t he fing ers actually play it. The ties in the Trio .ar e Beethoven 's (do not crescendo too early). The Funeral March shoul d be played portato. Too much pedal should be avoided - after all, th e dr u mheads are draped in black. Beethoven writes quite clearly at t h e--consolatory- end: P edal in the bass. The t ransform ati on , sometim es advocated, of the drum roll from exact dem isemiquavers into an indist inct tremolo is not to be r ecommended. As in the P astor al
59
+= :
FOURTH LE CT URE
Symphony, 'Not painting, but the expression of feeling ' is the motto to be borne in m ind her e. The Rondo alternates bet ween stra ins of three and two bars. Between the r epeats of the ro ndo theme ther e ar e t wo episodes, the first occurring twice, t he central on e bein g in C m inor; a coda on an A flat pedal-note closes the m ovement with two poign ant suspensions. Night ha s fallen .
Sonata in E flat major, Op, 27 , N o. 1 The two sonatas , Op. 27, devi ate fro m t he usual sche me, and Beethoven ther efore added t he subtitle quasi una fantasia. The seque nce of the movements is qui te unusual: Andante, Allegro, And ante in the first movement; Adagio, Allegro vivace, Adagio, Presto in the last movement of Op. 27, No. 1; Adagio soste nu to, Allegretto, Presto agitato in Op. 27, No. 2. Such str uctures need sensitive h an dlin g if t hey ar e to give a feeling of psychological u nity. T he Allegro in C major in t he opening moveme nt of the E flat son at a can collide painfully with the Andante in E flat if it is not man aged with great care. It should not be t aken too qu ickly, and som eh ow or oth er a psychological li nk must be establishe d between th e second bar of th e Allegro and the interval of th e third at th e beginning of t he An dante. As Riemann points out, genuine linear art iculat ion keeps a piece on t he move even at a slow spee d, wh ile figuration, Le. the decoration of an Adagio m elody by small note-values, will retain its qui et ch aracter . In other words, what matter s are the implied rhythmic
60
SONATA I N E FLAT MAJ OR, OP. 2 7 , NO . 1
units, and just these are not easy to det er mine at the opening of t h is sonata . This is shown by t he fact that Casella gives a metronome m arking of 80 for t he minims, d'Albert 84 for the crotchets, i.e. almost t wice as slow . W he re is t he subject 's true centre of gravity? Does it begin wit h an anacrusis-and if so, do the m any h alf-b ar sforzandos confir m or contra dict t h is? How does on e avoid t riviality in the main them e, especially in bars 9 to 12? Can t he re be a seque nce ' weak-strong, weakstrong , weak-strong, strong -wea k' (bar 4)? All these questio ns of grammar were answe re d for m e by an experience I had whe n I was on a concert tour in t he South. I was in a small t own an d wa nte d to practise before my concert. Looking for an instrument, I was given t he name of a grocer . I called on him and was shown in to a pleasant room where a sma ll girl about fourteen years old opened a gra nd pian o for m e to pract ise on . As she lean t against the pian o listeni ng, but not looking at me, 1 asked if she played h erself and whe n she r epli ed t hat she did 1 asked h er t o play m e something. W ithout a word she sat down an d played Op. 27, No. " wit h a na turaln ess, ge ntleness, equanim ity and sadness that suggested t hat this was a true expression of some hidden su ffering. She knew nothing about ' subj ects on the upb eat ' or the m etronome m arks of various editors , but in side h er there beat t he h eart of the Beethoven who composed t h is sonata. Deeply moved by h er playing, I h ad fou nd t he solution to my problems. T he second m ovem ent is a genuine Beethoven Scherzo, of the demonic kind. The motifs derived from t he C mi nor chord scurry ghost -like over the keys. Even if you phrase in two-bar groups, weak to strong , do not h esit at e to discontinue this at the fort e. Beh in d all the music of
6I
FOURTH L E CTURE
the Vienna classics there lurks the dan ger of monotonous rhythm-what I call t he Viennese wooden fence-that divid es everything off into four-bar phrases. Always feel the sh ape of the melodies and mould th em fr eely. Get away from four-bar phrases. In the r epeat, the syn copate d note s suggest a journey into H ades. The form of the Adagio is A B A. The Allegro vivace movement is in rondo form and apparently ha s several themes, but closer examin ation shows them all to be r elated. The short Presto that occurs afte r the r epeat of t h e Adagio in the tonic is also der ived from the rondo theme. After a number of performances, the player will become joyfully aware of the work's unity when nearing the end, and will be able to communicate this feel ing to his aud ience.
Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 2 7, N o. 2 Scarcely any sonata h as ha d so much written about it as Op. 27, No. 2, t hough it only lasts sixteen minut es. In Beethoven's own t ime it was called the L aube (Arbou r) sonat a because it was thought t o h ave been composed in an arbou r. T he nickn ame Moonlight Sonata came from the poet R ellstab who was inspired to call it that by a moonlit n ight on the L ake of Lucerne. Speaking of nicknames, the Sonata, Op, 53, wh ich in German-speaking countries is called ' W aldstein-Son at e ' after its dedicat ee, is called L 'aurore (' dawn ') by the French . Op. 28 is called' Pastoral Sonata ' in France and England . From various facts that h ave come to my knowledge I h ave conceived a different theory of the origin of the
62
SONA TA IN C SHARP MI NOR , OP. 27, NO . 2
work which I should like to mention here wit hout claiming any histor ical aut he nticity for it. There is in Vienna a m anuscript of Beethoven's whi ch contains a few lines from Mozart's D on Giovanni in Beethoven's undoubted h and : the passage after Don Giovanni ha s killed the Commendatore. Underneath Beethoven has transposed the passage into C sharp m inor, and the absolut e similarity of this with the first m ovement of Op, 27, No. 2 is qu ite u nmistakable. In particular the postlud e is note for note as in M ozart , At t he t ime on e of Beethoven's aristocratic fri end s died and was laid out in state in his palace. One night Beethoven is said to have improvised as h e sat by the corpse of h is fr iend ; is it so unlikely that Beethoven was r eminded of the similar scene in D on Giovanni and that this was the r eason for the str iking similar ity which we have m entioned ? In any case, there is no romantic moonlight in this movement: it is rather a solem n dirge. Beethoven's dir ection : 'Si deve suona re tutto questo pezzo delicatissamente e senza sordin i' should be followed precisely : the who le movement should be played with the utmost gentleness and without the dampers, that is to say, unth. the pedal. The t empo should not dr ag : Beethoven indicat ed t his by the alia breve sign. It is probably merely an accident that t he first two bars h ave no legat o slurs. The dotted rhythm in the fourth crotchet of the fifth bar must be execut ed very gently, and care should be taken to see that t he last semiqua ver (G sharp) is closely joined to the following long not e. In bar 8 I play the last B in the upper part with the left h and to achieve a perfect legato. In bar 12, in the middle part, I play a C instead of a B for the fifth quaver. I can offer no documentary evidenc e but I find it difficult to forgo
6}
FOURTH LECTURE
t he step from C to C sharp in the middle part. But t hen, the first two pages of t he manuscript are lost . The Allegre tto should not be played too fast, otherwise the m any suspensions from bar 9 onwards will not receive t h eir du e value. To my mind, the t hree accompanying crotch ets in bar 10 should be played wit h t he st r ictest possible staccato in spite of the awkwardness t his in volves. In the Trio we meet in the left h an d an A flat held for four bars and later on a D flat , both of which are marked fortepiano. T h ese not es must t herefore come through qu ite independ ent ly of the bass. The last movement dep icts a storm. In bars 1 and 2 and all similar bars ther e should be no cresce ndo. T he first real cre scen do is in bar '9 and in this bar , too, legato slurs appear for the first t ime . The sforzandos in bar 2 and elsewhe re m ust give t he effect of a flash of lightning. The first of the sma ll notes in bars 155 and 155 coincide with the first bass-note. Not ice t ha t in bar 1 8 7 , before the Adagio, the figure in t he r ight h and was wr itten by Beethoven in qu avers : it must ther efore be played slower t ha n the preceding semiquavers. It may be of int erest to ment ion t hat Li szt is said to h ave played the whole last m ovem ent in a re latively broa d t empo, emphasizing the forte passages, however, with tremendous energy an d expres sion .
Sonata in D maj or, Op, 28 Composed in 180 1 in close proximity to the C sharp minor Sonata, it nevertheless differs fundamentally from that work . T his sonat a has been nickna med t he Pastoral, an d not inaptly . There is a feeling of Nature in this piece, a 64
SONATA IN D MAJOR, OP. 28
presence of t he god P an such as we fin d only in t he P astoral Symphony itself. There, however, the t hemes are more clear- cut. In the pia no sonata, there is a sh immering as of sum mer air , a murmuring of bees and a fragrance: one can almost feel t he warm sun on one's skin. All our instincts are aroused , and, in a trance, natural m an wit hin us feels at one with mother earth. By wha t means did Beet hoven ach ieve this sense of joy and h appiness? T he calm t ranquillity of the D wh ich is re peated sixty t imes in the left ha nd contributes a great deal; t he gradual r ising and falling of t h e me lody in sma ll intervals, t he r epetiti on of similar phrases-all these elements give t he work a sense of wideness an d peace. The three main ideas are easily discerned an d they are all mor e or less relate d to one another. The codetta, too, is a transformation of t he second idea. T he development , the central section of wh ich derives entirely from the last bar of the first subject, gives t he impr ession of a bri ef afte rnoon storm; it is wonderful the way everythin g gradually comes t o rest on the F sha rp. Then a merry sunbeam slips in like a child breaking in on a serious meeting-but it stops, sud den ly frightened. T he idea is repeated in t he minor , t urns to the tonic major, and once aga in the summery magic fills the recapitulation. The simple te rnary layout of t h e second movement nee ds little com ment . Provided one exactly follows Beethoven's directions, staccato and legato, the idea of the movement will emerge of its own accord. Need less to say, the sforzandos in bars '3 an d ' 4 should not all be equally loud; in bar ' 5 the C sharp re mains sounding on its own . In t he Trio, the tempo should remain t he same; it should t he refore sound leisurely an d an alternat ion as E
65
FOU RT H LECTU RE
between horns an d a solo flute sh oul d be aim ed at. The tempo of the movement should be determin ed by the dem isemiquavers in bars 71 ff. The pp of the preceding and succeeding bars will greatly mod ify the strength of t he sfz. in the penul ti mat e bar. In the Scherzo see that the t wo quavers are separated from the following crotch et . The Trio offers an opportunity to play the melody wit h differ ent to ne colouring at each of its eight n ear-i dentical stateme nts . The last movem ent is founded on a drone-bass and has true pastoral cha racter . The final Presto should be played with brilliance, and non legato in t he final bars.
