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| post | Origin of the Angry Piano [Beethoven] |
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2021-08-29 21:42:00 +0200 |
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!).
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!
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
It's a good thing there's so many of them - I'll be following this thread for a while.