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BEETHOVEN'S
PIANOFORTE SONATAS
A Guide for St udents & Amateurs
by
E DW IN FISCHER.
Translat ed by
STANLEY G ODMAN
unth the collaboration of
PAUL IIAMDUI\ GEII
FADER AND FABER
24. Russell Square
London
Fir-st published in mcmlix
by Faber and Faber L imited
24 Russell Square, London, W .e. 1
Print ed in Great Britain by
Western Printing Services Limited, Bristol
All rights reserved
This edition Faber and Faber Limited 1959
Originally published by I NSEL- VERLAG,
WIESBADEN, under t he ti tle :
Ludwig van Beethouens Klauiersonat en
TO
THE MEMORY
OF MY MOTHER
CO T E NTS
INT RODUCTI ON page 15
FIRST LECTURE 15
Beethoven's Pi anoforte Sonatas
The 5 Sonatas, Op. 2 19
Sonata in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1 19
Sonata in A major, Op, 2, No. 2 22
Sonata in C major, Op. 2, No. 5 25
SECOND L E CT U RE 29
Beethoven's Piano Playing
Sonata in Eflat major, Op. 7 55
Sonata in C minor, Op , 1 0 , No. 1 55
Sonata in F major, Op, 1 0 , No. 2 58
Sonata in D major, Op. 10, No. 5 59
THIRD LECTURE 4 2
On Pract ising
Sonate pathetique in C minor, Op. 15 46
Sonata in E major, Op. 14, No. 1 48
Sonata in G major, -o. 14, No. 2 50
Sonata in B flat major, Op. 22 5 1
FOURTH LECTURE 54
Beethove n's Personality
Sonata in A flat major, Op, 2 6 58
Sonata in Eflat major, Op. 27, No. 1 6 0
Sonata in C sharp minor , Op. 2 7 , N o. 2 6 2
Sonata in D major, Op. 28 64
9
CONTENTS
FIFTH LE CT URE page 67
Int erpret ers
The 5 Sonatas, Op. 5' 69
Sonata in G major, Op. 5', No. 1 7
0
Sonata in D minor, Op, 5', No. 2 7
2
Sonata in Ejlat major, Op. 5', No. 5 75
The Sonatas, Op. 49 77
Sonata in G minor, Op, 49, No. 1 7
8
Sonata in G major, Op, 49, No. 2 7
8
Sonata in C major, Op, 55 79
SIXTH LECTURE 85
Beethoven's I nstr uments
Sonata in F major, Op, 54 84
Sonata in F minor, Op. 57 85
Sonata i n F sharp major, Op. 78 89
Sonatina in G major, Op. 79 9
0
Sonata in Eflat major, Op. 8lA 9
0
SEVENTH LE CT UR E 95
Tempo and Metronome
Sonata in E minor , Op. 9
0
95
Sonata in A major, Op, 101 9
6
EIGHTH LE CTURE 100
Beethoven's Circle of Fr iends
Sonata in B flat major, Op. 106
10
5
Sonata in E major, Op. 109
10
9
NINTH LECTURE
Beethoven Biographi es
Sonata in A flat major, Op. 11 0
Sonata in C minor, Op. I II
IQ
11 2
ILLUSTR. ATIONS
Ludwig van Beethoven. From an engraving by
Blasius Hofel after the dr awing by Loui s
Letron ne ( 1814) frontispiece
The beginning of the third movement of t he
Sonata, Op, 27, No. 2, in Beet hoven's hand-
writing f acing page 64
Beethoven's Broadwood Grand Piano
The openihg of the Sonata, Op. 111, in Beet-
hoven's handwrit ing 112
Acknowledgment is made to the I nsel-Ferl ag
f or supplying these illustrations which
appeared in their edition of this book.
II
INTR.ODUCTION
In st udying Beethoven 's piano sonatas one encounters
difficulti es, questions 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 our-
selves wit h matters of t echnique, form, harmony and
text ual cr it icism; but the main requirement is an under-
st anding of t he artistic cont ent. A careful study of t hese
works will transform us, for Beethoven will become our
t eacher, and lead us to develop our own personalities and
characters.
With 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 hat course. The analysis of each gr oup of sonat as
is preceded by an introduction on some general t he me.
These informal talks make no claim to scholarly com-
plet eness or significance. They ar e thoroughly personal,
and if they serve as a r eminder of the beautiful summer
in which they originat ed I shall be content.
I}
FIRST LECTURE
Beethoven's Pianofort e Sonatas
Ludwig van Beethoven's work has the quality of true
greatness. What worlds he traversed from hi s simple be-
ginnings to the sublimat ion that he achieved at the close
of his life's struggle! None of us coul d bear the strain of
the t ensions that hi s spir it was able to endure. We have
the result of these str uggles before us and we can only
say : The sound is a refl ection of the life.
His piano works- 32 sonat as, 6 concertos, 1 triple-
concerto, numerous sets of vari ations, works for piano and
strings, piano and woodwind, fantasias and miscellaneous
small pieces-const itute a major part of his life' s work.
Proceeding, to begin with, from Johann Christian and
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, he touches the world of
Mozart, absorbs a good measure of Haydn and Clement i,
reaches a culminating point in Opp. 53 and 57, and then
moves increasingly int o transcendental spheres . On one
occasion he reveals the future to us-in t he 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 ime.
If, in his beginnings, sheer delight in the resources of
the piano predominates, lat er on the inter est in str uct ur e
and symphonic form becomes more and more evident.
With Opp, 27 and 31 a more romantic, 'piani stic' , trend
merges once more, bringing with it a freer treatment of
form. These sonatas in fant asia style also introduce t he
greatest adva nces in the harmonic sphe re. Thereafter
15
FIRST LECTURE
Beethoven uses all manner of forms, orchestral, var iati on,
even fug ue, t o aid him in the portrayal of hi s visions;
we have now those magnificent contests between Beet -
hoven's personality and t he worl d, those demonstrat ions
of hi s creat ive will . This phase, in t urn, is followed by an
urge t o wri t e more and more simply. In the childlike
t hemes which he uses in Opp. 1 0 9 , 11 0 and 11 1 he now
achieves the ideal of symbolizing the highest in t erms of
the greatest simplicity. What was, at t he outset , the ex-
pression of a personal faith, is transformed into an expres-
sion of et ernal, universal t r uth. His r eturn from orchestral
writing to t he str ing quartet is a t oken of this develop-
ment .
This journey from the vir tuoso, through t he creator ,
t o the seer and mystic has been divided into three periods.
Li szt called t hem: the adolescent; t he man ; the god. Hi s
piano style, in its technical aspect , also passes t hrough
t hese phases, and it woul d be a r ewarding t ask in itself t o
st udy t hese tra nsformat ions ; to demonstrat e 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 accompanimental patterns expand, be-
coming increasingly individual and inst inct with expres-
sion; how pedalling becomes mor e different iat ed; until in
the final works t he form, purged of all purely pianist ic
eleme nt s, becomes a mirror of ultimate spirit ual insights.
At this point I would like to r efer briefly to Beethoven's
deafness. No doubt it was extre mely inhibit ing in his
intercourse wit h people and made him suspicious and mis-
trustful. No doubt there wer e moments when one woul d
have been glad for him to have been able to enjoy t he full
impact of sound. Yet her e if anywhere is evidence t hat
the spir it hast ens on in advance of the world of matter . It
I6
BEETHOVEN'S PIANOFORTE SONATAS
is not true t hat Beethoven's final works do not sound well.
There could be no better way of writ ing down what he
int ended to express. One realizes 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, and he heard every-
t hing in hi s mind exactly as it sounds to us wit h our
undiminished hearing.
What is it that distinguishes Beet hoven's work from
other styles, for inst ance that of the Romanti c school? It
is the symphonic element, the organic growth of his
forms. There is, with hi m, no mere juxt apositi on of beau-
t iful musical ideas, nor a spinning-out of atmospheric
moods. Hi s works are built , as it were, stone upon stone-
each based on the one below and bearing the weight of
the one above. Every bar, every sect ion acquires its full
meaning only in relation to t he whole work. Such is t he
work's architecture that every element has full signifi-
cance only at , and by virtue of, the place where it occurs.
There is no unnecessary repetition, no empty rhetoric.
It is this relationship of every note to the whole, t his
inner logic, t hat gives such delight and such strength and
comfort, above all to the masculine spirits among us.
Beethoven appeals t o the list ener's sense of logical con-
struct ion. He achieves hi s consistency, hi s organic growth,
hi s sureness of aim by a supreme int ellectual discipline.
How much he eliminated, abbreviate d, simplified and
refined! Strictly speaking, here is proof of his moral
stamina . This struggle with his daemon, this repudiation
of cheap effects, t hi s r estraint and renunciat ion and con-
trol of his instincts is a revelation of hi s true moral great-
ness.
There is, however , more in Beet hoven t ha n r eason and
B I7
FlI\ ST LECTURE
will. The uncon cious also plays its par t . Who can .r ival
hi s pow l ' of evoking, wit h a few chords, hi gh solemnity
and a s nse of r eligious awe? He translat es fundamental
human emotions int o sound, and it is best t o let the how
and why r emain his secret .
Now a wor d about performance. It will always be a
problem so long as t he player 's own personality is not at
one with Beethoven's. It is unlikely, however , that the
average piani st will ever be able to identify himself com-
pl et ely with t he immortal master, that is to say, at t ain
the same heights of sublimity. It is also impossible to enter
fully into Beethoven's every emot ional experience. Since
it is only possible to expound and communicate t o ot hers
what one has exper ienced oneself, albeit intuitively, Beet -
hoven' s work r equires for it s adequate performance a full
man, a life of exper ience.
Ther e ar e two dangerous paths open to t he int erpr et er:
one consists of using Beet hoven's language t o express his
own passions and 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 Charybdis,
avoidi ng on t he one hand an extr avagant portrayal of
oneself through the music, and on the other, t he dangers
of an excess of t errified respect for the ' letter' of the
music.
The most helpful counsel one can give is thi s: ' Love
him and his work, and you will inevitably become his
serva nt and int erpret er and yet r emai n yourself. Your
energy, yom war mth and your love will kindle hi s
energy, his spirit and his love in t he hear ts of men and
make them shine t her ein.'
18
SONATA I N F MINOR, OP. 2 , NO. 1
The Three Sonatas, Op, 2
These three sonat as . wer e composed in ' 795, in Beet-
hoven' s t wenty-fifth year . They were certainly pr eceded
by other works besides those dedicat ed t o t he El ector
Maximilian Frederick and composed when Beet hoven was
twelve years old, for such mastery of form as is found in
Op. 2 is not achieved by a sudden bolt from t he blue. In
connexion with t he dedicat ion to Joseph Haydn there is
a story that Haydn woul d have liked Beet hoven t o have
had it engraved as follows: ' Dedicat ed to his teacher
Joseph Haydn by hi s pupil Ludwig van Beethoven ' but
Beethoven.r efused to accept t he suggestion and preferred
to leave it at: ' Dedicated t o Joseph Haydn.'
Sonata in F minor, Op, 2, No. 1
This work is oft en called t he ' litt le Appassionata', probably
because it has t he same key as Op. 57 and because t he
last movement s, wit h their uninterrupt ed figw'ation and
excit ement, r esemble each other . The,for m of the open-
ing movement has an exemplary conciseness. Beet hoven
copied t he first subject (bars 1-19) fr om Mozart's littl e
G minor symphony (K. " 9). The subject also has an
affinity with t he last movement of lVlozart's great G
minor symphony.