66
FIFTH LECTU R.E
I nterpr eters It goes without saying that an artist's int erpret ati on of a particular work is just as dependent on the environment from which h e com es as on the schools where h e acquired his skill an d kn owledge. Hi s personal feelings and cha r act er will also play a great part. But I believe the deepest in fluence of all comes from the example set by the great ma sters of t he keyboard. In wha t follows I h ave no intention of criticizing the interp ret ations of particul ar artists, I mer ely want briefly to describe t he m . As I h ave already said, there is a piano 'method' by Car l Czerny which contains many r eferences to Beethoven's .own ch aracter and performances. The Liszt tradition was prob ably based very largely on this. His edition was a rather personal one, how ever, and is no longer entirely acceptable. H e was followed by Euglme d' Albert an d H ans von Bulow, masters whom I h ear d m yself. Von Bulow, a m an of great wit, and a strong personality, h ad wide in flu ence at a time when the general musical public was st ill greatly in n eed of enlighte n me nt . Quit e awar e of this state of affairs, h e dispensed instructi on in his r ecit als by boldly underlining h is convictions. H e made a h abit of performing little-known works t wice in succession , notably t he great Sonata, Op. 106 . His edit ion of the Diabelli Variations is invaluable. Euglme d'Albert was more a man of t he concer t-plat form . His h ealthy and vigorous style of playing was an example t o us all. Casella represents t he modern musician, above all,
67·
FI FTH L E CT URE
the composer, and his notes are most in structive, albeit somewhat Italian in cha racte r . Artur Schnabel' s outstand ing intellect ual qualities make his edition of the sonatas one of great int er est ; it is a rich source of enlighten me nt, and if studied closely can almost r eplace the personal tuition of the master h imself. Som etim es, admittedly, h e goes too far, especially in his r equi rem ent that every t r ill, every pause, an d even a rest between two movem ents should be counted out. If one counts out every pause, all the spontaneity of t he performance may go by the board. Schnabel made t he deepest impression on m e when he played fr eely and as if in pri vate, entirely eng rossed in the spir it of the work. These art ists made their greatest imp act whe n they played not in accordance with an int erp ret ation all cut and dr ied beforeh and but when they surrendere d to the sway of their imaginati on . It is a pity that we h ave no edit ion of Beethoven 's sonatas by Busoni since h e was on e of the m ost pers onal an d absolutely independent of interpreters as is shown by the analysis of the fugue from Op. 1 0 6 in hi s edition of Bach. W henever I list en ed to d' Albert and other great ar t ists (R eger, Bartok) I often wonder ed how they ach ieved the ast onish ing musicality and inner logic of t he ir performances. I came to see that it was a clear awar eness of the harmonic progressions which m ade their playing so con vincing an d absorbing . No show was made of the ordinary course of eve nts, but whe n a true modula tion began it was significantly und erlined. They led us wit h a sure hand fro m one key to anothe r, from one sect ion of the work t o t he n ext, gi ving us t he impression of something t h at h ad grown organi cally . That may be wh at dis-
68
---------------------
THE THREE SONAT AS, OP. 3 1
tinguishes interpret ers who also compose from players who are fundamentally uncreative.
The Three Sonatas, Op, J1 These three sonat as, which wer e written in 1801 and 1802, represent a r ene wed search for the pianistic and creative possibilities lat ent in piano sonat a form. The gr eat diversity of the three works in itself is su fficient proof of that . While t he first is sere ne and almost Haydnesqu e in style, the second, in D minor, is demonic, and the third is full of j oie de vivre in so capricious a vein as we rarely meet in Beethoven. It is not easy for us to discern t he great progress from one work of Beethoven 's to another because we kn ow of the later development s. W e cannot forg et the 7th symphony whe n we listen to t he end, and whe n we ar e working at the C minor Sonata, Op. 10, we ar e unconsciously aware that Op. I I I was to come . Most difficult of all, perhaps, is to remember that Beethoven himself could kn ow nothing of the work s t hat he was called upon to create subseque ntly . That h e was seeking for n ew paths is clear from a remark which h e made t o his friend, the Bohemian violini st W enzel Krumpholz: 'I am not sat isfied with my works to date ; from now on I wa nt to take a differ ent road.' T hat h e was gr appling with t he problem of r enovating the sonata is also shown by t he r eply h e made to the publisher Hoffmeister who had con veyed to him a commission from a lady for a r evolutionary sonata on ne w lines: ' Are you possessed by the devil, the whol e lot of you, gentlemen- what, suggest to me tha t I should write
69
FIFTH LECTURE
a sonata of that sort ? At t he time of the r evolutionary fever, well, at that time it would ha ve been worth considering, but now that everyth ing is trying to get back int o the old rut, Buonapar te h as mad e his concordat with the Pope- a son ata of that sort? . .. Good hea vens, a sonat a of that sort at the beginning of this n ew Christian age-ho-ho! count me out of that, for nothing will come of it .- Now my reply, post-haste. The lady can have a sona ta of mine, an d indeed I will follow her general plan as far as t he aesthetics of t he t hing is concer ned- but I won't stick to h er key-sch eme. T he pri ce abou t 5 florinsfor that she can enjoy th e sonat a for a year, during which neither I nor sh e may publish it . When that year has passed the son at a is m in e exclusively- i.e. I can and shall publish it, while she can insist, if she thinks that this will r edound to her honour, t hat I dedicate it t o her.' L et us now look at the r ar ely played
Sonata in G major, Op , It, No . t First movement : after a dashing start, the main characteristic of t he movem ent appears: the anticipation of the left h an d by the ri ght. T he same pattern is r epeated in F major. After the dom inant, D major, has been reached, the pattern appears again in G, and modulat es to F sh ar p, the dominant of B, in which key the second subject is int roduced. A short codetta with a melan choly alter na tion of major and minor is r eminiscent of Schubert. The developm ent an d r ecapitulation are normal ; t he extended coda is particularly cha rming . I ts humour and delightful little surprises show us clearly just how Beethoven wished the whole movem ent to be conceived. Beethoven main-
7°
SO NATA IN G MA JO R, OP . 3 ' , NO.
1
tain ed his sense of humour, though it som etimes took a rather grim turn, t o the very en d. It is doubtful whether the piano at the beginning of t he movement is correct. I play it forte ; at any rate, Beethoven wanted t he third bar to be a contrast , as is shown by his direction piano. The second movement : Have you ever come across an old country-house in t he middle of an old-world park with a m urmuring fountain ? When the great venet ian blinds are opene d th e light floods into a world long since van ish ed-a world of faded carpets, furnit ure of all peri ods, with an old spinet and a smell of with er ed rose-leaves. The atmosph ere of such an old house fills one with nostalgia for a past in which there was still t ime to exchange sweet sesr ets with the flowers and listen to birdsong at event ide. This is the kind of feeling I get in the second move• ment, with its ornaments, trills and its adagio graziosomay Beethoven not have been lookin g back to the past quite deliberately for once? The form is A B A, A being in t hree sections. B, with its semiqu aver st accat os, introduces r ather more movement . It is import ant to play the orname nts of t he main subject very fluentl y and without too strict a met rical division, while th e bass keeps to str ict t im e. When t he opening theme, wh ich is reminiscent of Haydn's Mit Wii rd' und Hoh eit angetan, appears in the bass it must be played softly and transpar ently, not clumsily. The third movement is a che erful Rondo-the episodes are the D m ajor section which flows along in triplets, and the sect ion in the min or which is characterized by a series of modulations. T h e whole movement may be conceived as in sonat a form with the contrapuntal passages in the
7I
F I FTH LE CT URE
flat keys being the development .' In the coda, one m ust be care ful not t o take the bars m arked adagio t oo slowlyall that the com poser intend ed was an improvisatory freedom such as oft en occurs, lat er on , in Schubert.
Sonata in D
m i nor,
Op, Jl , N o. 2
First movement: ' R ead Shakespeare's T empest', Beethoven said when asked to explain the meaning of t h is son at a. It must be admitted, however , that th is remark does not h elp us very m uch- it merely tells us that nature's demons, wind and water, h ave a hand in this movement .
The arpeggio six-three chord of A m ajor r ises at t he opening like a qu esti on mark, like an improvisat ionthere is no start on the t onic, not even t he domin ant is in its root -position-everything is vague and u nd ertermin ed. Neve rt heless t his is t he first subject , just as the succeeding alleg ro bars with t heir ' imbricated ' m otif contain t he nucleus of t he second subject . To m ake the first subject , whe n it appears in definitive shape in ba r 2' ,
clearl y r ecognizable for wh at it is, the initi al arpegg io m ust not be play ed t oo slowly and the up permost not e must be given plenty of m elodic force . This will best be done with extended fingers. For the second subject (bars 4' ff.), the fingering 4-2, 2-5, 4-2 and later (for t h e 1 The customary term for Rondos whose central episode develops the first theme is Sonat a R Olld o. P .H .
SO NATA I N D MI
O R , OP . 3 1, NO .
2
broken dimi nish ed sevent h) 2-4, 2-4, 2-4 is to be r ecommended ; the latter fingering also in bars 13 ff. All these , imbricated ' figures must, of course, be played from the arm . From bar 22 onwards pl ay t he melody every t ime w ith t he left h and, crossing over t he r ight . The phras ing of the second subject is as follows :
-
- ~-- ~
but for the third time I suggest :
Similarly the first Allegro of the movement. R eferring to the second su bject 's seque l (bars 55 ff.) Beethoven said : 'The piano must break!' T he repeat sh ould be observed. The three broken chords at the beginni ng of the development should be played on thr ee differ ent levels of tone , the last in F sh ar p ppp . I play t he B flat in t he first triplet of bar 1 2 0 with t he right hand. Because of t he recitatives which follow t he m ain subject in the r ecap itulat ion, the work h as som etimes been called the ecitaLive Sonata . These passages should have a fantastic, somehow indeterminate charact er. On the mo dern piano Beethoven 's long pedal-marks are not always appropriate. I hold t he chords C sh arp-E-A an d E-G-C silently wit h t he left and use the pe dal as necessary for t he right h and.
