Rosenfinger Virtual Concert Hall - Insider Programme 2
Mozart's and Beethoven's Sonata-Forms: some very
special structures
PROGRAMME
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Sonata K. 282
Antonio Tarallo, piano
Ludwig
van Beethoven: Sonatas op. 13, op.
90, op. 110
Fabio
Grasso, piano
Mozart’s Sonata K.282 (1774) is a fairly atypical
Sonata, beginning by an Adagio, that however has an absolutely complete and
independent architecture of Sonata-Form, though very simple, without any
introductory meaning (like the slow prologues of some Symphonies).
This beginning is in a certain sense a reminiscence of
some previous baroque macroforms, which began normally by slow movements.
Therefore the interpretative choice to play varied agreements in the repeated
sections appears particularly appropriate to this context.
The second movement is also tending to baroque, with
his Bachian alternance of Menuet I and II, two pieces with equal hierarchic
position, unlike the dominance of the fully classical Menuets or Scherzi on
their Trios; and actually, the second “enclosed” Menuet presents a dialectic relation between tonic
and dominant even more developed than the first “enclosing” Menuet.
Only the final Allegro has a typical form of the style
of the “young” Mozart, a perfect Sonata-form with simple and short themeatic
groups, and very linear connecting proceedings between a group and another.
Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart: Sonata K. 282. Antonio Tarallo, piano. Live performance
Adagio
Menuet I and II
Allegro
Beethoven's Sonata
op. 13 is the first Sonata with a slow prologue to the first movement. It's an
extremely important formal innovation, even in consideration of the use of this
Grave as introduction of the development and of the Coda: the permanent
integration of the introductory episode in the Sonata-Forms is a step
definitively accomplished only several years after the composition of this
extraordinarily foreseeing piece (1798).
The strong contrast between this Grave 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 invention of its
title, surely suggested by Schiller's writings.
After the placid lyric oasis of the very famous
Adagio, the pathetique atmosphere comes back in the third movement, 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
Sonata op. 31 n. 2, that you can listen in the Virtual Concert n. 1.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata op. 13 “Pathetique”. Fabio Grasso, piano. Live performance
Grave –
Allegro di molto e con brio
Adagio
cantabile
Rondò
Allegro
The opus 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, creating an atmosphere .
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata op. 90.
Fabio Grasso, piano. Live
performance
Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und
Ausdruck
Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen
The four movements of the Sonata op. 110 are indeed strongly connected in an unique and extraordinarily
unitary macroform. The nervous and sometimes bizarre figurations of the Scherzo
have to follow immediately the placid and intensely expressive first movement,
and they have to vanish suddenly into the sorrowful abyss of the first Adagio. Finally,
the genial alternance of Adagio and Fugue in the conclusive “macromovement”, slightly
remembering the alternance of Scherzo and Finale in the Fifth Symphony,
reflects the titanic spirit thanks to which the composer overcomes his
sufferings through the redeeming force of his art.
The Fugue is one more time a cathartic instrument of
intellectual and spiritual elevation from darkness to light, firstly with the
ascending tension of the fourth intervals, then with the impressive, dynamic
and rhythmic crescendo of the section “poi e poi di nuovo vivente”- whose
beginning by inverted intervals is preceded by one of the most effective crescendi
of the piano literature, in sound density and dynamics, as connection between
the broken breathes of the last Adagio and the subsequent resurrection.
Ludwig van
Beethoven: Sonata op. 110. Fabio Grasso, piano. Live performance
Moderato
cantabile molto espressivo - Allegro molto - Adagio - Fuga