The second subject (bars 20-40) is in the relative major
key and approximates an inversion of t he first subject .
The coda is marked con espressione.
In t his sonata we alr eady find t wo outstanding charac-
I9
FIR T LECTURE
t eri tics of Beethoven's style : the sforzandos and t he sud-
den pi anissimos. The sforzandos must always be adjusted
to the prevailing volume and t o the char 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 movement as one would in a
heroic work; Beethoven is said, whe n playing himself, to
have often emphasized the sforzandos by a slight rhyth-
mi c delay. The sf-sign fr equently refers not to the whole
chord but only to one not e, usually a dissonance or a
sustained bass-note.
The development is alr eady concentrat ed, in the typical
Beethoven manner. The r ecapitulat ion (bars 109 ff.) intro-
duces t he second subject in t he main key of F minor.
The actual coda is extended by five bars closing the t erse
movement with sforzandos.
The average player is faced wit h two difficul ties at this
stage: first, t he tied notes against t he simultaneous
staccato of t he other part in the brief sequel to t he main
theme (bars 11 ff.) and secondly, the final chor ds. Here the
player must realize that t here are two possible ways of
attacking the chords: either by playing them int o the
keys and upwards, or away from the keys and out war ds.
The former corresponds to t he violinist's upbow, the
latter to hi s downbow. Quit e dist inct effects can be ob-
tained by the use of these two kinds of movement and
they alone can give plasticity to certain phrases.
The first version of the second movement is t o be found
in a pi ano-quartet dati ng from t he year ' 785, when Beet -
hoven was fift een; only t he tr io-like D minor sect ion is
missing t her e. It is instructi ve to see how, after an inter-
val of t en years , Beethoven improved and enriched t he
melody. There is a modest simplicity about t his movement
wit h its re miniscences of C. P. E. Bach and Mozart, The
20
SONAT A I N F MI TOR, OP. 2, O. I
limpid colour of it s F maj or r equires round fingers and a
fine sense of phrasing, and fluency i n t he execut ion of the
exquisite fioriture.
The t hird movement is a genuine minuet, to be pl ayed
qui etl y and 'in t he style of a dance. The' cer ulea n ' Trio
needs a perfect legato. Riemann has demonstrat ed that
rest s have great expressive power- but one has to feel
them, to know whether they ar e breathing in or out-
whether t hey signify the end or whether they are the
empty space bet ween two columns surmounted by t he
arch of a melody. Our attention is usually direct ed far
mor e towards the not es than the silence- but the one
conditions t he other, and t he clear and precise t ermina-
t ion of a chord is just as important as its beginning.
The presnssimo fourth move ment is a wild nocturnal
pi ece full of shar p contrasts . I t appears t o me to be
in sonat a form, the development beginning with a great
cantilena which must be played with t he same excite-
ment as fills the whole movement.
The movement is disproportionat ely difficult, the left-
hand figure at the beginning making demands whi ch we
do not encounter again until Chopin's ' Re volutionary '
Study. The import ant thing 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.
2 I
FIRST LECTURE
Sonata in A major, Op, 2, No. 2
This sonata, having t he ail' of a bri ght spring day, pro-
vides a great contrast to No. 1 and No. 3 of this opus.
The looseness of the t exture, which is evident in the
many r ests, the exuberance and cheerfulness of the piece
show that Beet hoven was capable of happiness as well as
sorrow. In particul ar, the Scherzo and the last movement
have a charm which should be evoked by a corresponding
li ght ness and grace in the performance, as well as by the
ease of the pl ayer 's attitude. For we list en with our eyes
as well as our ears, and t he artist must not convey t he
slightest hint of difficulty or exer tion in the performance
of this work.
The construction of the first movement is normal; the
second subject begins in t he dominant minor ; the de-
velopment modulat es 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
major, it is curious that Beethoven wanted the second
sect ion r epeat ed as well . Nor mally, t his repeat is not
played.r
Now to the general question 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 dancers. Even in Haydn and Mozart
t here is often no psychological reason for a repeat. It is not
1 Thi s r epet it ion, found in some edit ions, 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 exposit ions 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
psychologically necessary and where it would be mer ely
pedant ic. One nee d not subscribe t o t he naivety of one of
my teachers who said to me: ' If it went all ri ght, Fischer,
then thank God, and go on.'
There are, however, other considerations to be borne in
mind, not necessar ily of a purely artistic nature. Some-
ti 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, however ,
the execut ion of repeats may further the general impres-
sion. The r epeats in Opp. 2 , 7, 10, 14 and 22 may well be
omitted, wher eas in the lat er sonat as there is somet imes
an obvious psychological case for a r epeat , for instance in
Op. 1 0 6 wher e the omi ssion of the r epeat would rob us of
the beautiful lead-back. What composers themselves
sometimes think about r epeats is evident fr om a r emark
which Brahms made to a young musician who was sur-
pri sed that in a performance conducted by t he composer
himself t he exposit ion of t he first movement of t he
Second Symphony was not r epeat ed. 'Earli er on, ' Brahms
told him, ' whe n the work was new to audi ences, the
r epeat was necessary; nowadays it is so well known that I
can proceed without it .'
To 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 crotchet afte r the demisemiquavers, in the second bar.
The holding of this note gives the figur e a differ ent
character from what it had at the beginni ng of the
2}
FIRST LECTURE
movement : it becomes an answer . This int erpret ati on is
confirmed in the development.' The t urns of the second
subject should be played on B, C and D, not C sharp and
D sharp, since these notes woul d weaken the subseque nt
octaves. The fingering which Beethoven prescribes for
the semiquaver t r iplets shows t hat he had an unusually
wide stretch," and also that the llgw'e shoul d be played
melodically, not in a virtuoso style. Many people, how-
ever , will find this fingering impossible.
The Largo appassionato is a movement that invites
orchestrati on; but the trombone-like lines in the ri ght
hand and the doubl e-bass pizzicati of the left can also be
r eproduced on the piano. The movement is in compound
binary form, with t wo episodes and a coda. A well-
maint ained rhythm will give t he movement its inher ent
solemnity.
The third movement, which is entitled Scherzo:
Allegretto, is no longer a dance pW'e and simple, but a
Scherzo of the t ype t hat Beethoven lat er developed in the
symphonies. The basic volume of the Trio is piano, and it
should be played perfectly legato.
The last movement is a pure Rondo: A B A CAB A-
Coda. After the fourth appearance of the rondo theme,
there 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 eappearance of the rondo theme. The
movement has an encha nting grace and contains charm-
ing effects such as t he leap from E to G sharp at t he
beginning, the legato slur of which is easier to execute
optically than in reality. Pedalling will help the slur , as
1 The dot on the A i n bar 2 is spurious. P, B .
2 An alternat ive suggestion, made by Scheukei-, is that the narrower
keys of old pianos made this fingering feasible. P.H.
24
SONATA I N A MAJOR, OP. 2, NO. 2
well as t he rolling A major scale in demisemiquavers after
the minore sect ion, which latter introduces a novel
staccato effect .
Concerning the use of the pedal it is well t o r emember
that it should be used much more cauti ously and sparingly
in the lower r egist ers t han the higher. In the highest
regist ers, the pi ano has 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 the many r est s and 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 where lat er on Beethoven and
Brahms scored full crotchets. These rests, which should be
gi ven their. full due, bring light and air into the texture.
Sonata in C major, Op. 2, No. }
The Sonata No. 1 , in F minor, has been called the' lit tl e
Appassionata', and we might call this one the ' little
Waldst ein'. 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 his own unusual piani st ic skill but-
it would be wrong to exagger ate the t empi and r egard
virtuosity as t he sole end of the work. Aft er all, t he music
is the body and the technique merely t he clothing.
The themati c mat eri al of the first movement- Allegro
con brio-comes from a Pi ano Quartet in C major which
Beethoven wrote when he 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
FIRST LECTURE
thir d begins in G minor and the fourth is in G major,
t he obligatory dominant. The fingering of the opening
thirds is:
434 3454
~
~ ' "
The closing theme of t he first part rai ses a difficulty,
the rhythmically precise r endering of the group:
Here, the t wo semiquavers are oft en abbre viated into
mer e grace-notes of the preceding trill. One often hears
the same mi stake in the final e of the G major 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 crotchets of the opening motif. An old
and exper ienced musician thought that t he 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 char act er istic of Beethoven t o stre ngthe n weak
units of the bar. However, one coul d also maintain that
the ifs, as printed, signify a str engthening of the weak
second and fourth beats; for without them one might
easily accent the first and third. Though our modern
26
SONATA IN C MAJO R., OP . 2, NO. 3
pianos would enable us to double the octaves at t he end
of the first and second section we should 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
fort issimo chords 9 to 7 bars from t he end should be
divided for t he greater comfort of small hands.
The second movement-Adagio-requires a skilful
touch. It is not easy to shape the movement 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. The t empo is best determined by
the expressive rendering of t he sighing, grief-laden t hird
subject in which the left hand should r elaxe dly cross over
the right. Be careful to take t he left hand off in t he ninth
bar of the main subject while the right hand sust ains the
octave. The fingering for the transit ion in bar 10 is:
]
2
,
Beethoven often referred to a dualism- a masculine
and feminine principle-in hi s sonat as, and the contrast
is, I t hink, especially evident here. I would definitely
regard subjects 1 and 5 as femi nine and t he subject in the
minor mode as masculine. It is psychologically very in-
teresti ng-eomparable to a reconc iliation-that at t he
end t he man (left hand) takes over the feminine subject ,
27
FIRST LECTURE
thus yielding as it wer e to the lady's wishes after hi s
several r efusals in the minor sect ion.
The main sect ion of t he Scherzo 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 noticed
that bars 3 to 7 form the bass of the Trio. Many such dis-
coveries, by commentators of t hematic relationships or of
the true int enti ons of t he composer, r emind me of t he
modern composer who aft er r eading an analysis of his
work said: 'I had the feeling that I was dead and was
being shown a list ofthe chemical elements that had been
discovered in my dead body. It is all quite new t o me.'
The t empo of the main part of the Scherzo should be
det ermined by t he pace at which t he Trio can be taken.
The last movement is a virtuoso piece, full of gloriously
ebullient music. The t empo is A llegro assai, not Presto;
the form is t hat of a Rondo, The episodes contrast hap-
pi ly with one another; the F major section, with its
difficult legato octaves and chords, is particularly charm-
ing. I n the first episode the bass-line should be empha-
sized. The coda should be kept piano until the first
fortissimo in bar 279. The difficult skips in bars 87 ff.
should be mastered by a clear mental awareness of the
dist ances involved. The difficulties of the first passage of
semiquavers, like t he lightly bouncing first inversions of
the beginning, can be overcome only by keeping the hand
relaxed, yet st ill giving its full value to every note quite
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 LECTUR.E
Beethov 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 const itution
ar e best suit ed for the performance of t he works of com-
posers with a similar const itution. For example, thick-set
players with t hick fleshy hands ar e predest ined for t he
interpretation of works by composers of similar frame,
whilst tall, long-finger ed, sinewy players ar e likewise the
best int erpr et ers of t he works of similarly 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 substa nt iated on
the whole. Thus the Beethoven and Br ahms players
Rubinst ein and d' Albert were thick-set types whereas
Liszt and COI1:ot were Chopin and Li szt players par
excellence. Somet imes the r esemblance between int er -
pret er and composer may even go so far as a similar ity of
features and of t he whole appearance. Fundamentally,
however , it is all a matter of touch. Composers with soft ,
flabby hands and thick finger-pads compose 'thick'
music. Max Reger is an example of t his t ype. There was
something of the mollusc about hi s whole nature; his
touch was unbelievabl y soft and his piani ssimo inimitable.