7J
FIFTH L ECT UR E
I divid e the passage in bar ' 70, beginning already in 169, between t he left and right hand :
~ if
le f t
le ft
In the var iant (bars 189 ff.), wh ich it is possible t o play in octaves on the modern piano, I prefer Beethoven's version with the harsh D:
The final t wo chor ds should be played with great meaning and a slight emph asis on the interv al of the third in the upper part (inversion of the third at t h e beginning of t he movement). One feels t ha t the whole movement h as been striving after t he calm of these last three bars from the very outset. The second movement in bin ary form breathes an air of calm ; only the second idea with its drum-like triplets has a marching motion. The second bar should be played as an appendage to the first. The second subject proper, in F m ajor, which is m arked dolee, h as a moving, ch ildlike simplicity. T he dreaded demisem iqu aver-passages in the left h an d at the repeat of t he main subject can be given to t he r ight hand: t hat was, however, probably not Beethoven 's intention. Qui et concentration should overcome th e difficulty. Notice that in bar s 69 If. dup lets appear in place of the triplets. It is strange that the who le movement should consist almost entir ely of major chord s, whe reas the t hird move-
74
SO NATA I N E FLAT MA JO R , OP . 3 1, NO. 3
m ent is wholly in the m inor, with t he exception of two brief episodes which seem all th e brighter by contrast . Ther e is an interest ing story t hat Beethoven composed the last movement in t h e twilight as h e saw a r ider galloping past t hrough the mi st. P erhaps that explains the notat ion of t he left h an d with its im plied rhythm
wh ich r eproduces t h e fall of a horse's hooves. Accord ing to the sketch -books this rhyth m (or iginally with a str ing qu artet in mind ?) was the germ of the mo vem ent. Eve ry four-bar strain must be t aken as a unit with the em ph asis on t h e t h ird bar , as is confirmed by Beethoven' s own expression m arks (sfz.-aesc. -dim .). The form is sonat a form : first subject, second subject , development, reca pitulation and coda. Be care ful not t o play the movement too fast. It is only A llegretto-a light mist should veil t he whole scene in spite of a few passiona tely excite d passages. Beet hov en only wrotefftwice in t he moveme nt .
S onata in E flat major, Op , J1 , No . J One is incl ined t o exclaim : 'How othe rwise upo n me works th is sign! '1 yet h ere, too, the first movement begins away from the tonic chord. For m e the whole work has a feminine psych e, t ender, supple, fiery, qu ick, ch angeable, rath er capricious, even moody. The tempo must be determined by the passage 1
Quotation from Goethe 's Faust, Part I.
75
FIFTH LECTU RE
with t he t welve demisemiquavers in the second subject gro up. Reinecke already demanded that t he accent in t h e var iant of t he the me (bar 20) shou ld come on t h e first note:
T he h and should be lift ed off every t ime . The form of the movement is easily discerned. T he second movement, Allegretto vivace, is sometimes r egard ed as a substit ute for a slow movem ent. T hat is not t he case; it is rat her t he qui et , cantabile Minuet wh ich follows t hat takes the place of a slow movement. Despite the vivace, however, the t empo should be slow enough for t he dem isemiquaver upbeats in bars 4-3 ff. to be audible after the semiquavers in t he r ight h and . Nor should a graceful, sing ing line be lacking in t he open ing t h em e of the r ight hand . The sforzandos should only be relati vely loud. T he form is sonata form . Owing to the change of key, Riemann describes the passage from bar 4-3 onwards as a second subject . T o my mind, the new idea already enters with the previous fortissimo in F m ajor. Considerable t echnique is requ ired in t he left hand. T iny, light lower-arm movements seem to h elp here; the ma in thing is to be absolute ly loose. The change of fingers in the left h and in the closing theme must be pra ctised. Anyone who h ear d d'Albert play th is piece will not forget t he parl an do, the charm, the air iness of his playing- mid summernight's-dream m usic by Beethoven . The M inuet is warm and inti mate, and the Trio must be phrased with deliberation . It inspired Saint-Saens to wr ite a set of br illiant and witty vari ations for t wo pianos.
76
THE SON AT AS, OP. 49
The last movement, in sonata form, pro vides the virtuoso with a rewarding task. The open ing is, as it were, the consequent of a non-existent ant ecedent. It starts off twic e befor e it decides to be a real beginning. Both the beginning and the accom panime nt of the second sub ject in the left h an d should be played in a light non-legato style with det ach ed fing ers. The appear ance of the dominant of B flat m ajor in bar 34 gives me the impression of a second idea more strongly than the actual secon d subject, since the latter mer ely reproduces th e rhythm of th e first. Everyth ing must be exceedingly light and airy in this movement, and one' s enjoym ent of playing, of ' h aving a t echnique ', must vie with the t emperament and r hyth mic verve of the mu sic.
T he Sona tas, Op, 49 Th e sonat as, Op. 49, wh ich ar e also called Sonatesfaciles, ar e often thought to have been composed in an earlier period, or to h ave been intended as exercises for amateurs whose technique was not very advanc ed. No doub t Beethoven may have gon e back to early works as h e can be shown to h ave don e in the case of the sonatas, Op. 2; the well-known Minuet of Op, 49, No. 2, goes back to the Septet, Op. 20 . And as for Beethoven obliging an am ateur; it would be altog ether wrong to im agine him as a sort of Olympian god. He was not above taking an occasional hint fro m others, as is shown by the flashy violin part of the Sonata, Op, 47, written with a view to the style of Bridgetower, or by the easy piano part of the Triple Concerto, written for the Archduke Rudolf. It
77
FIFTH LECT UR E
would be wro ng , however, t o r elegate the two sonat as to Beethoven's youth and dismiss t hem as unimportant .' T h ey contain a few characte ristically lat e features such as th e transfer of the melody to th e left h and in the r ecapit ulation of No. 1, and t he coda of the same movem ent .
Sonata in G minor, Op. 49, N o. 1 The work consists of t wo movem ents. The first is in st rict sona ta form, th e secon d is calle d a R ondo. The ep isode in B flat is enclosed, however , by a little paragraph in G minor with semiqu aver accompa niment , pro bably int ended to prepare for th e key of B flat. This modulation " is unnecessary when th e episode re turns in G major , an d is ther efore omitte d.
Sonata in G major, Op, 49, No. 2 H er e, too, the first movement is in sonata form. The developm ent is remarkably brief. The well-kno wn M inuet ha s a lively littl e middle section wh ich is omitted in the r ecapitulation . The Trio in C maj or is on the short side. A compar ison with the Septet, Op. 2 0 , is instructi ve.
Sonata in C major, Op, ; J This sona ta was dedicated to Count Ferdin an d von W aldste in , Beethoven's first patron in Bonn wher e the Count
7~.
....= - - -- --
-
-
- - - - --
-
-
-
-
--- -
-
-
-
SONA T A I N C MAJ OR, OP . 55
was in the service of t h e Elector Maximilian , Beethoven 's employer . When Beethoven left Bonn in ' 792, Count W aldstein wrote in his autograph-book : ' Mozart 's gen ius is still mourning the death of his ward. In the inexhaustible Haydn h e found a refuge, but no employment.. .. Through u nremitting in dustry you sha ll receive Mozart's spirit from t he h an ds of H aydn .' It is puzzlin g t ha t ther e is no evidence of any furthe r contact between the t wo m en up to 1805/4 whe n this sonata was composed. In any case, Beethoven did dedicate one of his most important works t o the Count as a t oken of gratitude. T he wor k is possibly t he most pianistic of all Beethoven's works. It belongs to t he ser ies of works fro m Op. 50 to Op i 60 which r epresent the consummation of his art. Ev erything-contents, form, presentation, the pro portions of the movements and th eir interrelation-combines to form a perfectly harmonious whole. Later works re veal furt he r deve lopments and achieve greater h eights in one or othe r respect-but as far as t he perfect balan ce of all t he re qu irements is concerned t he works between Op. 50 and 60 r epresent the sum mit. The French call this sonata L'aurore, and the title suits it very well. T he first movement in particular has the r adiance of dawn, an ' aur a ' which reminds us of Goethe's ' Ganymed '; an d perhaps it is more than a coincidence that a bird-call in Sch ubert's setting of that poem re peats exactly a certain figure in this sonata. But even wit hout any such poetic interpretation, the work is obviously a m ast erpiece on its purely musical merits. It is r emarkable for the way in which logical development and organic construction produce just the ri ght emotional effect .
79
-
- --
-
FIFT H L E CT URE
L et us look more closely at the first mov em ent. It is important to re alize how novel, for t he period in wh ich it was written , was the introduct ion of B flat major as early as the fifth bar in a C major work. T his B flat is the subdominant of F, which is the sub-domina nt of the tonic. But perhaps Beethoven's m ain concer n was with the chromatically descendin g bass wh ich moves fr om C to G. The h armonic ground-plan in the exposit ion is determ in ed by the attainme nt of B ma jor, t he dom inant of E ma jor, in which key Beethoven introduces the secon d subject. Once again a case in which the second subject appears in t he key a t hird above that of the first sub ject . A figurated subject brings pianistic delights which lead to the theme of the codetta . This is not easy to play if the crescendo and the subito piano are to sound emotionally justified . T he crescendo ought perh aps to be combined with a slight broadening, tempo primo ret urning at t he P sign . It is this passage which gives us th e key to the correct t empo, which is usually t aken too fast, thus forfeiting all the poetr y ofthe small notes (y d and 4t h bar). The magnificent development, which leads us first of all into deep, mist-shrouded ravines, gradually moves towards the pedal point on G above which t he sun r ises with a thunder ing roar . In its way, this seems to me an exact ant icipation of Faust's Monologu e fr om th e second part of Goethe's work. A difficult junct ure are the bars marked with pauses, just before the end, with their crescendo and piano subito. Observe that the ritardando is written out in not e-values the secon d t ime, and the same formula ext ended by an additional ritardando th e t hir d t im e. But above all, we must r ecreat e the psychological impulse beh ind th is t hre efold hiatus with its alternat ion of A and A flat .
80
SON AT A IN C MAJ OR, OP. 53
T he second movement, which is ent itled Irur oduzione, is a substitute for the piece in F major wh ich was originally int ended but which Beethoven published separately as the Andante f a vori. Possibly his fr iends' objection t hat the move ment was too long was t he r eason why h e dropped it . In any case, we cannot, at this t ime , conceive of a more apt preparati on for the Rondo than this Introduzione. It is likely tha t the E of the left hand in the second bar was intended to be played an oct ave lower . Although Beethov en used keyboards with a very extended upper r ange from Op. 53 onwards, the last note in the bass was F, . The last movement is a theme montagnard. The first C in t he left h and is very impor tant. T he pedal-sign over the first eight bars can only be carried out with some cunning on modern pianos, yet it makes an essential contribution to t he t heme 'echoing from the mountains' . An extreme pianissimo in t he right h and an d a slight vibrating of t he pedal will give the effect th e composer h ad in mind. In form, t he movement is a strict Rondo, its only irregularity being the brief sugges t ion of the third episode before the first in A m inor. The trill again st the theme in the right hand should be execute d continuously. Only where the m elody plunges int o its G is a brief pause n ecessary. The t empo will be determined by the n eed t o keep someth ing in reser ve for the Prestissimo an d by t he clean execut ion of the semiqu aver triplets in t he t hi rd episode in wh ich the h and should be kept very relaxe d. In a wor d, do not take t he movement too fast . T he fact that t he Pr estissimo is r eminiscent of the du et o namenlose Freude fro m Fidelio suggests the kind of execut ion r equired. The octave scales should be played F 8I
FIFTH L ECT UR E
glissan do, which is often almost impossible on heavy pianos. Try playing the first octave very fir mly. The modulatory sect ion of the coda with its trills calls for loving devot ion. In accordance with its bright, silvery C major tonality t he whol e work will come off best on a light piano with a bright tone.
