29 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
29 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
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layout: post
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title: "Origin of the Angry Piano [Beethoven]"
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category: [Classical Ramblings]
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date: 2021-08-29 21:42:00 +0200
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---
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My latest classical endeavour is no other than Beethoven, who is unsuprisingly one of the very first composers I listened to (though not the one that brought me over - thanks, Rachmaninoff!).
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I've had it in mind Beethoven composed for the piano, but had assumed it was his symphonies alone that made him as famous as he is. *Wrong!*
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This time around I barged in from Chopin's nocturnes, which are already quite a long way from the big, sad string symphonies that awed me into Classical music (shortly after Rach's banger of a second piano concerto that is). Coming back to Beethoven's sonatas, which are amongst the first Classical pieces I've heard, now with much more listening under my belt - really feels like a sort of closure. Only this time around, I didn't just enjoy them - they *wowed* me to my core.
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The one that prompted me to write this is **Appasioneta**, *number 23, opus 57* (in *F minor*). Having already heard some very powerful, passionate piano pieces (Liszt's brilliant, almost alien piano sonata and Chopin's moving *opus 48/1 nocturne* spring to mind), Beethoven's is **mind blowing**. It starts off strong with an ominous phrase, and quickly explodes in speed and emotion - it is incredibly **raw**. I can't seem to grasp what exactly is it coming through - is it rage? sadness? power? or perhaps just unbridled, undefined raw emotion?
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In any case, it is magnificent. The way a single instrument, powered with a skilled, passionate player (the amazingly talented Igor Levit in this instance) can absolutely thunder through a room with a single instrument is almost ungraspable to me. Listening to the tempo pick up, it feels as if my consciousness itself is shaken - and yet, it's not just *loud*. It's not just *fast*. It is *beatiful* - amongst the flurry of notes there's something truly profound.
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Others I've listened to and enjoyed (yes, aside from **Moonlight**) are the very first one ( **Opus 2** , also in *F minor* - in just works!), the eighth ( **Opus 13**, **Pathetique'** in *C minor*), and the final, 32nd (**Opus 111!** in *C minor*).
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- The first, while clearly under Mozart's shadow, to me already feels very different - it just *works* in a way I can't describe.
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- *Pathetique* Feels like a clean glance into Beethoven's character - it is a flurry of emotion, at times anger and at times calm - to me it feels like him venting his frustration with a particularly annoying individual.
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- Finally, the last, 32nd sonata feels like Ludvig knows something we don't, and will never grasp - and we are simply spectators watching that... something unfold. Very profound and very mysterious.
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In the last month or so I've been straying from my Romantic symphonies heartland deep into Baroque and Classical territory - previously the two genres I liked the least by far. After studying and connecting with Mozart's amazingly flowing piano concerti (namely Opuses *20,21,24 and 27*), and drifting away with Chopin's nocturnes (as brought to life by the passionate Jan Lisiecky), Beethoven's raw, all-minor all-oomph sonatas really are a fresh wet slap in the face.
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It's a good thing there's so many of them - I'll be following this thread for a while.
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