Composers compose, as it were, for themselves. They un-
consciously exploit their own qualities and need kindred
natur es to int erpret their work. The wide spacing of a
Henselt, t he piano-technique of a Li szt came from long-
29
SECOND LECTURE
fing er ed hands capable of wide stret ches . It was not for
nothing t hat Busoni and Sauer were great interpret ers of
Li szt. The parallel cases of Li szt and Paganini may also
be inst anced.
Beethoven belonged more to the t hick-set t ype and hi s
work r equir es a broad, full , singing t one. But he was not
only a ' broad ' t ype. Brahms was that far more tha n Beet -
hoven. When one examines t he plast er cast of Beethoven' s
hand in t he Beethoven House in Bonn one is amazed at
the taper ing fingers, and t he lat er assertion that hi s
fing er-t ips were abnor mally wide is contradicte d by t his
evidence. Czerny said of his pl aying: ' It was marked by
enormous st rengt h, character , incr edible bravura and
fluency. No one surpassed him in the speed of his scales,
double shakes and leaps. Hi s attit ude while playing was
perfectly calm, noble and beautiful. He made not the
slightest gr imace; his fingers were strong and their t ips
flattened by much pl aying. He demanded t he kind of
legato playing of which he hi mself was t he unsurpassed
mast er.' Hi s contemporar ies noticed the last-n amed
qualit y especially in hi s pl aying of t he first inversions in
the 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 hi s t ime wer e not st rong enough
for his gigant ic playing. Referring t o the chord-passage
in t he first move ment of Op. 5', No. 2 he said: ' The
piano must break.'
Someone who visit ed the Countess Malfatti in her old
age hear d her speak with great enthusiasm about hi s
pl aying, but in general, there seems to have been littl e
appreciat ion of his work as a composer in t hat circle.
Many of hi s finger ings show that he was well aware of
}D
BEETHOVE PS PIANO PLAYI NG
the difficulties; he also ma de use of alternating fingers,
especially for the 'tremolo ' effect, wher eby t he second
note is r epeat ed softly. I have in mind a passage in the
Scherzo of the Cello Sonat a, Op. 69, and t he Adagio of
Op. 110 :
His sforzandos are particularly significant. With the m,
he seems to have put something of hi s essent ial personality
into hi s pl aying; he oft en uses them to stress weak beats
as though he wished to counteract the exaggerated
lightening pf weak beat s that result s from academically
accenting the so-called st rong beats. Some of the sforzan-
dos in passages for both hands also suggest that he was
trying to facilit at e their synchronizat ion. See, for example,
Op. I l l , bars 26 ff. :
The subiti piani after a crescendo are a further charac-
teri stic feat ure. Some of the crescendos which he pre-
scr ibed on sustained not es are unpl ayabl e but the ment al
illusion is important.
The greatest inventory of his pianistic 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
SECOND LECTURE
pedalling, obt aining quite new effects. Let me quote a few
examples. In t he Tr io of the second movement of Op, 110
' .'
A
,
I"
I-
"'
0
."
f
the pedal notes must cont inue to sound until the entr y
of the new harmony. This will best be achieved by half-
pedalling. As a means of enli vening the rhythm I use 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 quality of t his passage.
As an example of the exactness of Beet hoven's treat-
ment of the pedal we may quote a passage from the end
of the second movement of the G major Pi ano Concerto,
P5
8:
...
'. '
Here, the quaver r ests are split up into two semiquaver
rests for the sake of the pedalling.
Beethoven also used t he pedal to veil the atmospher e
in mi st, as t hough he were paint ing a landscape. See, for
example, the end of the first movement of the Sonata,
Op. 81A, 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 minor . In all
these cases t he player must decide how far the modern
instrument allows him t o comply with Beethoven's in-
struct ions.
He also used t he soft pedal, and hi s directions in t he
sonatas, Op, 27, No. 2, and Op, 106 shoul d be followed pre-
cisely. The t erm senza sord. (which refers t o the ' loud'
pedal), must not be confused, however, wit h the 'soft'
pedal which is marked by una, due, Ire corde.
Beethoven's ene mies found t hat he maltr eat ed t he
piano, that he made a confused noise wit h the pedal, and
that hi s playing lacked clarity and purity.
cSonata in E flat major, Op, 7
The Sonata, Op. 7, in E flat major, which t he pub-
lisher called Grande Sonate, was dedicat ed in 1797 t o the
Countess Babett e de Keglevics, who lat er became Princess
Odescalchi. This lady seems to have aroused Beethoven' s
interest in a high degr ee. This did not, however , pr event
him from giving her lessons every morning in hi s 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, and one which, throughout it s
complementary movements, impresses one as a rounde d
creation of uni que stamp.
Beethoven only rarely portrayed t he same constellation
of feelings twice over in his major works . Once he had
described one such emot ional world he did not retur n to
it. In this he differed from Mozart, some of whose finales,
for example, are interchangeable.
1 The' enamoured 1.
c
}}
SECOND LECTURE
The first movement makes t he greatest demands on
the player 's individuality. I n view of the insigni ficance
of the first subject- it rather reminds one of the first
subj ect of the Eroica which is also in E flat and similarly
inchoat e- t he 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 transition t heme is a fine touch (bar 55). The
second subj ect in B flat seems to bring a feeling of calm
but the quavers reappear straight away and again the
movement rushes on impetuously. The semiquaver
figures in the coda (r ight hand) are t echnically difficult
if one tries to bring out the hidden melody. The develop-
ment is rather scanty. The rhythmical struct ure of the
t ied quavers marked sfz can be clarifi ed by the use of the
pedal on t he fourth quaver.
In t he Largo, expr ession must be carried r ight across
t he rests. The second and fourth bars should be given
more weight.
One always wonders whet her a poeti c image which one
finds helpful oneself means 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 like the painting of a dinner.
Nevertheless I will venture to suggest to you the picture
of a summer landscape with gigantic cumulus clouds from
which lat er on r aindrops fall (the staccat o semiquavers in
the left hand in A flat major, bar 25).
The Scherzo has a Trio of peculiar and, for the period
in whi ch it was written, novel piani sti c charm (compare
the last movement 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 impor-
tunat ely. The pedal should be used only at the fortissimos.
The dry murmuring of t he quaver triplets creates a
ghost-like effect which is heightened st ill further by t he
sudden fortissimos: t hey illuminat e t he gloomy landscape
like flashes of lightning. The sound of horns must be
produced in t he coda.
The last movement is a genuine Rondo of great charm.
The minore in C minor offers some difficulty on account
of the figure which the weak fingers are requir ed to play
with vigour. Whether he crosses over with his upper
fingers or changes t he fingering accor ding t o the position
of the black keys will depend on whether the player is used
to putti ng the thumb on black keys. The modulation via
the note B to E major (bar 154) and the return to E flat
by means of the enhar monic cha nge (C flat major) from
B to C flat is a stroke of geni us. The sonorous coda con-
cludes not mer ely t he Rondo but also the sonata as a
whole.
Sonata in C minor, Op, 10, No . 1
The work was composed in Beethoven' s twenty-sixth
year and shows how early he achi eved his own unique
)5
SEC OND LECTURE
symphonic style. For me this sonata is t he most charac-
teristic example of hi s organic mode of composit ion and
equalled in this respect only by t he Coriolan Overture
and the Fifth Symphony.
All t hree movements have a classical quality. The
masculine opening movement, t he solemn Adagio and t he
prest issimo Finale in small not e-values with its modula-
t ions int o r emot e keys and it s pauses before the end ar e
all genuine Beethoven.
The work was dedicat ed to the Countess Anna Mar-
garete von Browne, wife of the Count Browne who pre-
sente d Beethoven with a riding horse- a gift which
Beethoven forgot u nt il he was unpl 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 himself.
An analysis of the 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 feminine ending by way of contrast; the opening
of Mozart' s great C minor Sonata (K. 457) may have been
the model for this. The bars which lead int o the second
subject which 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 .
The second subject too is r eally a variant of t he first
four bars in t he major . The t ension is tremendous until
the second inversion of t he E flat major triad is r eached ;
the codetta (bars 94 to 105) is der ived from the feminine
ending of bars 3-4.
The development : bar 106 begins with the first theme
in t he major. The octave jumps become tenths. Bars 118
to the recapitulatio n are an extension of t he transition to
t he second subject, which shows tha t Beethoven thought
this transiti on rather impor tant and possibly regarded it
) 6
SONATA I N C MINOR , OP. 1 0, NO. 1
as a second main idea. Bars 136 ff. ar e der ived from
" 9/' 20. The chords before the recapit ulation are a con-
t raction of the triplet figure in bars ' 7- 20 (feminine
ending) . The recapitulati on is based exact ly on t he exposi-
ti on. The t wo fort issimos in t he left hand in bar 188
correspond to the oct ave jumps and ar e r epeat ed at t he
end of the movement.
The 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 he accompaniment of t he second subject. The t heme
of t he transition following t he first subject has its proto-
type in Bach' s Sixth Partit a, except t hat t he demisemi-
quaver figur e is inverted. One is inevit ably r emi nded of
't he first ubject of t he first movement . These affinit ies,
however, all ha ve t heir place in t he unconscious.
The player should be car eful not to hurry the hemi-
semidemiquaver figures (bar 28) and 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. The epilogue should be a real after-thought
with the regularly syncopated E flat s producing the effect
of a gradual dying away. The fact t hat Beet hoven writ es
pp in the IIth bar from t he end and t hen makes t he big
decr escendo also end in pp shows how relative such direc-
t ions ar e. What is requi red is a gradual and graduated
lesseni ng of tone and t hi s needs careful cont rol and inner
calm, as does t he whole movement .
The Prestissimo is in sonat a form and demands a speed
which will enable the left hand t o perform quit e clearly
the chords in bars 9-12. The second t heme (conceived
for wind instruments) also prohibits an excessive pace.
The development contains t he famous ant icipation of
J7
SECOND LECTURE
t he Fift h Symphony. In t he coda, the modulation to
D flat maj or and the return and combination of both the
main ideas in the major ar e ingenious. Ghostly as is t he
whole movement, the theme vanishes with the rhythm
derived from the accompanying figme in bar 12.
Sonata in F major, Op, 10, No. 2
The cheerful char acter of this sonata, its amiability and
humour , also account for the somewhat loose t exture of
t he work. This is the way in which Beethoven may have
improvised, taking for a start of the development the last
bar of the exposition of the first movement and going on
to invent a new sect ion. The omi ssion of a second theme
in the last movement, t he r elaxing of its fugato into a
pianistically inviting end-piece show how easily the com-
poser's ideas fluctuated during the writing of this en-
chanting work.
To prov ide a serious element, t he 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 the first four bars a
'curtain' and finds the heart of t he subject in bars 5-8.
From t his Beethoven develops the counter-statement in
C major' which almost makes a stronger impression than
the actual second subject (bar 38). The codetta should be
played very clearly. The development is a very simple
variation on the last bar of the exposition. The anticipa-
ti on of the opening in D major befor e the recapitulation
proper is delightful.