S IXTH LECTU RE
Beethoven's I nstrum ents When I try to imagine the conditions which Beethoven encounte red in Vienna when he arrived th er e in 1787 and when h e returned t here later on, I cannot h elp comparing them with the situation to day whe n artists find in most large houses an up-to-date ra dio and record playe r but more often than no t a t otally untended piano . Adm ittedly, it is much cheap er to buy a mod ern record player today th an it was to buy a piano in those days. In his young days, Beethoven would h ave found an occasional spine t and harpsichord in his fri ends' houses since people only acqu ire d pianos very gra dually . W e know that Beethoven was given W alter , Broadwood and Erard grand pian os and that h e owned Gr af and Streicher grands. In letters to fr iend s he waxed ent husiastic about the new inventi on of u na, due, tre corde, and illustr ations of his pia nos show up to six pedals. T he compass of h is keyhoards varied a great deal. Especially in t he second h alf of his life h e m ade alteratio ns in his works wh ich take into account the extended compass of the lat er instr uments. But t here ar e st ill many passages wher e a transfer t o the now customary h igher r egister m ay mean sacr ificing beauties which arose from Beethoven's having made a virtue of necessity. To make up for a literal transposition that was not possible for him h e ofte n in vent ed cha racteristic turns of phrase which it would be a pity t o sacr ifice. In the lower registers, too , the re are now possibilities which were not available to h im, but downwar d transposition an d octav e-
8}
SIX TH LECTU RE
doubling are not always an improvement. Such m atters have to be h an dled wit h good t aste and great discr etion. T he ear m ust always be the ultim ate judge.
Sonata in F major, Op. 54 Despised by some and ignored by oth ers, this sonat a is treated as a st epch ild. Unjust ly, however, insofar as it is a produ ct of t he m atur e Beethoven and his features ar e u nmistakably present in it. T he first movement of the work, wh ich was composed in 1804, is rem arkable for the abr upt ness of the secon d m ain idea in octaves. Many people criticize this for bein g a typ ical expression of Beeth oven 's offhandedness. I am inclined t o think t hat we should somehow adapt t his second subject t o the first which is, after all, entitled I n tempo d'un Menuetto. W e shall be more likely to establish the unity of the mo vement if we do not t urn it int o a m ere clatter of octaves. The form is A B A B Coda (A). Th e second movement , Allegretto, is a piece which , if well played, can easily hold its own alongside t he last movem ents of other early sonat as. The fact that only on e idea is developed in unint errupt ed motion is m ade up for by th e we alt h of modulat ions and the charmingly pian ist ic sou nds it produces. The first part shoul d be re peat ed, as dir ect ed; I omit the second r epeat. One may im agine on eself on th e bank of a river wh ich passes by in ch anging patterns, long, calm waves alternating with eddies-but t he element of water, t he symbo l of ever-rene wed life, is always present.
SONA TA I N F M INOR, OP . 5 7
So nata in F minor, Op, 57 When we study this m agnificent work we can not fail to realize that we ar e confronted with one of the greatest peaks in th e history of th e sonata and that a player must h ave attained maturity to present a clear picture of it to t he list en er. T echnical ma stery must be comp leme nted by the ability of unifying its vast outl ines by highlighti ng each climax. Much wrong is done t o this sonat a, and one need only ask a pian ist to write down t he opening bars from memory to see how few have an accurate knowl edge of the work. T he son et a appear ed in 1807 but the sketches go back as far as 1804. As to its incepti on , Ferd in and Ries records that he once accompani ed Beethoven on a walk in stormy weather during which Beethoven hummed and sang th e who le t ime; on arriving home, he improvised for hours on en d and t hen sent Ries home apologizing for not having given him a lesson that day. Beet hove n h ad the ma nuscript of the work with h im when h e was asked in Gratz t o play for the Fr ench ge neral for whom Cou nt Lichnowsky was giving a rece pt ion . Beeth oven l~efused to appear before the French (who had just marched in), went off in anger and , with the manuscript in his hands, got caught in a sudden downpour. Hi s fri end Marie Bigot play ed it from a manuscript t h at had been soaked in the ra in. The work was dedicated to Count Brunswick, the brother of Beethoven 's beloved Ther ese Brunswick. It is important to find the right t empo. Usually, the 12/8 is turned into four gro ups of triplet crotchets whereas what is re qu ired is t he dist inct playing of each
85
SIXTH LECTURE
of the twelve quavers. In this work every note is so significant, so r elated to the wh ole, that any indistinctness will lead to the gravest errors in interpr etation. The t empo should not be the kind of race into which players are somet imes misled by the t itle A ppassionata for which Beethoven himself was not responsible, though it was probably invented in his lifetime and is qu ite apt. I do not see t he point of slowing down on t he appearance of th e second subject t hough it is advocated by some dist inguish ed edit ors ; after all, t he second subject is mer ely a transformation of t he first . You should contin ue t o play in the t empo at wh ich you play t he first t hree quavers. In view of the import ance and t h e difficulty of deciding on th e ri ght t empo it may be well t o follow th e exam ple of some great artists who, before th ey begin, make a point of recalli ng some cha ract eristic th eme about the t empo of wh ich t h ere can be no qu estion (such as the horn-motif of th e Ninth). In th is case, t h e third subject in A flat minor (bar 51), wh ich R iemann calls the 'epilogue', is a good t heme to bear in mind. I find the power of this ne w idea t oo compelling to t h ink of it as a mer e epilogue.' That the re peat of the open ing in G flat (bar 5) must sou nd differ ent from t h e beginning itself is obvious; pp and a lead by tl\e left are indicat ed. All appoggiaturas should, of course, come on the beat. The habit of writing out or even thinking out trills in exact time is pedant ic. T rills and ornaments such as mord en ts and appoggiat uras ar e a t est of t he player 's own judgement. A trill is any numb er of repet itions of t wo notes: how many should be left to the player to decide. The same applies t o pauses: t hey should not be calculated 1 Strictly speaking, Ri em ann's 'epilogue ' is the tran sition between the second subject proper and the codetta. P .H .
86
SONATA I N F MI NOR , OP . 57
in advance. They are interruptions of the rhythmic pulse and have vari ous causes, meanings and effects. If the len gth of a pause were t o be m easu red, its aim , namely the suspension of count ing, would be den ied. Feel them, don 't cou nt them! The transition t o t he development is effected by t he enha rmonic change from A flat minor to G sha rp m inor; the latter is the relative minor of B m ajor which is the dominant of the ensuing E major. T he following phrases containing t rills should be 'orchestrated ' in differ ent colours. Ways of obta ining t h is are round or flat fingers, accent ing the upper or lower par ts, the use, or omission, of the pedal or soft pedal. At the close of the rising figures in bars 2 1 9 ff. the rhythm should be well articulated:
T he D flat in bar 22 8 should be played wit h the r ight hand. The fact that audiences have been known to applau d afte r the fortissimo chords in the Pi u allegro of t he coda is a sign of the ir ign oran ce but psychologically interesting. In spite of Beethoven's dir ection to keep the pedal down, t he last bars after t he fortissimo F (bar 257) should be redu ced, with the help of the soft pedal, t o a volume which allows the melodic lin e t o come through clearly. The second movement in t he solemn key of D flat major is in vari ation form. Notice the A ndante con moto
87
SIXT H L ECT UR E
but remembe r that this r efers t o th e qu avers, not crot ch ets, Most difficult is, perhaps, t he first vari ation whe re an exact alternation between quaver chor ds and rests in the right h and is confronted with the perfect legato of the syncopated bass. In the subseque nt vari ations the m usic r ises t o ever grander h eights. T he dem isem iquavers must be played expressively, though lightly and t enderl y. The ff wh ich is printed in most edit ions at the climaxes of the third var iation is not aut he nt ic. All bri llia ncy must be eschewed. The last variation becomes calmer and calmer. T he penultimate bar, with the dim in ished . seventh, r eally belongs t o t he previous bar (bar 95). The D flat in the treble of bar 96 should be played as a m elody-not e : A
"
1':\
., 'g .
1'!
If
~s
l'~
,
P
' d' ';'
-r
In the autogr aph, the arpeggio sign of the last chor d applies only to the left h an d. T h e unbroken touch of the r igh t ha nd gives t his chord its piercing int ensity. T he t errible relentlessness of the following bars should be obta ined by st abbing at t he keys with a fixed wrist . According to Riemann, th e last move me nt is in sonat a form. I rather r egard it as a R ondo whose first episode in C minor, though it opens with t he rondo them e, goes off in a differ ent direction. After the double-bar t he t h eme comes back in a stra nge h ar moni zation and then gives way to a second episode in B flat minor.
88
I,
SO NATA I N F SHARP MAJ OR , OP. 78
It is important to stress the an xiety inher ent in this subject . Beethoven's instruction to r epeat the long sect ion after the doubl e-bar is odd. It is never compli ed with , but anyone wh o ha s the necessary sta mina should try it , t aking the t empo allegro ma non troppo as directed and holding back his fin al r eserv es of streng th , and-this applies to the wh ole work- seeing t hat the whole body is r elax ed even in the great est bursts of fury. And so we leave this work, awestruck by such cre at ive power. Hi s first encounter wit h it must be an unforgettabl e exper ience for every musical person.
Sonata in F sharp minor, Op, 78
,
Beethoven himself stoutly ch ampioned this sona ta against the claims of the more popular on es. The dedication t o Ther ese von Brunswick sug gests that a great deal of deep personal feeling we nt into t he work, so much so, in deed, that R ein ecke thought it should always be played in pri vat e. I would not m yself attribute the comp oser's championing of the work to such purely personal r easons, nor to the proverbial fondn ess of par ents for their less successful ch ildren bu t r athe r to t he fact that it re presented a new style . Everything is in a state of flux here, cross-referenc es and allusions appear throughout the work, though the re is n ever any dir ect imitation ; everything is homogen eous, yet everyth ing is differ ent. Ther e is a meaning in every note wh ich we feel but cannot explain. For m e, the eighth bar of the Allegro is a concen tration of the t wo introductory bars-thus, one may safely consider the Adagio the first subject . In the second mov ement we ha ve t he picture of a h appy love, car essing and
89
SIXTH L E CTURE
con versing, until the piece en ds with loud rejoicing. The form is A A BA B and Coda (der ived from A).
