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The Virtual Concert Hall

CONCERT 3

 

PROGRAMME

Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas op. 90, 13 “Pathetique”, 53 “Waldstein” or “Aurora”

 

Click on the titles in the right column to listen, or right-click and “save as” to download

Beethoven’s op. 90 is a Sonata without the central slow movement: the wonderful “Cantabile” (singbar), “not too fast” (nicht zu geschwind) is in the form of a final rondò. Its unusual narrative taste and its pre-schubertian treatment of the melody, after a first movement with dramatic but always moderate and highly expressive tones, introduce to a final section where a deep nostalgic sense seems to prevent the composer from taking his leave of this sweet line, that fades out very gradually in more and more broken interrogative phrases. If you listen to the final section of Schumann’s Humoreske, Concert Series 1, Concert n. 1, you will find a similar atmosphere.

 

Ludwig van Beethoven

Sonata op. 90

1.                   Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck

2.                   Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen

Fabio Grasso, piano

 

 

 

 

The Sonata op. 13 is the first Beethoven’s Sonata with a slow introduction to the first movement. The strong contrast between this section and the agitated Allegro is one of the most important factors that give to this Sonata the “pathos”, in “Sturm und Drang” climate, which inspired the creator of its title. After the placid lyric oasis of the very famous Adagio, the pathetique atmosphere comes back in the third, but with slightly attenuated colours and a sort of more resigned feeling. That is not so different from the relation between the first and the third movement of the “Storm Sonata” op. 31 n. 2, that you can listen in Concert Series 1, Concert n. 2

 

Ludwig van Beethoven

Sonata op. 13 “Pathetique”

1.    Grave – Allegro di molto e con brio

2.    Adagio cantabile

3.    Rondò Allegro

Fabio Grasso, piano (live)

 

The op. 53 presents one of the most bright and clear atmospheres that we can find in the entire corpus of the Sonatas. Both in the first and in the couple second-third movement Beethoven looks for whispering timbres of the piano, to create by contrasts and crescendos sudden joyful explosions of light. In a website called Rosenfinger it was a must to insert this “Aurora” Sonata, even because our name is inspired by the vertiginous beauty of the beginning of the final Rondò. Here it seems that Beethoven had in mind the homeric description of the rose-fingered Aurora that rises on the Ocean, with its gleam at first doubtful, that becomes soon a wonderful daylight. Only a genious can write such a succession of harmonies of tonic and dominant, and ask for the interpreter to keep down the pedal for the entire passage, in order to obtain an effect of surprising harmonic “morning twilight”, in spite of the numerous obtuse objections that the contemporary critics moved to him about this point. It is duty of the interpreter to avoid an harmonic mess, through an absolutely refined use of the fingers – not percussions, but caresses on the keyboard, just like a “rosen-finger”.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Sonata op. 53 “Aurora” / “Waldstein”

  1. Allegro con brio
  2. Adagio molto – Rondò Allegretto moderato

Fabio Grasso, piano (live)

 

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