1 Strictl y speaking) the second subject group starts here, where
the dominant is fully established. P.H.
}8
SONATA I N D MAJ OR, OP . 1 0 , NO. 3
The main subject should sound like questi on and
counter-question rather than question and answer . The
pedal should be used very spar ingly. The whole of the
development should be played pellucidly, with the t humb
of the r ight hand bearing the melody in t he semiquaver
triplets . The D major section should be played very
gently so t hat t he r eturn to t he vigorous opening in the
r ecapitulat ion makes a real contrast .
The second move ment, which is marked Allegretto, is
akin to t he Allegro molto e vivace fro m Op. 27, '0. "
and should be played wit h the most beauti ful legat o,
without pedal, possibly con sordino. The Trio should be
simple and t ender. Not e the Schubertian cast of the
melody.
The Finale is a mi xture of sonata and fugato and de-
mands a good technique . The Presto should not be over-
done, with a view to bars 87 ff. Despite t he if, the subject
in the bass here should not impede t he clar ity of t he
ri ght-hand figures. Bach's t wo-part Inventi on in F may
have been the model; the passage is also akin to the
second movement of the First Symphony. Its difficulty is
best overcome by slight rotation fr om a loose wrist.
Sonata in D major, Op, 10, No . ]
This is the greatest of the t hree sonatas, its four move-
ments forming a wonderful unity. The happy distr ibu-
t ion of int erest among contents, formal beauty and
pianisti c brilli ance has made it a great favourit e in the
concert hall . If the first movement provides the piani st
with a r ewarding task, the Largo is one of the deepest
inspir ati ons of Beethoven the melancholy. Great delicacy
J9
SECO ND LECTURE
of feeling is required in passing dir ectly from the Largo
into the Minuet: if one begins t he Mi nuet gently and
calmly i t will give a sense of relief; t oo heavy-handed a
start will make the change of feeling sound t oo abrupt.
The Finale is full of humour r emi nding us of Beethoven 's
liki ng for jokes and puns.
The for m of t he first movement is quite st raightfor-
ward. The main subject, the first notes of which const itute
t he basic motif of the whole movement, should be
phr ased t hus:
r..
' U I I I I \ ~
P .. . . .. ,
The second subject (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 sup-
pli es a greater contrast t han t he actual second subject .
The accompaniment must be transparent: the pedal
should be used carefully, just to underl ine the bass line.
The ifs after the second subject r efer only t o the single,
horn-like notes.
The Largo e mesto is said t o ha ve been composed under
the impact 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 Death and the Maiden. The
form is t ernary, with elements of sonata form. The
second main idea, in A minor, is r eminiscent of Tristan:
4
SONATA I N D MAJOR, OP. 1 0 , NO. s
wild despair alternat es with lament at ion. The penulti-
mat e sect ion of t he coda r equir es the most careful
differentiation of the demisemiquavers u nt il t hey finally
die away.
The Minuet, which begi ns u nder the impact of the
foregoing elegy, shoul d give a sense of release like the
gentl e chords aft er the storm in t he Pastoral Symphony.
In the second section t he sforzandos should be moderat e.
In t he Trio the differ ence bet ween st accat o and legato
in the left hand should be brought out very clearly.
The last movement, a Rondo, must not give an impres-
sion of anti-climax. The player must have a vivid sense
of the quest ioning and answering, t he cont inual runn ing
hither and thither , t he hide-and-seek game that Beet-
hoven carrres on with t he t hree not es of the subject. The
same notes, namely the step of a second followed by a
t hird, are found in the main subject of t he first movement,
at the beginning of t he Lar go, in the Trio of the Mi nuet
(in the bass), and also in the splendid syncopated chords
at t he end of this last movement (bar 1 0 2 ) . The whole
movement is lit up wit h flashes of summer lightning.
Every r eturn of t he rondo theme should be given a
differ ent colouring: it will help if t he orn amen ts in
bars 4, 28, 59 and 67 are given vari ed t reatment . The
final passages in the r ight hand need careful study.
We leave this work with the sense of having met a
'personality who is st ill young but who has already ex-
per ienced t he main elements of human feeling, tast ed
soaring ecstasy as well as deepest grief, t he blessings of
consolat ion and the exuberance of an eternally creat ive
nature.
THIRD L E CT URE
On Practising
As with most cultural activities, so with pract IsIng,
methods differ from one individual to another according
to the st udent's t emperament, physical const itut ion and
mental attit ude. One thing applies to all, however:
thoughtless repetit ion should be esche wed. Whether it is
a matter of memorizing, of mastering particular tec h-
ni cal problems or understanding the structure of a work,
the player who thinks, and thinks intensely, will make
t he great est progress. Technique resides in the head, not
in the fing ers.
Baron van Swiet en, Maria Theresa' s gentleman-in-
wait ing, and a fr iend of Mozart 's, was instr uct ed by the
Empress to r eclaim the county of Glatz from Frederick
t he Great. The King list ened to t he proposal and replied:
, 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, aware ness of the processes of
movement, of the difficulties and their causes will lead
one to det ect a problem, and 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 seulement le passage difficile, mais la
difficult e meme, qui s' y trouve cont enue, en lui r est ituant
son caracter e element aire .' (' Do not mer ely practise t he
difficult passage, practise the difficulty as such which is
contained ther ein by restoring to it its essential character.' )
That is excellent counsel.
4
2
- - - - , . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ - ~ ~ - - - -
ON PRACTISING
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, comply wit h this basic move-
ment which is common t o all creatures. This contract ion
and expansion also underlies the work of the muscles.
We must attend not only to the contrac tion but in par-
ticul ar to the expansion.
Fundament ally, there ar e r eally only five or six basic
movements and their combinations involved in pi ano-
playing. The difficulties arise ma inly from t he alt ernation
of the movements or the use of opposite movements in
the two hands; the persist ent repetition of one and the
same movement can also be a great strain.
The contracti on of t he muscles is nat ure's protecti ve
reaction to every difficulty; but t his prevents t heir
recovery and the supply of fresh blood. The supreme law
is to manage with the mini mum of movement, exert ion
and contraction. It is incredibl e the amount of energy
that is being squa ndered unnecessaril y; yet it is only by a
r elaxed touch that we can give our playing beauty and
convi ction. The inability to r elax is our ene my in life in
general as well as in piano-playing. The Indians have
been teaching the management of t ension and r elaxati on
for thousands of years. Whether in breathing or in
higher pursuits, every exert ion must be followed by
r elaxati on.
What is the best way, then, to set about st udying a
work ? To begin wit h, I must menti on a new method
which you will find described in the well-known book by
Leimer-Gieseking and practised in Switzerland by Frau
Langenhahn-Hirzel. It is based on our abilityto imagine a
piece of music without actually playing it . At the outset,
43
THIRD LECTURE
the st udent is merely given t he 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 instrument. Her e again,
t echnical problems are made conscious by analysis.
This system, t he benefit s of which ar e many, provides,
first and foremost, a st upendous training of t he mind and
one' s ability to concent rate, such as was provided cen-
t uries ago, by t he schools of t he church, We have been
tremendously spoilt by the invention of music-printing,
and it is impor tant t o r emember t hat to begin with music
was create d from the mind and t he memory. ' Knights of
t he keyboard ' was how Bach scorn fully dubbed players
who were lost without t heir instrument .
Despit e t he trut h of t he conception on which t his
t eaching is based and the splendid r esults it obtains wit h
many students, I cannot help feeling crit ical about the
pri nciple it involves, namely t he pur ely mental assimila-
t ion of music. I regard it as part of t he r at ional, int ellec-
tual view of t he worl d which attempts to subdue every-
thing to the int ellect and the mind, the view ofthe world
which has brought about this technical age wit h its
many admirable feat ures, but which leaves out of its
r eckoning t he whole wide field of the psychic and emo-
t ional capacit ies in man. It is very easy t o demonstrat e
t he process of cause and effect in mechanical and t ech-
ni cal matters, but very difficult to descr ibe t he forces t hat
ar e truly creat ive. Why leave out of account these great
energies which give us so much ?
We also have a ' motor' memory which helps us t o
r emember the movements of the fingers. This has often
saved me when my conscious memory has let me down.
Then ther e is the visual memory which makes it impor-
44
ON PRACTI SI NG
tant always to use the same edition of a work. Ther e is
also t he melodic and harmonic memory . Best of all, how-
ever, is t hat unconscious co-operat ion of all t hese kinds
of memory which operates so clearly in t he child prodigy.
How shoul d one begin practising a work ? Let us
assume t hat one is quite new t o the work. First of all, play
it straight through; then analyse its form, separating
what is r epeated from what is new and only occurs once
in the work. Then you will already be able to see where
the problems, specifically those of t echnique, lie. Working
at t he m for short peri ods over a longish stre tch of ti me,
duri ng which you may study other works , is better t han
drudging away at one problem for a long t ime without
a break. The inter vening ni ghts, in which you ' sleep
over ' yOUl! problems, are also of import ance. in
this manner, t he average player will find after a while
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 .
When the t ime is r ipe for attending t o matters of
int erpr etati on you must str ive to get all t he feeling,
rhythm and beauty out of the work which you can find
in it. Thi s is where your imagination, your emot ions and
passions must be act ive in t he highest degree. A per iod
will follow in which one should attend to t he product ion
of beautiful t one and fluency. It is impor tant at t his stage
to take into account t he composer 's personal style and the
style of t he parti cul ar work, as well as the style of t he
peri od. Next comes a living conception of form, a search
for int ernal balance. Finally t here should be a check to
see t hat all the composer's direct ions (dynamics, rhythm,
phrasing) ar e being scrupulously observed. Then, play
the work through several t imes tr ying to combine all the
45
THIRD LECTURE
requirements we have mentioned, not forgetting to keep
the body as relaxed as possibl e.
It is salutary to put on one side for a t ime works that
one has st udied in this way. Taken up again after a fairl y
long r est, they will r eveal new facets . Some things will
seem easier than t hey did to begin with, while new
beauties and deeper meanings will be perceived by a
rested ear.
Sonata in C minor, Op, 1J (Sonat e Pa thetique)
The popularity of this sonata is probably due 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 t he title came
from Beethoven himself and he probably wanted it t o be
understood in the sense of pathos, i.e. suffering. Inciden-
tally, Tchaikovsky's Sy mphonie Paihetique has a similar
main subject (in E minor).
To my mind, this sonata is not so perfect and homo-
geneous as some of the lesser-known ones. The first
movement is like an excerpt from the piano arrangement
of a symphonic work ; the last moveme nt is not commen-
surate with the first t wo. The second movement , how-
ever, is perfect in every respect .
The sonata was written in 1798 and dedicat ed to Prince
Karl Lichnowsky. This patron gave Beethoven a quartet
of Italian st ring instruments and an annuity of 6 00 florins.
The first movement is marked by a magnificent int ro-
duction. 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 movement we must repeat
from the beginning; if it is an introduct ion, only from
4
SONATE PATHETIQUE IN C MINOR, OP. ' 3
the Allegro. Riemann argues t hat t he first idea (Grave)
is introduced again before t he development and at t he
end. But it seems to me that t he fact t hat Beet hoven
omits the Grave idea in the recapitulation suggests t hat
he only wanted t he repeat to start from t he Allegro. To
repeat t he whole of t he opening Grave would make the
exposit ion unduly protract ed in r elati on to the other
sections. It is obvious t hat t he Allegro subject and, lat er
on, it s continuation in t he development are related to the
Grave theme. The second subject is also related to it.