Sonata in G m ajor, Op , 79 (Sona tina) ' Sometimes even Homer nods' , one is inclined t o say in r egard to t h is h ar mless littl e trifle whi ch is usually and r ightly called a Sonatina. But it is possible to extract poet ry from t his landscape pict ur e wit h its cuckoo calls in var iegated keys. The Presto alia tedesca is a r eal presto. The dolce in bar 67 proves that the h armonic cha nges of t he cuckoo-calls do not coincide wit h the four-bar phrases, in spite of t he p sign of t he bar before. T he new four-bar phrase begins every t im e at t he corresponding place. The leggiermente in bar 1 2 , and t he end of th e first movement, should be played lightly and playfully. T he second movem ent h as a melancholy air , of t he kind expressed in Goethe's "Sch afers Klagelied' . The first , fourth and seventh qu avers of th e bass-lin e should be som ewh at accented . The last movement, in rondo form, reminds us of the cou nte r-stat eme nt t o the first subject in th e last movement of the G major concerto. The first episode is in E minor , t he second in C m ajor.
S ona ta in E flat m ajor , Op . 81A T his sonata was dedicat ed to t he Archduke Rudolf, Beeth oven 's pupil in composition , and it bears t he au togra ph t itle : ' Das L ebewoh!. Rei der Abre ise S. Kaiser!' Hoheit
90
SON AT A I
E FLAT MAJO R, OP.
8 l A
des Ver ehrt en Erzh erzogs II.udolf. W ien , am 2 1. May , 80g.' Beethoven was indignant when t he publish er Breitkopf, with an eye on the international m arket, publish ed the sonata with the French titl e Les Adieux. At th e t ime, a wave of patriot ic feeling was passing through th e land. Beethoven was caught up in it and it led him to the use of Germ an tempo directions and of t he t erm H am merklauier . Duri ng the occupa tion of Vienna by the Fren ch the Archduke had to lea ve the city, an d Beetho ven wanted to express h is feelin gs of fri endsh ip towards h is m ost distinguished patron. L at er on, in cidentally, he reverted to Italian in his tempo dir ections. Thanks t o t he breadth of Beethoven's emotions, t he gri ef of parting and the joy of r eunion have acqu ir ed a universalihuman r efer ence and appl icati on in t his sonata, wh ich is an exa mple of t he kind of programme music of which Beethoven hi mself said (r eferr ing to the P astoral Symphony) : ' Not painting, but t he express ion offeeling.' I n th is sonata, too, we fin d the int er woven style which we h ave already m et in Op. 78. Once aga in, everyth ing is so int errelat ed t hat it even is doubtful where the secon d subject begins: if it is in bar 55 (bar 'g of t he Allegro) then neit her of the th emes begin s in th e tonic and t he treble is an inversion of th e main subject; but perhaps it is the espressivo passage of bar 50 (bar 54 of t he Allegro) wh ich r epeats t he main subj ect note for not e: we m eet the thr ee notes of the int roduction everywhe re . The clear B flat m ajor in bar 50 is m ore of a quiet contrast to t he m ain theme than bar 55; most likely, t his is the secon d subject proper. That Beethoven used t he notes G- F-E flat with conscious int ent in t he Allegro subject is shown by t he tenuto ma rk in bar , 8. The coda is particularl y t ender and poeti c. 'vVe hear
91
SIXTH LECTU RE
the posthorn vanishing in the distan ce and th e beloved fr ien d disappeari ng in a cloud of dust , yet t he r ealm of absolute m usic is never aba ndone d. The int erwoven style also predominates in t he second movement, entitle d L'Absence, wh ich recalls the introduction to t he first movement. It h as t wo t he mes of contrasting mood: a sigh of forsake nness at t he beginn ing , and then a consoling cantabile-wit h the left h and entering somewhat rude ly in stacca to demisemiquavers: th e staccato should be played in t he usual Beethoven manner , that is, it should be a r ing ing, not a piercing staccato; wh en Beethoven want s the har sh kind h e uses the wedgesh aped staccato sign . Unfortu nately this distinction was abolishe d by ni net eenth-century engravers. The m ovement falls in to t wo halves: from bar 21 onwar ds the first half is r epeated not e for note in an othe r key. In t his lament, the fingers m ust become spir itual feelers conveying the fines t tremors of emotion to t he listen er's mind and h eart. Aft er the introduction t o the Finale, whi ch sta nds for t he first embrace of t he reu nited fr iends, t here is t he difficulty of giving adequate expression t o the sim ple triads of the main theme. The movement is in sonat a form. Its t echnical difficulti es, specially t hose of the left hand, can best be overcome by using a loose ha nd an d loose ar m . T he joy of reunion should not be stifled by too much panting and puffing but expressed in a fr ee an d happy style of playing.
-~-----
--
-- -
-
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--
SEVE NTH LECT URE Tempo and Metronome In connexion with the subject of t empo and the obser vation of metronome markings I cannot h elp r em embering the experience of Beethoven's pupil Ferdinand Ries whe n he endeav oure d t o secure a re pr int of Beethoven 's Symphonies in London. H e asked Beethoven for m etronome numbers, wh ich the com poser duly sent to Ri es by letter. The letter did not arrive and Ries asked the master to sen d them again. Beethoven metronomi zed the symphonies again and sent the numbers to London. M eanwhile the first letter h ad arrived and it t urned out that Beethoven h ad given completely differ ent numbers each t ime . When h e h eard about it h e cr ied : 'Let us not have an y metronome numbers at all !' It is said tha t whe n Brahms was asked to supply me tronome numbers for the Intermezzi h e answere d : ' Do you think I'm such a fool as to play the m the same way every day?' W e h ave passed through three stages in the question of t empo . To begin with, the re was th e object ive and academic attitude which Liszt later r idiculed as pedantic and' Lipsian' . In the interpret atio n of Bach, in particular, it led to t h at dry professorial style of playing wh ich m akes Bach sound boring, and whe n applie d to the other classics makes them appear to have been constructed with a t apemeasure. Yet it is unquestionable t ha t a great deal of good musical liter ature has been based on t h is academic foundation, and it is certainly more pleasant to h ear an academically correct performance than -a babbling and stammering one lit up by flashes of genius.
9J
SEVENT H LECTUR E
Ther e followed th e Romant ic mo vement, the lat e, int er esting, beautiful, delicat e chi ld of the R evolution. Sin ce phases of development in interpret ation always com e lat er t han t he corresponding phases in the creat ive sph ere, we rea ped wh at the romantics Schuman n and L iszt sowed, beauty and fr eedom certainly, bu t also considera ble licence in the m atter of pedalling and t empo as well as an excess of emot ion . T hen came t he purifiers: Buson i, Stravinsky, Bartok, Hi ndemith , Toscanin i. And we interpret ers are now followin g in the ir footst eps. T he kind of performance we aspire to is one th at accords exactly with t he composer's intent ions, r espects the note-values and all the composer's directions, is stripped of all u nnecessary trimmings, bu t is not devoid of feeling and expression . Do not let u s forget , however, that it is im possible for the composer to put everyth ing in the score . Our aim should not be th e kin d of pu r e soil and st er ile air in wh ich nothing will grow. Without humus, wit hout bacteria, t here can be no life! It is all very well to exa mine the manuscript with a m agnifying glass to try and see wher e t he c of a 'crescen do ' begi ns, so as to per form it in accord ance with the t ext; on e must also have the emo tional capacity t o sha pe the crescendo in the way Beethoven int end ed. Fidelity to t h e score is not enough , vita l t hough it was t o correct t he subjecti ve and irr everent attitu de wit h its plush curta ins and dim med lights. Let m e quote, ther efore, what Sch in dler said about the playing of Baron ess Dorothea Ertrnann, to whom the Sonat a, Op. 10 1 , was dedicat ed : ' She divined even t h e most h idden int enti ons in Beethoven 's works as certainly as if they wer e in black and white in front of h er.. . . She appeare d t o have an inborn sense of rubato. . . . She gave a differ ent nuance to t he
94
SO
ATA I N E MI NOR , OP. go
ma in motif in the second mov ement of the Sonata, Op, go, at every occurren ce, somet imes flattering and caressing, somet imes melancholy. In t h is way th is artist was able to sway h er aud ience.'
Sonata in E mino r, Op, 90 T he int er woven style again predominates in t his work. Rhythms and motifs u ndergo met amophorses pro ducing patterns which differ externally but are inwardly related. L ike t he nymph who is turned into a laurel-t ree or a r eed, the divine soul lives on within the n ew form. Thus, the dri ving force in the first movement of Op. go is the rhythm l
which occurs all over the place, even in the transition to the second subject and in the second subject itself though there it loses its an acrustic character, going, as it does, from a strong to a weak beat. The melodic element G-F sh arp of the opening subject undergoes sim ilar changes, in the second subject , in the codetta and at the end of the developm ent. Bar 25 r esul ts from a combination of the rhythmic elem ent of the m ain sub ject with the beginning of its m elodic consequent. The form is simple. Whether, as Riemann thinks, t he second subject begins at bar 45 is open to doubt. Surely, the character of the mov ement does not cha nge until bar 55, and Beethoven's ritard. before bar 55 and the subseque nt a tempo show that the com poser felt that
95
SE VENT H L ECT UR E
somet hing n ew was starting at this point. Before t he recapitulation there is a t ra nsition skilfully worked by augmentat ion and dimi nu tion, whi ch it is qui te difficult to bring off. Even though t he second moveme nt is strictly committ ed to its rondo form , the interwoven style is still prese nt in t he developing sections and t he coda. It is splen did, the way Beethoven abbreviat es, twists and transforms th e th ir d bar of the rondo t heme until the very last bar where it reappears in its first shape . Such thi ngs m ake us feel that Nature's laws of organic growth are r eprodu ced on the spir it ual level- we are re minded even of the inoculation of plants by t he way a secondary them e is grafted onto simple, strong, primary material. T he sonata was composed in 1814 and dedicated to Count Moritz Lichnowsky, t he brother of Karl, whom we have already met. T he Archduke Ru dolf made his own handwritten copy of it. T he directions are only in Germ an . Billow ri ghtly draws attention to the fact t hat when Beethoven wrote ' Nicht zu geschwind und sehr sing bar vorzutragen' he was t h inking of the average pian ist's habit of rattling off all R ond os as if they were' Rondeaux brillants '. The t empo must r emain perfectly flowing, however , and in place of t he r ather ind efin it e and involved German words a better direction for the many n on-G er m an speaking players would be someth ing lik e Allegretto oantabile or a mabile.
Sonata in A major, Op, 101 Apart from the first movem ent of Op. 109, this sonata is the last in the interwoven style. The novel incorpor at ion
96
SON AT A I N A M AJ OR, OP.
101
of a fugue in the sona ta sche me is not a structural device, but aims at enhanced expressiveness. T hat is t he great difference between a Bach and a Beethoven fugue. Just as in t he I inth Symph ony Beethoven thought it necessary to introduce t he chorus in the last movement to giv e even grander expression to his visions th an the instrument al re sources of the other movements ha d enabled him to do, so in the late piano works h e uses the fugue as a vehicle for the expression of strong , concentrated emotion . W e sha ll return to this in our discussion of Op. 106. H er e, in Op. 101 , the form is still ra ther ope n ; but the way one thing grows out of another, the way the form of the sonat a is h idden, as the structure of a tree is concealed by t he foliage, the way t he syncopated not es become the' very pulse of t he work-all t h is is qui t e unique. The in timate connexion bet ween the movem ents is proved by t he r epeat of the beginning of t he first movement before th e Fina le . The whole piece should sound like a continuous fa ntasia. This sonata demand s everyt hi ng : lyri cal feeling, rhythm, absorpt ion and virtuosity . The work is only for mature souls and affords greater int erpret ative difficulties t ha n the Sonatas, Op. 109, Op, II 0 and Op. 11 1. On closer acqua intance we appreciate how well th e Italian an d German tempo directions sup plement one another here. A characterist ic of the first movement is t hat any feeling of fulfilment, of fin ality, is denied until the coda motif. Everyth ing r emains open an d undecided. The development resumes the syncopated rhythm we first find in the exposition. The best way to bring this out is to t ake pedal on every strong beat. The second movemen t, Alia Marcia , sho uld be play ed G
97
SEV ENTH LE CT URE
rather in t he manner of a string qua rtet. The independence of the parts lea ds to overlappings in t he rhyth m , which are not easy to negoti ate within the fixed m etre. The harmonic changes from the tonic F major to the upper t h ir d, A major, and the lower th ir d, D flat major; which re place the usual to nic-dom inant relation, also contribute an eccentric element . By such means Beethoven avoids over-emph asizing the heroic aspect of the m arch . Hi s pedalling in t he D flat major passage (bar 50) shoul d be strictly observed. The T rio--a canon-has a 'curtain' of t wo bars, as Ri emann calls those introductions which do not contain the fully developed materi al of t he subject . In t he manuscr ipt, Beethoven thought of inserting a re peat afte r bar lo- an idea worth trying.' The in troduction to the last m ovement-A dagio ma non tr oppo- should be played with t h e soft pedal-una corda. It is faintly remin iscent of certain melismata in Bach 's Chromat ic Fantasia. It m ust never be allowed t o touch the ground of r eality, so that aft er the quotation from the first movement the worldliness and earthiness of the fin ale may be given full vent. The free fugato of the last movement behaves very austerely to begin with , but veers r epeatedly into a mood of pian istic merriment. T h e form is sonata form, w it h t he fugue r epr esenting the development. The passage in bars 5 '7 ff., whe re Beethoven seems to st art the fugue all over again , is typical of t h e kind of humour h e shows in t he lat e quartets. It is am using to sense the relief of an audience when inst ead of t he strict fugato, h e suddenly goes cheerful again and finishe s the piece in gay excitement . 1 Good editions, repeat. P.H.
such
as
Heim-ich
Schenker's, contain this
E I G H T H L E CT UR E B eeth oven's Circle of Friends It is possible t o a large exten t to deduce the composition of Beethoven's circl e of fr iend s fr om the dedication s of his works. He dedicated Op. 2 to Joseph Haydn but the r elat ionship with him was more that of pupil and teacher. T he dedicat ion of Op. 7 to the Counte ss Babette von Kegl evics was perhaps already a token of manly affection . In Bonn , Beethoven was on fri en dly te rms with the von Breuning family which consiste d of a widow, three sons and a dau ghter . Whilst Frau von Breun ing tri ed to be a mother to him, and t each him good m anners, he became t he inti m at e fr iend of the daughter Eleonore an d left h e)' a page from his album on his departure from Bon n, Hi s grea t patron in Bonn, Count W'aldstein , has alre ady been m entioned in connexion with t he Sonat a, Op. 55 , whi ch was dedicat ed to hi m . It was t lu'ough t he Count 's good offices th at Beethoven came to Vienna and gained admittance to ar istocratic circles in that city. The P ri nce Carl von Li chn owsky and his wife gave hi m a cordial welcome, and h e lived for a t im e in their palace. The Prince' s brother, Count Moritz L ichnowsky, to whom Beethoven dedicated the Sonata, Op. go, was also one of his grea t admirers. Through the Lichnowskys h e was r eceived by Count Browne, who becam e a champion of his music; t he three piano son at as, Op. 10, were dedicat ed to the Countess An na Margarete von Browne. Beethoven was also on fr iendly t erms with the Brunswick family. He dedicated the Fantasia, Op. 77, and the Sonata, Op. 57, to the Count Franz, and Op. 78 to his sister Therese.
99
EI GH T H L E CT UR E
A few of his pupils also became close fri ends. These in cluded Ferdinand Ries who later went to E ngland to devot e hi mself t o the publicati on of Beethoven's works in that country. He also wrote the ' Biographical Notes ' on Beethoven 's life wit h W egeler. Car l Czern y should also be m entioned. H e was t he pupil who supplied valuable informatio n about Beethoven 's own int erpretations in his pianoforte m ethod. Since Czer ny was the t eacher of Liszt the interpret ations of t h ese two artists re present a dir ect line from Beethoven to us. Beethoven made fr iends with t h e m usicians at th e Court T h eatre, including t he violinist Ignaz Schupp anzigh , th e cellist Nikolaus Kraft, and th e violinist Georg Hellmesberg er and others. Among t h e singers who made a deep impr ession on him wer e H err Dem mer, who sang Florest an in Fidelio, and t he t wo women Henriette Sontag and W ilhelmin e Schroder-Devri ent, The latter contribu t ed a great deal to Beethoven's fame by her portrayal of L eonor e in Fidelio. T he letter s t o the Immortal Beloved and the m eet ing with J:lettma Brentano belong t o this period. Her lively spir it , imagin ation and enth usiasm for Beethoven led to a free dom in her conversation with him that was rare. H er main purpose was probably the desire to supply Goet he wit h n ews about Beethoven. She put letters from Beethoven into circulat ion of which the aut hent icity is doubtful. Goethe himself described his meeting with Beet hoven and summe d it up by saying : ' I h ave n ever seen a more concentr ate d, ene rget ic, ferv ent art ist . I can well u nd erstand how queer this world must seem t o him. ' It is not clear how much of what Bettina says about Beethoven is true but at least she did h ave t he soul of an artist and was able to divin e what went on in Beethoven 's 10 0
BE ETHOVE N ' S CIRCLE OF F R IEN DS
m ind and soul better t ha n many a stickler for academ ic exactness. Goet he and Beethoven did not become great fri end s because they were both such strong characters . The shrewd, wordly-wise court ier Goethe was unable to fathom Beethoven's t empestuous nature. I do not wish t o say anyth ing about Beethoven 's ' Immortal Beloved' because ther e was great doubt about her person ality for a long t ime an d the stories that were fasten ed t o h er are t oo fantastic. But I will m ent ion one possible explanation: the letter t o t he Im mortal Beloved was found among Beethoven's effects. It h ad t he refore n ever been sent. Is it not conceivable t hat Beethoven did not want such a beautiful letter to be lost an d kept it for himself? Beet hoven was caused great anxiety by h is nephew Karl and his u nsu ccessful attempt at suicide. Beethoven tri ed t o ful fil his obligations towards his family but he was too ignor ant of t he world t o do much good. It is well kn own t ha t the h ard of hearing easily t end to become suspicious. T h at may have been the reaso n why Beet hoven's circle of fr iends became smaller as t ime went on. His best fr iends ofte n had to suffer from h is suspiciousness. For exam ple, th e fait hful, though some what pedant ic Sch indler, whose task it was to chec k the t akings for performan ces of Fidelio at t he Court Theatre, was accused of in exact it udes in h is accou nts. He was only appeased wh en Beethoven called on him at t he Oper a House to apologize in person . Some of his fr iend s remained loyal to the end. Pri nce L ichnowsky woul d wa it pati ently in the ante-cha mber when he knew t hat Beet hoven was composing or improvising with in . The older Beethoven became the more his fam e exten ded and fore ign musicians came t o visit fOf
EIGHTH LECTURE
him, often making long and difficult journeys to do so, but these visits only made Beethoven t he more r eser ved an d withdrawn. At the t im e of the Congre ss of Vienna Beethoven celebr at ed great triumphs; the Empress of Russia instructed Pri nce Narishkin to present him with 200 gold ducats in order to secure h is appearance at he r h ouse, and h e also took part in t he concerts of the Austrian court. Yet how difficult it is to bring the general public to r ealize what they owe to the memory of Ludwig van Beethov en, we are still finding today. For example, it needed t he energet ic lead of an artist like Elli Ney, who is a native of Bonn, to bring the plan for r ebu ilding t h e Beet hoven H all in Bonn to fruit ion . L ooking back, one may say that wh ilst Beethoven's many fr iends had some idea of the greatness of h is personality an d made every effort to underst and h im, life it self- the circumstances of t he t ime, the wars and Beethoven's own character-s-oft en made it impossible for them to give him the kind of fri end ship he really needed .
Sonata in B fla t maj or, Op, 106 ( Grosse Sonat e fiir da s Ham m erklavier )
Publish ed in 18 19 by Artar ia, and composed in 1818 about the same t ime as the Ninth Symphony, th is is in disput edly the greatest of the sonatas, a fact which Beethoven himself expressed in these words : 'Ther e you have a sonata which will make the piani sts work, and which will be played in fifty years' t ime.' In fact , it had to wa it for more than fifty years: it was only at the end of th e last I 02
SONATA I N B FLAT MAJ OR, OP .