There is a difficulty her e: the mordent. Perfor med on the
beat, it will, considering its speed, easily result in a
triplet . An anticipation, however , might lead to senti-
mentality. The r ight way is anyone's guess.
The fp of the very first chord offers a furt her difficulty;
should this be playedfto begin wit h and then the whole
chord p until t he demisemiquaver? Difficult though it is
to reproduce 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
recapit ulat ion . The semibreve passage before t he final
Grave gives r ise to t he five bars of staccato chords at the
end.
The second movement . is one of Beethoven's most
glorious inspirations. Despit e it s emotionalism, it has to
have classical stance, and despit e it s classical simplicity,
it has t o be full of feeling. How to do this? Give an ex-
pressive tone to t he melody and obt ain simplicity and
symmetry by keeping the rhythm even.
The two-part writi ng of t he last moveme nt is hard t o
bring off. If one takes t he light rondo character of t he
Allegro Q: as a guide the move ment will contrast
overmuch wit h t he others; 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 my mind, the first E flat major theme is
t he r eal second subject , and the strain in crotchets merely
an appendage (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 hi s theme (bar 25) is indicat ed by
his direction dolce . The triplet figures (bars 51 ff.) should
be well ar ticulated. The central episode in A flat wit h its
minims should be played warmly and cantabile, not
didacti cally. In t he coda (bar 193) t he movement resumes
again the general character of this work . Harsher dyna-
mic accents are hear d; the composer leads us to A flat
major, and just as he seems to be introducing the subject
again in A flat major, he suddenly returns to the tonic
C minor.
Sonata in E major, 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). Li ke all such
works, including the poems one is forced to learn by
heart at school, it is difficult to appreciate t hem in lat er
life. Dissecti on and repeti ti on have ma de us insensiti ve
t o their charm and beauty. For me, however, t hese
sonatas are among the sweetest and most sympat het ic
children of Beethoven's heart.
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 heroes,
4
8

SONATA IN E MAJ OR, OP . 14 , NO. 1

heroes of goodness and long-suffering. Let us not forget
Beethoven' s gentle side.
The E major sonata was composed in 1798. It has three
movements and is elegiac in character. By way of excep-
t ion, the middle movement provides the serious and
aust ere element and stands, in the minor , between the
sunlit movements in t he major .
The form of the open ing movement is normal. The
first subject has one appendage, the second has two . That
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
accompaniment, is magnificent. I should like to draw
attention t o t he customary octave doubling of t he E in
the coda (bar 151), which is perhaps contrary to Beet-
hoven's intentions.
According to Schindler, Beethoven himself played the
second movement Allegro furioso; but we may perhaps
presume that Schindler had envisaged an easy-going
Allegro and was taken aback by Beethoven's performance.
All the same, in spit e of t hi s tradition, too fast a tempo
should be avoided. On the other hand, t he observation
that Beet hoven linger ed on t he C sfz shows that t he
master had an entirely personal style which included
agogic accents for special events, such as strong disso-
nances, r ests and clima xes.
At t he t ransit ion int o the maggiore, the cr escendo on
the hi gh E and t he portamento are a r eminder that
Beethoven arranged the whole sonata for string quartet.
Both directions must remain illusory on the piano but I
would not like to live without illusions.
The last movement, Rondo: Allegro commodo, is in
the form A B A C A B-Coda. The affinity which Riemann
sees b e t ~ e e n t he main subject of the first movement and
D 49

THIRD LECTURE
t he first subject of the last reminds me of t he English
t eacher who derived Ross from Horse by a transposit ion
of the letters.
The 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 major is
delightful (bar 104). The bass-part preceding the coda
shows how Beethoven makes the most of the t iniest
motifs; the gradual dissolution of the main theme in a
syncopat ed variation and later in quavers is like the
observation of a nat ural phenomenon on the part of
Beethoven: comparable to a slowly dissolving 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 hi s happi est
move ments (Op, go, second movement ; Op. 109).
Sonata in G major, Op, 14, No. 2
This sunlit forest-scene might be called 'The Bird as
Prophet', so prophetic is it of Schumann. All the move-
ments ar e written in a r elaxed style. The syncopat ed
chords in the second movement and the bass-accompani-
ment in the second subject of the last movement are
Schumannesque. Above all, ther e is an int imat e feeling
5
SONATA I N B FLAT MAJOR, OP. zz
for nature which anticipates the Romantic composers.
The A llegro of the first movement should not be t aken
too fast in order t o give the little birds in t he right hand
time t o sing their songs . Observe how one motif grows out
of the other as organically as leaf upon leaf sprouts from
a bough, and how from the beginningto the development,
one melody flows on the whole time. The boughs of the
tree sha ke in the second subject; in the coda darker
shadows fall.
How delightfully staccat o alternates wit h legat o in the
second movement with the three variat ions ! The var ia-
tion with t he syncopated quavers moves along so gently
that we must be car eful not t o play the sforzandos too
violently.
The duple rhythm wit hin the triple barring (5/8) of
the last movement 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.
Sonata 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 amatic works it has lost some of its popul arity in
our day. Well played, however, it can afford gr eat plea-
sure by r eason of its smoothness of form and charming
sound effects ; even the r ather Italianat e and aria-like
Adagio is gi ven grandeur by t he breadth of its phrases.
The Rondo seems to me to be the most significant move-
ment, significant by virt ue of it s wealt h of ideas, t he matic
r elationships and its blend of var iat ional and contr a-
puntal t echnique.
51
THIRD LECTURE
The first movement is in st rict sonata form. Themati-
cally everything is again absolutely consiste nt . The de-
velopment is formed by the codetta theme and the ma in
th eme, but everything flows along so naturally and easily
that one is unawar e of the t he mat ic structure, only
pleasantl y moved by the organism as a whole.
In the Adagio the sonata for m is evident. The beat
is J. , with t hree t imes three quavers making a rhythmic
unit. The seque nce of events is: first subject, second sub-
ject, development, recapitul ation. The development, in
particul ar, with its fr equent r epetition of the figure:
shows that the quavers must be played in a flowing
tempo. It is wonderful how Beethoven, in the recapitula-
tion, dovet ails the 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 second is more natural, the first is more graceful .
The main theme of the Rondo should be played with
ami abili ty, and the ensuing octaves with suppleness. The
52
SONATA I N B FLAT MAJOR, OP . es
first episode (bar , 8), whi ch later elaborat es the quaver
figure of the rondo theme, 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). The demisemiquaver figure ofthis section, too,
is a t ransfor mation of the rondo theme. The coda of t his
movement makes one feel t hat Beethoven int ended it to
form a conclusion to the sonat a as a whole, not merely to
the fourth movement.
53
F OUR. TH L E CT UR. E
Beethoven's Personality
Beethoven's family history confirms the theory that
musical genius of the first r ank never suddenly appears
from a background lacking in cultural interests. In the
case of musicians, generations are needed before the ulti-
mat e heights are reached by one solita ry member of a
family. If painters should seem in a differ ent case, this
is merely a delusion. Great painters who come from
peasant stock (van Gogh, Rubens, Segantini, Nolde) enter
into ways already pr epar ed for them since the peasant
lives with the forms and patterns of nature, light and
shade, lan dscape and animals, and is constantly assimila-
t ing optical impressions; he can estimate distances, r ead
the weather from the atmosphere, thus preparing for t he
birth of an artist in light .
The ancestors of t he Bachs, of t he Haydns, Couper in,
Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert were all musicians, or
at least engaged in allied cultural purs ui ts, The ar ist o-
cratic sense, t he feeling for architectural beaut y, for
traditional customs was also a daily exper ience for most of
t hem since t hey served at courts or in ecclesiast ical
establishments .
On the other hand, genius is brought to maturity by
hard and difficult circumstances. All these great masters
had a hard youth; one might al most say they received
more blows than food, the blows usually taking the form
of hard work, often lasti ng far into the night. It is remark-
able to observe how in their struggle for exist ence, for
54
BEETHOVEN' S PERSONALI TY
success, for income, first as chi ld prodigies, then as em-
ployees or independent musicians, the work of all these
masters was det ermined by the true artistic spir it , the
spir it of service, and by a sense of profound moral
obligation. None of them was more conscious of this spirit
and more unyielding t o the demands of the public than
Beethoven.
Let us look for a moment at the musical nourishment
that he r eceived. As he was early employed as an organist
in Bonn it was church music that impressed him first ;
besides, he heard at the concerts held at the Archbishop' s
court the music of St amitz, Gluck, Gretry, Benda, Dit-
t ersdorf, Paisiello, Bach and Handel. It must not be
imagined, however, that he possessed compl et e edit ions of
Bach and Handel. He knew only a t iny fra ction of Bach's
work, including some ofthe 'Well t emper ed Clavi er ' , and
he r eceived Handel' s works as a present from London
when he was already 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
oft en hears that t his or that passage in Mozart already
sounds quite like Beethoven. Beethoven was seventeen
when he visit ed Mozart in Vienna. Whe n Mozart died
Beethoven was t wenty-one, and all these surprisingly
Beethovenish passages in Mozart ar e entirely original.
Beethoven was influenced by Mozart, not vice versa .
Without Don Giovanni the Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2 would
never ha ve been wr itten , nor Op. 10, No. 1 without
Mozart' s C minor 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
FOURTH LECTURE
larly in opera. It was from t he Italians that Beet hoven
acquired his sense of symmetry and beauty of form, as
well as the skilful treatme nt of stringed instruments. The
French clavier composers did not i nfluence him ; but the
solemn Gluck did.
What was it like in Bonn and Vienna in Beethoven's
t ime? They only had candlelight; no large concert-halls
t hat could be heat ed in t he winter-t ime; there were no
musical societies; musical events t hat did not take pl ace
pri vat ely had to be labori ously orga nized by the musicians
themselves; on the other hand, one of the compe nsat ions
was that Nature st ill reached right into t he heart of t he
city, and to listen t o her sounds it was not necessary to
travel half an hour on th e underground. By his self-
assurance, which also expressed itself in coarseness and
fits of bad temper, and also by the innat e nobility of hi s
heart, Beet hoven raised t he social standing of t he musi-
cian tre mendously. Whereas t he bewigged Bach could
st ill write in 1750 : ' Your Grace's utterly devoted ser vant
and most obedient subordinate ' , the wigless Beet hoven
signed hi mself: ' Your fr iend, Beethoven' when writ ing
to the Archduke R.udolf.
Beethoven was appar ently a child ofthe French Revolu-
t ion, of t he Thir d Est ate; he acknowl edged no preroga-
ti ve of birth or money though he was aware of hi s own
import ance as a prince of music, with all the social
obligat ions that devolve on such an exalted public ser -
vant . At any r at e he was not one to hanker after t he
favour of the masses, and he was a passionat e cha mpion of
individual free dom on an et hical basis. His r eading in-
cluded Marcus Aurelius, Plutarch, Shakespeare , Klop-
stock (of whom he said' He always begins r ight up at t he
t op, always maestoso! D flat !'), Schiller and Goethe,
56
BEETHOVEN' S PERSONALITY
whom he especially r ever ed. Of contemporary poets he
came in touch with Gr illparzer, Kotzebue, Collin, Matthi-
son (Adelaide) and Rochli tz.
There 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 ; hi s hea d scarcely ever r ises above t he
sur face of everyday happenings. The pit iless machine of
eternal recurrence is hi s sad lot-s-of whi ch he is, merci-
fully, qui t e oblivious.
Then there are the romantic natures who are carried
away by impressions and dr eams; t hey are, as it were, a
r ealizati on of nature' s dr eams, the human voice of
eternal nature.
Thirdly ther e are t hose who try to make t heir own
building out of t he material t hat life puts into their
hands. They ignor e t he trivial and the commonplace,
attribut ing no great value to it. The strongest of these
are followers of Prometheus, essentially' creative ' types.
Beethoven was a supreme example of this cat egory, and
his counterpart Michelangelo greet s him across t wo
centuries.
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 inevitable, law eternal and pre-
det ermined. Inviolat e and timeless, the gods look down
on human sorrows and human destiny, at t his motl ey
game that is played out on earth; and in a similar way
cer tain great men look at the worl d. In their works we
find not merely shining heroes 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; t he
poet does not judge. With a heart of wisdom he allows
everything to pass before our eyes as a divine sport .
Among such masters I count Shakespear e, Rembrandt
and Mozart. But Beethoven was not of this kind . It is true
that he gradually developed from t he individualisti c
fighter into an artist of more universal feeling, and in his
last wor ks he draws a fine veil of myster ious immateri-
ality over hi s music-fundamentally, however, he was
one of the Promethean, dynamic men who struggle with
their own gen ius and fjght for t he realizati on of their
ideals. In this sense he has had a profound influence on
lat er generat ions.
So nata in A flat major, Op, 26
I n t hi s sonat a we meet for the first t ime one of t hose
creations which I should li ke to call ' psychological com-
positions' since t hey are inti mat ely personal utterances
and, strictl y speaking, represent t ransitional st ages in
Beethoven 's development. At first glance, t heir form
seems fr eer and more unconvent ional, t hough in fact it
is as closely wor ked and st rictl y controlled as that of
other sonatas.
The normal sequence of movements is oft en changed
here, but t he psychological links between t hem are
stronger and the demands made on t he inter pr eter
great er. To this group I assign Opp. 26, 27, No. 1 and
No. 2, 78, 81A, 101 and 109.
In the present sonata Beethoven begins with a quiet
vari ati on movement followed 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. 26
easy t o make the unity of the work felt ; ill parti cular t he
last two movement> seem to be irr econcilably opposed t o
one anot her. Some crit ics t hink it necessary to introduce
the principle of opposites to explain t he last two move-
ments. That appears to me to be r at her t oo facile an
explanation, 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 ablishing 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 mist . 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 modo di Goya. Without
such modificat ion, t he piece will become a sort of Cramer
study-and t hat was surely not Beethoven's intenti on.
I t is not easy to decide on t he tempo of the first move-
ment if this is to be maintained throughout the varia-
t ions. One should try and choose a golden mean. Above
all, beware of playing the fourth variation twice as
quickly-a common mistake. The second variat ion is an
anticipation of the brilliant violin variation in the
Kreutzer Sonata. It should be pl ayed loosely and softly.
In the Scherzo, the figur e in t hirds (bar 27) shoul d be
firmly committed to t he mind befor e t he fingers actually
play it. The ties in the Trio . ar e Beethoven's (do not
crescendo too early). The Funeral March shoul d be
pl ayed portato. Too much pedal shoul d be avoided- after
all, the dr umheads are draped in black. Beethoven writ es
quite clearly at t he--consolatory- end: Pedal in the bass.
The t ransformati on, sometimes advocated, of the drum
roll from exact demisemiquavers into an indist inct
tremolo is not to be r ecommended. As in the Pastor al
59
+= :
FOURTH LECTURE
Symphony, 'Not painting, but the expression of feeling '
is the motto to be borne in mind her e.
The Rondo alt ernates bet ween strains of three and two
bars. Between the r epeats of the rondo theme ther e ar e
t wo episodes, the first occurring twice, t he central one
being in C minor; a coda on an A flat pedal-note closes
the movement with two poignant suspensions. Night has
fallen .
Sonata in E flat major, Op, 27, No. 1
The two sonatas , Op. 27, devi ate from 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, Andante in the first movement;
Adagio, Allegro vivace, Adagio, Presto in the last move-
ment of Op. 27, No. 1; Adagio sostenuto, Allegretto,
Presto agitato in Op. 27, No. 2. Such str uct ures need
sensit ive handling if t hey ar e to give a feeling of psycho-
logical unity. The Allegro in C major in t he opening
movement of the E flat sonat a can collide painfully with
the Andante in E flat if it is not managed with great care.
It should not be t aken too quickly, and somehow or
other a psychological li nk must be established between
the second bar of the Allegro and the interval of the third
at the beginning of t he Andante.
As Riemann points out, genuine linear art iculat ion
keeps a piece on t he move even at a slow speed, while
figuration, Le. the decoration of an Adagio melody by
small note-values, will retain its qui et character . In
other words, what matter s are the implied rhythmic
60
SONATA I N E FLAT MAJOR, OP. 2 7 , NO. 1
units, and just these are not easy to det er mine at the
opening of t his sonata . This is shown by t he fact that
Casella gives a metronome marking of 80 for t he minims,
d' Albert 84 for the crotchets, i. e. almost t wice as slow.
Where is t he subject 's true centre of gravity? Does it
begin wit h an anacrusis-and if so, do the many half-bar
sforzandos confir m or contradict t his? How does one
avoid t riviality in the main theme, especially in bars 9
to 12? Can t here be a seque nce ' weak-strong, weak-
strong , weak-strong, strong-weak' (bar 4)?
All these questions of grammar were answered for me
by an experience I had whe n I was on a concert tour in
t he South. I was in a small t own and wanted 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 into a pleasant room where a small girl about
fourteen years old opened a gra nd piano for me to prac-
t ise on. As she leant against the piano listeni ng, but not
looking at me, 1 asked if she pl ayed herself and whe n she
r epli ed t hat she did 1 asked her t o pl ay me something.
Without a word she sat down and played Op. 27, No. "
wit h a naturaln ess, gentleness, equanimity and sadness
that suggested t hat this was a true expression of some
hidden suffering. She knew nothing about ' subj ects on
the upb eat ' or the metronome marks of various editors,
but inside her there beat t he heart of the Beethoven who
composed t his sonata. Deeply moved by her playing, I
had found t he solution to my problems.
The second movement is a genuine Beethoven Scherzo,
of the demonic kind. The moti fs 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 hesit at e
to discontinue this at the fort e. Behind all the music of
6I
FOURTH LECTURE
the Vienna classics there lurks the danger of monotonous
rhythm-what I call t he Viennese wooden fence-that
divides everything off into four-bar phrases. Always feel
the shape of the melodies and mould them fr eely. Get
away from four-bar phrases.
In the r epeat, the syncopated notes suggest a journey
into Hades.
The form of the Adagio is A B A. The Allegro vivace
movement is in rondo form and apparently has several
themes, but closer examination shows them all to be
r elat ed. The short Presto that occurs after the r epeat of
t he Adagio in the tonic is also der ived from the rondo
theme. Aft er a number of performances, the player will
become joyfully aware of the work's unity when nearing
the end, and will be abl e to communicate this feel ing to
his audience.
Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 2 7, N o. 2
Scarcely any sonata has had 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 Laube (Arbour)
sonat a because it was thought t o have been composed in
an arbour. The nickname Moonlight Sonata came from
the poet Rellst ab who was inspired to call it that by a
moonlit night on the Lake of Lucerne. Speaking of nick-
names, the Sonata, Op, 53, which in German-speaking
countries is called ' Waldstein-Sonat 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 have come to my knowledge I
have conceived a different theory of the origin of the
62
SONATA IN C SHARP MI NOR, OP. 27, NO. 2
work which I shoul d like to mention here wit hout claim-
ing any hi stor ical aut he nticity for it.
There is in Vienna a manuscript of Beethoven's whi ch
contains a few lines from Mozart's Don Giovanni in
Beethoven's undoubted hand : the passage after Don
Giovanni has killed the Commendatore. Underneath
Beethoven has transposed the passage into C sharp minor,
and the absolut e similarity of this with the first move-
ment of Op, 27, No. 2 is quite unmistakable. In particular
the postlude is note for note as in Mozart ,
At t he t ime one of Beethoven's ari stocratic fri ends
died and was laid out in state in hi s palace. One night
Beethoven is said to have improvised as he sat by the
corpse of his fr iend; is it so unlikely that Beethoven was
r eminded of the similar scene in Don Giovanni and that
this was the r eason for the str iking similar ity which we
have mentioned? In any case, there is no romantic moon-
light in this movement: it is rather a solemn dirge.
Beethoven's dir ection : 'Si deve suonare tutto questo
pezzo delicatissamente e senza sordini' shoul d be fol-
lowed precisely : the whole 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 have
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 hand 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 evidence 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 Allegretto should not be played too fast, otherwise
the many suspensions from bar 9 onwards will not receive
t heir due value. To my mind, the t hree accompanying
crotchets in bar 10 should be played wit h t he st r ictest
possible st accato in spite of the awkwardness t his involves.
In the Trio we meet in the left hand an A flat held for
four bars and later on a D flat , both of which are marked
fortepiano. These not es must t herefore come through
quit e independent ly of the bass.
The last movement depicts a storm. In bars 1 and 2
and all similar bars ther e should be no crescendo. The
first real crescendo is in bar '9 and in this bar , too, legat o
slurs appear for the first t ime . The sforzandos in bar 2
and elsewhere must give t he effect of a flash of lightning.
The first of the small notes in bars 155 and 155 coincide
with the first bass-note. Not ice t hat in bar 18 7 , before the
Adagio, the figure in t he r ight hand was wr itten by Beet-
hoven in quavers : it must ther efore be played slower t ha n
the preceding semiquavers. It may be of int erest to men-
t ion t hat Li szt is said to have played the whole last move-
ment in a relatively broa d t empo, emphasizing the forte
passages, however, with tremendous energy and expres -
sion.
Sonata in D maj or, Op, 28
Composed in 180 1 in close proximity to the Csharp minor
Sonata, it nevertheless differs fundamentally from that
work . This sonat a has been nicknamed t he Pastoral, and
not inaptl y. There is a feeling of Nature in this pi ece, a
64
SONATA IN D MAJOR, OP. 28
presence of t he god Pan such as we find only in t he Pas-
toral Symphony itself. There, however, the t hemes are
more clear- cut. In the piano sonata, there is a shimmering
as of summer 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 man
wit hin us feels at one with mot her earth.
By what means did Beet hoven achieve this sense of joy
and happiness? The calm t ranquillity of the D which is
repeated sixty t imes in t he left ha nd contributes a great
deal ; t he gradual r ising and falling of t he melody in small
intervals, t he r epetiti on of similar phrases-all these
elements give t he work a sense of wideness and peace.
The three main ideas are easily discerned and they are
all mor e or less related to one another. The codetta, too,
is a transformation of t he second idea. The development ,
the central sect ion of which derives entirely from the last
bar of the first subject, gives t he impr ession of a bri ef
afternoon storm; it is wonderful the way everything
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, suddenly frightened.
The idea is repeated in t he minor , t urns to the tonic
major, and once again the summery magic fills the re-
capitulation.