10 6
century t h at Bulow won for it the place which it deser ves in t he concert -hall. ' T he sona ta was written in dismal circumst ances; it is hard to h ave to writ e for one' s bread,' is another st atement of Beet hoven' s refer ring t o th is work. At t he time, the soles of his shoes were so worn t h at h e could not go out of doors. Liszt's re ndering of t he work is said t o h ave been the great est feat any piani st mi ght h ave been capable of. H e scored the Adagio for strings, and t his work was the last tha t h e playe d befor e his death. W eing artner arra nged t he whole work for full orch estra. In connexion wit h the dedication t o the Arch duke Rudolf, it is in t er esting to not e that there is extant in the library of the Gesellschaft del' Musikfr eunde in Vienna a sheet of music in Beethoven's h an d entit led: ' Kant ate fu r Orchester und Chor auf den T ext "Vivat , vivat Rudolfus " '- which coincides exactly with the openi ng of the sona ta . This version for choir and orchestra confirms u s in our opinion tha t Beethoven's metronome m ark of J = 138 for the first movem ent (and, in cidentally, also that of the Adagio) is wro ng, because t oo quick. It is u np leasant even on t h e piano to per form the piece at this tempo. In particular t he passage in G flat after the start of the recapitulation (bar 239) with its r ich h armonies
IO]
E IG H T H L E CTURE
is impossible at t h is spee d. The list ener wou ld fail to grasp the sequences and Beethoven's direction cantabile would be impossible to fulfil. But it would be utterly impossible for a choir to sing ' Vivat Rudolfu s ' at this speed. The main subject , which Br ahms imit at ed in his C major Sonata, Op. 1, contain s the essent ial germs of the whole movement. To elim in ate the difficulty of th e initial skip by t aking the first B flat m ajor chord in th e r ight hand wou ld m ean losing t he tension of this mighty lion-li ke leap . On the oth er h and, it is possible to play the first bass-note with the r ight h and. Sm all h ands may omit the D of the r ight h and on t he fourth beat of the first , and the F on the fourth beat of the third bar . Notice the pedalling sign from the beginning to bar 4 and the pause whi ch follows. The surprising D maj or in bar 37 is the dominant of G major, in wh ich Beethoven int en ds t o introduce the second subject . But befor e t his, th e h ands must glide and wh eel in per fect concor d over t he an gelic figuration of the transition . The small > signs in bar 76
an d also in bars 78 , 82 and 84 probably indi cate a slight len gthening of t he not e. T h e t r ill on t he G in bar 1 0 6 and the following bars must be cont inue d without a break. In bar ' 72 I play e inst ead of f wh ich is h arsher c c but seems mor e Beethovenish t o me! 1 Ma ny edit ions have G sh arp instead of G in bars 2 1 0 and 2 12 in the first quaver in the ri ght hand . 1 Yet cont rapun tally, th e F (contained in all editions) would see m h arsh er, breaking as it does th e symm etry of th e seque nce. P .B.
4
10
SO NATA I N B FLAT MAJ OR , OP.
10 6
Then follows t he famous transiti on to the r ecap itulation in which Beethoven writes A sharp in bars 224-6, thereby anticipating the B flat in the return of the ma in subject . Ma ny people t hink that all t he A sharps ought to be A nat urals, wh ich would produce the F major chord, the dominant of B flat . If that is so, Beethoven forgot the natural before the A eight t imes. This assumption is supported by a pr eliminar y sketch . P lausible though t h is m ay sou nd it seem s to m e quite possible all the sam e that when he came to work on the passage Beethoven introduc ed this crazy, concea led anticipat ion of B flat m ajor; there are to o many ha r m onic extravagances and m etamorphoses in this work t o r eject the possibility that the simple cadence of F m ajor to B flat m ajor see,?ed t oo commonplace t o him. In any case, it is hardly a matter of life or deat h, and a m istake in the t empo is much more ser ious than an error h er e. evertheless, this passage m akes the loss of the m anuscript particularl y r egr ettabl e. After t he r ecapitulation com es the glor ious transition t o G flat major which is lat er changed to F shar p major . . The second su bject follows, in t he main key of B flat . T h e coda re calls t he or iginal purpose of t he work : one can see the congratulators with drawi ng and hear their ch eers dying away in t he distan ce. The Scherzo wh ich , astonish ingly, app eared afte r t he great Adagio in the London edit ion , m ust glide swiftly past like a ghost. T he exact re petition of the not es is difficult and a m atter of keep ing the wrist loose, not of changing fingers. The Trio, which r esembles t he one in the Son ata in E flat, Op 7, must also gi ve a feeling of in sub stanti ality. The cano n concealed in t he tripletfigures of t he r ight hand sho uld not be emphas ized but should m er ely be allowed to glimmer through. The I05
EIGHTH LECTURE
P r esto, 2/4 par agraph is a modification of the Trio subject. The great F major passage wh ich covers the who le keyboard is, according to L enz, one of the 'three great Amazon r ivers of the pian o'. In t he coda, the conflict between B and B flat is an excit ing stroke of genius. A pause should separat e this movement from the Adag io sost enut o. T h is twenty-minute colloquy wit h t he piano is perhaps t he most beautifu l contribution ever made to the literature of our instrum ent . The Apassionato e con molto sentimento wh ich Beethoven r equir es seems to cont radict the mezza voce, but the contradiction is only apparent, since when we h ave someth ing to say that comes from t he dept hs of t he soul, we lower our voices to a whisper. 'The mausoleum of t he collective anguish of the world' was L en z's description of this move me nt; but it is in fact a passionate argument with God which en ds in submission an d humilit y, aft er the gift of h eave nly consolation has been rec eived. Metaphors and wor ds ar e only upsett ing h er e, how ever, and the state ment that 'Music begins where language en ds' is nowher e more applicable. , Holy peace, how beautiful, how glorious. H ere is God, her e rest to serve Hi m ,' Beethove n wrote in his sketchbook. The first bar was added by Beethoven at a late stage. It ser ves t o force the listener on to his knees . I regard t he m ovement as consisting of two sect ions, i.e., the whole of the first part (which inclu des secon d and t hird groups in different keys) is repeated. What com es between is not a developm ent but a cadenza in the n ature of an improvi sati on . A coda is appended t o the second r epeat. Its passiona te outcry, with the seven F sha rps, demands a break before the re -entry of the first subject. The subject should
I0 6
SONAT A I N B FL AT MAJ OR, OP .
10 6
th en be played quit e softly and r esignedly . The consolat ory passage, with the A sha rp pointing t o the m ajor, shoul d be played with particular gentleness. Despit e th e new ent ry of t h e first idea in the m inor, t he re solu tion which t r ansfig ures t he end has now t aken place. The t enths m ust be struck together, not broken up. The following aid,
t hat is, pl'aying the A sh arp with t he r ight h and , is bett er tha n an arpeggio, wh ich Beethoven r eserv es for the last chor d. T h e way Beethoven leads into t he last mov em ent is one of h is greatest st rokes of genius: leading t h e player away from the sublimities back to th e ear thly con flict of t he fugue, foregoing bar- lines, starting four t imes over and fina lly, after the gr eat outburst in A ma jor , attaining the F, whi ch h e h ad begun wit h as in a dr eam , establishing it now as the domin ant of B flat- all th is is psychologically ma gnificent . It is not possible t o analyse th e fug u e h er e. T he student should r efer t o Busoni's consu m mate analysis in . h is edit ion of Bach . The fugue is difficult to play, cer t ainly, but I believe that Beethove n's intent ion was not merely to write a fourth m ovement worthy of t he preceding music, but also to give t h e pianist a rewar din g task. But it n eeds a great m ast er lik e Busoni t o make us feel that the piece is well-written for the instrument. I 07
EIGHTH L ECT U R E
Most pian ists regar d it as a mer e contra puntal exercise and m an y musicians criticize it severely on t hat account. It was, in fact , in ten ded to be a fine-sounding piano-piece of great expressive power-the thematic work is merely the means to an end. W ith all t he inversions, au gme ntat ions, crab can ons, t h e fugue in D ma jor with in the fu gue- ' Stage on the st age', as Busoni calls it- and the collapse on t h e doubl e t r ills, Beetho ven int en ded t o convey a great emotional experience . Fr om the ruinous br eakdown of the last page t he opening of t he fu guesubject r ises like a phoeni x and we realize that this leap of a t enth h arks back to t h e beginning of th e whole son at a. And so, despite all t h e suffering, t h e circle closes with a positive affirmation . In this work, in one cre at ion of the spirit, a mortal m an h as portrayed and sublimate d all the facts of life, its ri gours, injustices, joys, its h eavenly consolations, t he t emporal and the eterna l, the conceivable and the in conceivable.
Sonata in E major, Op. 109 Dedicated to Maximilian e Brent an o, this sonat a was comp osed in ,820 an d published by Schlesinger in P aris. Once aga in, Beethoven reveals a new side of h is per son ality . The work has the cha rm and lu minosity of an old sweet he art met again aft er twenty years, wit h t he same noble featur es but spirit u alized an d more transpar ent. The tonal sequence of the movements is Major-Min orMajor . T he emot ional seque nce is Soft -Ha r d-Soft . T he opening of the first mov ement is not easy to play : the
J08
SONATA IN E MAJOR, OP .
109
rockin g, hovering effect must be 'described' w ith small arm movements. Finger tech nique alone will not obta in t he r equir ed effect. T he difference between t he Vivace and the Adagio is only apparent. The whole t h ing must be of one piece, like a good improvisation. Every note should be illuminated with a golden light. Bars 12, 13 and 14 are me rely a par aphrase of bars 9, 10 an d 1 1. All is me lody, not passage -work. The m an uscr ipt contains, again and aga in, the words ligato or legato in red pencil. The p in bar 9 is on ly over the right hand. I continue to play forte in the left hand, thus:
The developm ent should be played in one long, unbroken line. In bar 48 (91 bars before th e second Adagio) th e r ecapitulation begins. The movem ent is in str ict sona ta form , the Adagio espressiio being the second subject. It takes t im e for t h e many expression m arks to becom e so ident ified with the player's own feelings that they do not appear m er e lab els but part of an org an ic and absolutely inevitable whole. The chords in bars 75-77 are important. Insignificant though t h ey m ay appea r, t hey su m u p t he essence of what has gone before. Though the second m ovement is m arked Prestissimo, the t ime m ust be felt as a real 6/8, not 2/4 in triplets. Ev ery quaver should ther efore be given its full value. The
I09
E IGHTH L ECTURE
movement is in sonat a form , the secon d subject beginning at bar 33. The third movement is in vari ation form and r epeats the theme, this uniquely beautiful and sim ple song, at the end. T his conclu ding re peat shoul d be played even more t enderly an d with the deepest expr ession . The variations without r epeat marks ar e double vari ati ons. Below the last t rill on B, one bar befor e the fin al statement of the them e, Billow added an F sh arp and D sharp to the m elody on the fourth and sixth quavers. This is not to be r ecommended : the A shoul d lead t o the G sh arp of the theme.