The simple ternary layout of t he second movement
nee ds little comment . Provided one exactly follows
Beethoven' s directions, staccato and legato, the idea of the
movement will emerge of its own accord. Needless to say,
the sforzandos in bars '3 and ' 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 shoul d remain t he same;
it should t he refore sound leisurely and an alternat ion as
E 65
FOURTH LECTURE
between horns and a solo flute shoul d be aimed at. The
tempo of the movement should be det ermined by the
demisemiquavers in bars 71 ff. The pp of the preceding
and succeeding bars will greatly modify the strength of
t he sfz. in the penul ti mat e bar. In the Scherzo see that
the t wo quavers are separat ed from the following crotchet .
The Trio offers an opportunity to play t he melody wit h
differ ent tone colouring at each of its eight near-i dentical
statements .
The last movement is founded on a drone-bass and has
true pastoral cha racter . The final Presto shoul d be pl ayed
with brilliance, and non legat o in t he final bars.
66
FIFTH LECTUR.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 he comes as on the schools where he acquired
hi s skill and knowledge. Hi s personal feelings and char ac-
t er will also pl ay a great part. But I believe the deepest
influence of all comes from the example set by the great
masters of t he keyboard.
In what follows I have no intenti on of criticizing the
interpret ati ons of particul ar artists, I mer ely want briefly
to describe t he m. As I have already said, there is a piano
'method' by Car l Czerny which contains many r eferences
to Beethoven's .own character and performances. The
Li szt tradition was probably based very largely on this.
His edition was a rather personal one, however, and is no
longer entirely acceptable. He was followed by Euglme
d' Albert and Hans von Bulow, mast ers whom I hear d
myself. Von Bulow, a man of great wit, and a st rong per-
sonality, had wide influence at a time when the general
musical public was st ill greatly in need of enlightenment .
Quit e awar e of this state of affairs, he dispensed instruc-
ti on in his r ecit als by boldly underlining his convictions.
He made a habit of performing little-known works t wice
in succession, notably t he great Sonata, Op. 106. His
edit ion of the Diabelli Vari at ions is invaluable. Euglme
d' Albert was more a man of t he concer t-plat form. His
healthy and vigorous style of pl aying was an example t o
us all. Casella represents t he modern musician, above all ,
67
FI FTH LECTURE
the composer, and his notes are most instructi ve, albeit
somewhat Italian in character .
Artur Schnabel' s outstanding intellect ual qualities
make hi s edit ion of the sonatas one of great int er est ; it is
a rich source of enlightenment, and if studied closely can
almost r eplace the personal tuit ion of the master himself.
Sometimes, admittedly, he goes too far, especially in hi s
r equi rement that every t r ill, every pause, and even a rest
between two movements 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 me when he played fr eely and
as if in pri vat e, entirely engrossed in the spir it of the
work.
These art ists made their greatest i mpact whe n they
pl ayed not in accordance with an int erpret ati on all cut
and dr ied beforehand but when they surrendere d to the
sway of their imaginati on. It is a pity that we have no
edit ion of Beethoven' s sonatas by Busoni since he was one
of the most pers onal and absolutely independent of in-
terpret ers as is shown by the analysis of the fugue from
Op. 1 0 6 in hi s edit ion of Bach.
Whenever I list ened to d' Albert and other great ar t ists
(Reger, Bartok) I oft en wonder ed how they achieved the
ast onishing musicality and inner logic of t heir per-
formances. I came to see that it was a clear awar eness of
the harmonic progressions which made their playing so
convincing and absorbing. No show was made of the
ordinary course of events, but whe n a true modulation
began it was significantly underlined. They led us wit h a
sure hand from one key to another, from one sect ion of
the work t o t he next, gi ving us t he impression of some-
thing t hat had grown organi cally. That may be what dis-
68 ---------------------
THE THREE SONAT AS, OP. 3 1
tinguishes interpret ers who alsocompose 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 enewed 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 sufficient
proof of that . While t he first is sere ne and almost
Haydnesque 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 know of
the later development s. We cannot forget the 7th sym-
phony whe n we list en to t he end, and whe n we ar e
working at the C minor Sonata, Op. 10, we ar e uncon-
sciously aware that Op. III was to come . Most difficult of
all, perhaps, is to remember that Beethoven himself
could know nothing of the works t hat he was called upon
to create subseque ntly.
That he was seeking for new paths is clear from a
remark which he made t o hi s friend, the Bohemian
violini st Wenzel Krumpholz: 'I am not sat isfied with my
works to date; from now on I want to take a differ ent
road.' That he was gr appling with t he problem of
r enovating the sonata is also shown by t he r eply he made
to the publisher Hoffmeister who had conveyed 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 that 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 con-
sidering, but now that everything is trying to get back
int o the old rut, Buonapar te has made hi s concordat with
the Pope- a sonata of that sort? . .. Good heavens, a
sonat a of that sort at the beginning of this new Christian
age-ho-ho! count me out of that, for nothing will come
of it .- Now my reply, post -hast e. The lady can have a
sonata of mine, and 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 her key-scheme. The pri ce abou t 5 florins-
for that she can enjoy the sonat a for a year, during which
neither I nor she may publish it . When that year has
passed the sonat a is mine 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 dedicat e it t o her.'
Let 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 charac-
teristic of t he movement appears: the anticipation of the
left hand by the ri ght. The same pattern is r epeated in
F major. Aft er the dominant, D major, has been reached,
the pattern appears again in G, and modulat es to F shar p,
the dominant of B, in which key the second subject is
int roduced. A short codetta with a melancholy alter na-
tion of major and minor is r eminiscent of Schubert. The
development and r ecapitulation are normal ; t he extended
coda is particularly charming. I ts humour and delightful
little surprises show us clearly just how Beethoven wished
the whole movement to be conceived. Beethoven main-
7
SONATA IN G MAJOR, OP . 3 ' , NO. 1
tained hi s sense of humour, though it sometimes took a
rather grim turn, t o the very end.
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 hi s 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 murmuring fountain? When the great venet ian blinds
are opened the light floods into a world long since van-
ished-a world of faded carpets, furnit ure of all peri ods,
with an old spinet and a smell of wither ed rose-leaves.
The atmosphere of such an old house fills one with nos-
talgi a 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 grazioso-
may Beethoven not have been looking back to the past
quite deliberately for once? The form is A B A, A
being in t hree sect ions. B, with its semiquaver st accat os,
introduces r ather more movement . It is import ant to
play the ornaments of t he main subject very fluentl y and
without too strict a met rical division, while the bass
keeps to str ict t ime. When t he opening theme, which is
reminiscent of Haydn's Mit Wii rd' und Hoh eit angetan,
appears in the bass it must be played softly and trans-
par ently, not clumsily.
The third movement is a cheerful Rondo-the episodes
are the D major section which flows along in triplets, and
the sect ion in the minor which is characteri zed by a series
of modulations. The whole movement may be conceived
as in sonat a form with the contrapuntal passages in the
7
I
FI FTH LECT URE
flat keys being the development .' In the coda, one must
be careful not t o take the bars marked adagio t oo slowly-
all that the composer intended was an improvisatory
freedom such as oft en occurs, lat er on, in Schubert.
Sonata in D m i nor, Op, Jl , No. 2
First movement: ' Read Shakespeare's Tempest', Beet -
hoven said when asked to explain the meaning of t his
sonat a. It must be admitted, however , that this remark
does not help us very much- it merely tells us that
nature's demons, wind and water, have a hand in this
movement .
The arpeggio six-three chord of A major r ises at t he
opening like a questi on mark, like an improvisat ion-
there is no start on the t onic, not even t he dominant is in
its root -posit ion-everything is vague and underter-
mined. Nevert heless t hi s is t he first subject , just as the
succeeding allegro bars with t heir ' imbricated ' motif
contain t he nucleus of t he second subject . To make the
first subject , whe n it appears in definit ive shape in bar 2' ,
clearl y r ecognizable for what it is, the initi al arpeggio
must not be played t oo slowly and the uppermost not e
must be given pl enty of melodic 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 he
1 The customary term for Rondos whose central episode develops
the first theme is Sonat a ROlldo. P.H.
SONATA I N D MI OR, OP . 3 1, NO. 2
broken dimi nished sevent h) 2-4, 2-4, 2-4 is to be r ecom-
mended; the latter fingering also in bars 13 ff . All these
, imbricated ' figures must, of course, be played from the
ar m. From bar 22 onwards pl ay t he melody every t ime
with t he left hand, 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. Referring to
the second subject 's sequel (bars 55 ff.) Beethoven said:
'The piano must break!'
The repeat should be observed. The three broken chords
at the begi nni ng of the development should be played on
thr ee differ ent levels of tone , the last in F shar p ppp .
I play t he B flat in t he first triplet of bar 1 2 0 wit h t he
right hand.
Because of t he recitatives which follow t he main sub-
ject in the r ecapitulat ion, the work has sometimes been
called the ecitaLive Sonata. These passages should have a
fantasti c, somehow indeterminate charact er. On the
modern piano Beethoven's long pedal-marks are not
always appropriate. I hold t he chords C sharp-E-A and
E-G-C silently wit h t he left and use t he pedal as
necessary for t he right hand.
7J
FIFTH LECTURE
I divide the passage in bar ' 70, beginning already in
169, between t he left and right hand:
~
le f t if
left
In the var iant (bars 189 ff.), which 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 emphasis on the interval of the
third in the upper part (inversion of the third at t he
beginning of t he movement). One feels t ha t the whole
movement has 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 major, which is marked dolee, has a moving, childlike
simplicity. The dreaded demisemiquaver-passages in the
left hand at the repeat of t he main subject can be given
to t he r ight hand: t hat was, however, probably not Beet-
hoven's intention. Qui et concentrati on should overcome
the difficulty. Notice that in bar s 69 If. duplets appear in
pl ace of the triplets.
It is strange that the whole movement shoul d consist
almost enti r ely of major chords, whereas the t hird move-
74
SONATA I N E FLAT MAJOR, OP . 3 1, NO. 3
ment is wholly in the minor, with t he exception of two
brief episodes which seem all the brighter by contrast .
Ther e is an interest ing story t hat Beethoven composed
the last movement in t he twilight as he saw a r ider
galloping past t hrough the mi st. Perhaps that explains
the notat ion of t he left hand with it s implied rhythm
which r eproduces t he fall of a horse' s hooves. According
to the sketch-books this rhythm (or iginally with a str ing
quartet in mind?) was the germ of the movement.
Every four-bar strain must be t aken as a unit with the
emphasis on t he t hird bar , as is confirmed by Beethoven' s
own expression marks (sfz.-aesc.-dim.). The form is
sonat a form: first subject, second subject , development,
recapit ulation and coda. Be careful not t o play the move-
ment too fast. It is only A llegretto-a light mist shoul d
veil t he whole scene in spite of a few passionately excite d
passages. Beet hoven only wrotefftwice in t he moveme nt .
Sonata in E flat major, Op , J1, No . J
One is incl ined t o exclaim: 'How otherwise upon me
works this sign! '1 yet here, too, the first movement
begins away from the tonic chord.
For me the whole work has a feminine psyche, t ender,
supple, fiery, quick, changeable, rather capricious, even
moody. The tempo must be determined by the passage
1 Quotation from Goethe ' s Faust, Part I.
75
FIFTH LECTURE
with t he t welve demisemiquavers in the second subject
group. Reinecke already demanded that t he accent in t he
var iant of t he the me (bar 20) should come on t he first
note:
The hand should be lift ed off every t ime .
The form of the movement is easily discerned.