lI D
NI NTH LECTURE
B eethoven Biog raphies T here is a great number of biograph ies of Beethoven. I should lik e to m ake a few personal com ments on some of them . It seems to m e that t hose by authors who knew Beethoven personally or lived in hi s im m ediat e circle are more authentic and alive t h an those which are mere scholarly compilations of the facts of his life and work. Naturally hi s later biographers had access t o certain sources wh ich were not available to h is own contemporari es. But .that is not always of decisive imp ort ance. The first writers who lived wit h Beethoven and m ay be considered to have been aut he nt ic witnesses of his life were h is fr iends Ri es and W egeler. Ferdinand Ri es was a hi ghly-gifted pianist and a pup il of Beethoven's in Vien na. He later li ved in L ondon, and in the last years of Beethoven's life ma de great efforts to br ing h im to London and find good publishers and suppor ters for his wor ks. T h e tokens of gratitude and the m aterial assistance which h e r eceived from London wer e at any r ate a great, albeit belated, joy to Beethoven on his death-bed. In co-operat ion with Dr. Fran z W egeler, a fri end of Beethoven's youth, Ri es pu blished t he Biographical Notes on L udwig van Beethoven in 1838. One of the most important witnesses of Beethoven 's life ' was Anton Schindler. L ater on , t her e broke out a bitt er conflict of opin ion about h im wh ich was evoked by Beethoven's own cha ng ing attitu des towards him. On his death-bed Beethoven himself was asked who IH
NIN T H L E CT UR E
was best qu alified t o write his biogr aphy as he conceived it . R e nominated Rochlit z. Joh an n Friedr ich Rochlit z was a well-known aut hor and as editor of the Allge meine m usikalische Zeitung in touch with every aspect of musical life . When qu estioned about th e pri nciples on wh ich a biogr aphy should be based, Beethoven r eplied : ' Only t he whole truth!' And in his opin ion a biogr aph y should not appear u ntil ten years after t he subject's death. Schindler kept to that and did not publish h is book on Beethoven u nt il , 840 . It is true t hat h e was a pedant, but h e was n evertheless a ge nu ine fr iend of Beethoven, concerned with the truth an d above all with fidelity to Beethoven's musical int ent ions. One thinks of h is pious collect ion of sketc hes for a T enth Symphony-in whose existe nce m any people r efuse to believe, since in t h eir view a T enth would h ave been impossible afte r the Ninth . All t he same , we do know Beet hoven's int entions: h e was aspiring in t ha t work towa rds a union of absolute m usic with r eligion. T h e most important of the lat er biographe rs was t h e Am eri can, Alexander Wheelock Thayer , who devoted his life and r esources to t h e writing of his work. It was edit ed by R ermann Deiters an d complete d by Rugo Ri em ann . Unfortunately R iemann used the work t o substant iate his theory of t he predomin ance of subjects st art ing on t h e upbeat; he also omitted to explain which par ts wer e written by himself and wh ich by Deiters. A new edition of T hayer's work would t he refore be very welcom e. For the rest, I woul d m er ely like t o sket ch the impr essions I h ave r eceived fr om the in nu merable biograph ies wh ich h ave bee n written since then. 112
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The biography by the Russian Wilhel m von L nz, written in t h e middle of the last century, is fascin atin g because of the very personal point of view fr om which it was conceived. Often over-exuberant, it is full of the true enthusiasm and im aginati on whi ch are cha racter ist ic of the romantic period in Rus sia, Adolf Bernhard Marx we nt about h is task of descr ibing Ludwig van Beethoven's Life and W ork ( , 859) with German thoroug h ness an d exha ustiveness; his book not only became the ma in source of information about Beethoven to my mother's gener ation (1858- 1947), but can still ser ve t he you nger generation of today, T he work of P aul Bekker ( 19 l1 ) is written in ap essentially modern spir it and determin ed by a completely differ ent judgement of Beethoven's music. The most significant quality of Romain Rolland's wri t ings on Beethoven is their poet ic force and the Fr enchman's insight int o Beet hoven 's artistic personality. Thomas-San Galli's biography is another beautiful and distingui shed work. T he most impor tan t of the I'OC nt works on J3 ihov n is the book by W aIt I' lliezl r. It is 11 t nl 0 vividly written biography but also take into 0 cou .u tit prob lems of form whi ch OCCU)' in Beet hov 11, Ilis oualysls f the first movement of the ' Ero ica ' is xemplnry. Oil will find h ere somet hing of t he spir it which ena bled W ilh lm Furtwiingler to be such a unique in terpreter of J3 ethoven's music. The them atic-bibliographical catalogue comp iled by Georg Kin sky, which was published after the aut hor 's death by Hans Halm under t he title Das Werk Beethovens, is a com pendium of everything one could wish t o know about Beethoven's compl ete works, and I sh ould lik e t o H
II}
NIN T H L E CT URE
end my little survey wit h a refere nce t o t h is book which contains exhaust ive details about the date of origin, autograph, publication, first edition, references in letters, dedicati on an d liter at ure of each work. Finally, a word about the books which deal specifically with the pian o sonatas : t he most important are Karl Reinecke's book; Theodor Pfeiffer 's Studien bei Hans von Biilow; Jacqu es-Gabri el Prod'hom me's Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonatas ; an d T ovey 's great work, A Companion to Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonatas .
S ona ta in A fla t major, Op , 110 Composed in December 1821 , without a dedication, at the t ime when Beethoven was writing the Missa solemnis. The ch ildlike simplicity of t h e main sub jects warms the h eart as 'on e re me mbers all the vicissitudes t hat the composer h ad t o overcome befor e h e could r each this point. If we call Op, I I I a masculine work, this sonat a is fem inine, though such descriptions do not go to the h eart of the matt er. The Adagio with the two fugues fore sh adows the 'Danksagung eines Genese ne n an die Gotth eit', fr om Op. ' 52. Beethoven wri t es ' Ermattet klagend' over the Arioso- ' Neue Kraft fuhlend ' , as in Op. '52, could be written over the fugues. The sty le of all three last piano sonatas strongly points towards t he last qu artets. In the first mov ement it should be r emembered that the primal roots of every rhythm are to be found in breathin g, the h eart-b eat, or the dan ce-step. T he only qu estion is, what are the rhythmic units ? T hey are t he crotchets h er e, and by r eferring the Moderato to them, we sha ll keep the tempo from sagging . Yet , in the final bars , every
II 4
SON AT A I NA FL AT MAJ
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not e must be given its utm ost value. I n th fifth bru f" on, t he end the opening subj ect app ears in th e left h a" I. The movement is in sonat a form, with a notably simple developm ent. T he Scherzo should be thought of in c-bar strains (4/4) with the accent on t he second bar. T h e Trio shows tha t the whole movement must be taken fairly steadily, so that the Chopinesque filigre e figuration in the right hand can ach ieve its full poet ic effect. The m ain notes in t h e left h and (D flat , to st art with) ought perhaps, ideally, to continue sou nding . In the coda, t h e chor ds fall on t he unaccented bars and t his gives a pleasantly comforting effect t o the fin al F major chor d which comes on a strong bar . No break should be m ade befor e t he next movement . Rubinstein used to ti e the last left hand F in t he Scherzo to the Adagio . Care shoul d be taken not to str ike the chord s in the left too loudly dUl'ing t he so-called Bebung (mar ked by Beethoven with th e fingerin g 4.-3). I n th e s miquaver accompa nim ent of the Ario 0 th le ys should not b com plet ely r eleased at all : the chords sh old b pa k cl as t ightly togeth r as possible. T h e sanglots intercoupes at the r epent l' th r i so (bar 116) must be played as sensit ively os possible, likewise the re surgen ce of the heart-beats in the last major chords (bar 132). T he second fugue with the inversion of t he fu gal subject presents the considerable difficulty of integrat ing the rhythmic augmentation and diminution into the context, and of developing the accompanying figure of the end fro m th e fugue subject . That the diminution is not exactly twice t he speed of t he first statement is show n by
H5
NINTH LECTURE
Beethoven's own meno allegro and the subseque nt piu malo.
Great int ensity of touch an d skilful pedalling are demanded by t he h igh -lying, radiantly transfigured melody of t h e end. Any acceleration in the last bars would be wrong.
Sonata in C minor, Op. 111 Dedicat ed to the Archduke R udolf, this work puts t he fini shing touch t o the colossal str uct ure of the thirty-two sonatas , and we find in it a sum ming -up of Beethoven's whole nature, a testame nt of his spiritual world which left nothing for h im to say in the form of the piano sonata . At least , that is how it appears to us poor mortals. T he two movements of this work symbolize this world and the worl d t o come . Thus, the r elentless figuration of the first mov em ent in which Beethoven expressed life' s h ard struggle should be ch iselled out with steely fing ers, whilst the Arietta, which r epresents the transcendental, sh ould be played with a touch so dematerialized as not to seem to be of th is wor ld. How is this to be ach ieve d? It is the spirit t hat creates for it self t he body to dwell in ; it is the idea that discovers t he necessary tech nique . Be completely conscious of the relat ive unimport ance of det ails; be conscious of t he eter nal laws tha t rule the stars, and then your hands and fingers will become 'Jlla gne tic' and conjure up a t ranscendental light from wood and strings. The first move me nt, Maestoso, should be begun in t he grand m anner. What was said about the dreaded leaps at the beginning of Op. 106 also applies h er e. Beethoven may h ave been aware that bars 11 and 1 2 (upper part)
II6
SON AT A I N C MINOR , OP . '"
contain the upbeat of t he first subject of the Allegro ill doub le augm entation . On the other hand, I cannot ent ire ly agree t hat there is an affinity bet ween the second subject and th e first, as demonstrated by Schenker (R iezler). In this connexion, there is also the qu estion whether the second m in im in bar 115 should be E flat or c. It is true t ha t the h armonizati on of the tw o par allel passag es is differ ent, but I think the int erval of the diminished seventh, existing bet ween bass an d treble in the exposit ion, is impor tant an d should recur h er e in the form of F sh arp-E flat. The Arietta in var iation form r equires a complete cha nge of attitude on th e part of t h e player . I n the first variation the pedal should be used so car efully that the cello-like part in the left h and can come thr ough qui te clearly. T he time signatures 6/16 and 12/32, alt erna ting with t h e basic 9/ 16, might suggest that bars 33 a n I ~,9 ar e longer , but the three qu aver uni ts alwn s ,. mnin t h same , in accordance with the subje t- w lt lit ,. lit or divid ed into triplets, se rn iq u nv rs, d rnis miqu uvers 01' hem idem isemiquaverso The section f rom bar 106 to 129 b tw 11 tit fOll tl, alld fifth variat ion (t he fifth is a doubl vuri uu 11 ) with tltu modulation to E fl at, in tr oduced by t he s v n J3 llnts ill the lower part in bars 112 and 11 3, should be mad to sou nd lik e an improvisation, preparing for th e great sixth variation. At the end one sh oul d be conscious of th e beginning of the subject and its inversion in th e bass. The t ie in bar 161 comes off better if th e G is taken by the left h and .
"Ve h ave come to the en d. It shoul d have become clear
Il 7
NINT H L E CTURE
by now that Beethoven possessed with in hi mself the creat ive power of nature h erself, Tremendously subjecti ve t hough h e was, h e ra ised the person al to th e level of the t ypical and the u ni versal and gav e u s an example of h ow it is possible in spit e of mat er ial an d human li mit at ions t o r eveal the eternal in the t empor al.
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