The second movement, Allegretto vivace, is sometimes
r egarded as a substit ute for a slow movement. That is not
t he case; it is rat her t he qui et , cantabile Minuet which
follows t hat takes the place of a slow movement. Despite
the vivace, however, the t empo should be slow enough for
t he demisemiquaver upbeats in bars 4-3 ff. to be audible
after the semiquavers in t he r ight hand. Nor should a
graceful, singing line be lacking in t he opening t heme of
the r ight hand. The sforzandos should only be relati vely
loud. The form is sonat a form. Owing to the change of
key, Riemann describes the passage from bar 4-3 onwards
as a second subject . To my mind, the new idea already
enters with the previous fortissimo in F major. Consider-
able t echnique is required in t he left hand. Tiny, light
lower-arm movements seem to help here; the main thing
is to be absolutely loose. The change of fingers in the left
hand in the closing theme must be practised. Anyone who
hear d d' Albert play t his piece will not forget t he parl ando,
the charm, the air iness of hi s pl aying- midsummer-
night's-dream music by Beethoven.
The Minuet 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.
7
6
THE SONATAS, OP. 49
The last movement, in sonata form, provides the
virtuoso with a rewarding task. The opening is, as it were,
the consequent of a non-exist ent ant ecedent. It starts off
twice befor e it decides to be a real beginning. Both the
beginning and the accompaniment of the second subject
in the left hand should be played in a light non-legato
style with det ached fingers.
The appear ance of the dominant of B flat major in bar
34 gives me the impression of a second idea more
strongly than the actual second subject, since the latter
mer ely reproduces the rhythm of the first. Everything
must be exceedingly light and airy in this movement, and
one' s enjoyment of pl aying, of ' having a t echnique ', must
vie with the t emperament and r hythmic verve of the
music.
T he Sonatas, Op, 49
The sonat as, Op. 49, which ar e also called Sonatesfaciles,
ar e oft en thought to have been composed in an earlier
period, or to have been intended as exercises for amateurs
whose technique was not very advanced. No doubt Beet-
hoven may have gone back to early works as he can be
shown to have done 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
amat eur; it would be altogether wrong to imagine him as
a sort of Olympian god. He was not above taking an
occasional hint from 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 LECTURE
would be wrong, however, t o r elegate the two sonat as to
Beethoven's youth and dismi ss t hem as unimportant . '
They contain a few characteristically lat e features such
as the transfer of the melody to t he left hand in the
r ecapit ulation of No. 1, and t he coda of the same
movement .
Sonata in G minor, Op. 49, No. 1
The work consists of t wo movements. The first is in st rict
sonata form, the second is called a Rondo. The episode
in B flat is enclosed, however , by a little paragraph in
G minor with semiquaver accompaniment , probably in-
t ended to prepare for the key of B flat. This modulation"
is unnecessary when the episode re t urns in G major , and
is ther efore omitted.
Sonata in G major, Op, 49, No. 2
Her e, too, the first movement is in sonata form. The
development is remarkably brief. The well-known
Minuet has a lively littl e middle section which 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 sonata was dedicat ed to Count Ferdinand von Wald-
stein, Beethoven's first patron in Bonn wher e the Count
7 ~ .
....= ------ - - ------ - - - - --- - - - - - - - - -
SONATA I N C MAJ OR, OP . 55
was in the service of t he Elector Maximilian, Beethoven's
employer . When Beethoven left Bonn in ' 792, Count
Waldstein wrote in his autograph-book : ' Mozart 's genius
is still mourning the death of his ward. In the inexhaus-
tible Haydn he found a refuge, but no employment .. ..
Through unremitting industry you shall receive Mozart's
spirit from t he hands of Haydn.'
It is puzzling t hat ther e is no evidence of any furthe r
contact between the t wo men up to 1805/4 when this
sonata was composed. In any case, Beethoven did dedicat e
one of hi s most important works t o the Count as a t oken
of gratitude.
The wor k is possibly t he most piani st ic of all Beet-
hoven's works. It belongs to t he ser ies of works from Op.
50 to Opi 60 which r epresent the consummation of his
art. Everything-contents, form, presentation, the pro-
portions of the movements and their interrelation-com-
bines to form a perfectly harmonious whole. Later works
re veal furt her developments and achieve greater heights
in one or othe r respect-but as far as t he perfect balance
of all t he requirements is concerned t he works between
Op. 50 and 60 r epresent the summit.
The French call this sonata L'aurore, and the title
suits it very well. The first movement in particular has
the r adi ance of dawn, an ' aur a ' which reminds us of
Goethe's ' Ganymed '; and perhaps it is more than a
coincidence that a bird-call in Schubert's setting of that
poem repeats exactly a certain figure in this sonata. But
even wit hout any such poetic interpretation, the work is
obviously a mast erpiece on its purely musical meri ts. It
is r emarkabl e for the way in which logical development
and organic construction produce just the ri ght emotional
effect .
79
FIFTH LECTURE
Let us look more closely at the first movement. It is
important to realize how novel, for t he period in which it
was written, was the introduct ion of B flat major as early
as the fifth bar in a C major work. This B flat is the sub-
dominant of F, which is the sub-dominant of the tonic.
But perhaps Beethoven's main concer n was with the
chromati cally descending bass which moves fr om C to G.
The harmonic ground-plan in the exposit ion is deter-
mined by the attainment of B major, t he dominant of
E major, in which key Beethoven introduces the second
subject . Once again a case in which the second subject
appears in t he key a t hird above that of the first subject .
A figurat ed subject brings pi anistic delights which lead to
the theme of the codet ta . This is not easy to play if the
crescendo and the subito piano are to sound emotionally
just ified. The 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 the key to the
correct t empo, which is usually t aken too fast, thus for-
feiting 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 to-
wards 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 Monologue fr om the 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 second t ime, and the same formula ext ended by an
additional ritardando the t hir d t ime. But above all, we
must r ecreat e the psychological impulse behind this t hre e-
fold hiatus with its alternat ion of A and A flat .
80
SONATA IN C MAJOR, OP. 53
The second movement, which is ent itled Iruroduzione,
is a substi t ute for the piece in F major wh ich was origi-
nally int ended but which Beethoven published separately
as the Andante f avori. Possibly hi s fr iends' objection t hat
the move ment was too long was t he r eason why he
dropped it . In any case, we cannot, at t his t ime , conceive
of a more apt preparati on for the Rondo than this
Introduzione. It is likely that the E of the left hand in
the second bar was intended to be pl ayed an oct ave lower .
Although Beethoven 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 hand is very impor tant. The pedal-sign over the
first eight bars can only be carried out with some cun-
ning on modern pianos, yet it makes an essential contri-
bution to t he t heme 'echoing from the mountains' . An
extreme pianissimo in t he right hand and a slight
vibrating of t he pedal will give the effect the composer
had in mind. In form, t he movement is a strict Rondo,
its only irregularity being the brief suggest ion of the third
episode before the first in A minor.
The trill against the theme in the right hand should be
execute d continuously. Only where the melody plunges
int o its G is a brief pause necessary. The t empo will be
det ermined by the need t o keep something in reser ve for
the Prestissimo and by t he clean execut ion of the semi-
quaver triplets in t he t hi rd episode in which the hand
shoul d be kept very relaxed. In a wor d, do not take t he
movement too fast .
The fact that t he Pr esti ssimo is r eminiscent of the duet
o namenlose Freude from Fidelio suggests the kind of
execut ion r equired. The octave scales should be played
F 8I
FIFTH LECTURE
glissando, 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.
SIXTH LECTURE
Beethoven's I nstrument s
When I try to imagine the condit ions which Beethoven
encountered in Vienna when he arrived ther e in 1787 and
when he returned t here later on, I cannot help compari ng
them with the situation today whe n artists find in most
large houses an up-to-dat e ra dio and record player but
more often than not a t otally untended piano. Admittedly,
it is much cheaper to buy a modern record player today
than it was to buy a piano in those days. In his young
days, Beethoven would have found an occasional spinet
and harpsichord in his fri ends' houses since people only
acquired pianos very gradually. We know that Beethoven
was given Walter , Broadwood and Erard grand pianos
and that he owned Gr af and Streicher grands. In letters
to fr iends he waxed ent husiastic about the new inventi on
of una, due, tre corde, and illustr ati ons of his pianos show
up to six pedals. The compass of his keyhoards varied a
great deal. Especially in t he second half of hi s life he made
alterations in hi s works which take into account the ex-
tended compass of the lat er instr uments. But t here ar e
st ill many passages wher e a transfer t o the now cus-
tomary higher r egist er may 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 he often invent 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 him, but downwar d transposition and octave-
8}
SIXTH LECTURE
doubling are not always an improvement. Such matters
have to be handled wit h good t aste and great discr et ion.
The ear must always be t he ultimate judge.
Sonata in F major, Op. 54
Despised by some and ignored by others, this sonat a is
treated as a st epchild. Unjust ly, however, insofar as it is
a product of t he matur e Beethoven and hi s features ar e
unmistakably present in it. The first movement of the
work, which was composed in 1804, is remarkable for the
abr upt ness of the second main idea in octaves. Many
people criticize this for being a typical expression of Beet-
hoven's offhandedness. I am inclined t o think t hat we
shoul d somehow adapt t his second subject t o the first
which is, after all, entitled I n tempo d'un Menuetto. We
shall be more likely to establish the unity of the move-
ment if we do not t urn it int o a mere clatter of oct aves.
The form is A B A B Coda (A).
The second movement , Allegretto, is a piece which, if
well pl ayed, can easily hold its own alongside t he last
movements of other early sonat as. The fact that only one
idea is developed in unint errupt ed motion is made up for
by the wealt h of modulat ions and the charmingly pianis-
t ic sounds it produces. The first part shoul d be repeat ed,
as dir ect ed; I omit the second r epeat. One may imagine
oneself on the bank of a river which passes by in changing
patterns, long, calm waves alternating with eddies-but
t he element of water, t he symbol of ever-renewed life, is
always present.
SONA TA I N F MINOR, OP . 57
Sonata in F minor, Op, 57
When we st udy this magnificent work we cannot fail to
realize that we ar e confronted with one of the greatest
peaks in the hi story of the sonata and that a player must
have attained maturity to present a clear picture of it to
t he list ener. Technical mastery must be complemented by
the ability of unifying its vast outl ines by hi ghlighti 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.
The sonet a appear ed in 1807 but the sketches go back
as far as 1804. As to its incepti on, Ferdinand Ries records
that he once accompani ed Beethoven on a walk in stormy
weather during which Beethoven hummed and sang the
whole t ime; on arriving home, he improvised for hours
on end and t hen sent Ries home apologizing for not
having given him a lesson that day. Beet hoven had the
ma nuscript of the work with him when he was asked in
Gratz t o play for the Fr ench general for whom Count
Li chnowsky was giving a recept ion. Beethoven l ~ e f u s e d 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
played it from a manuscript t hat had been soaked in the
rain. 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 groups of triplet crotchets
whereas what is required is t he dist inct playing of each
85
SIXTH LECTURE
of the twelve quavers. In this work every note is so sig-
nificant, so r elat ed to the whole, that any indistinctness
will lead to the gravest errors in interpr et ation. 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 hi s lifetime and is quite apt. I do
not see t he point of slowing down on t he appearance of
the second subject t hough it is advocated by some dis-
t inguished edit ors; after all, t he second subject is mer ely
a transformation of t he first . You shoul d continue t o pl ay
in the t empo at which you play t he first t hree quavers. In
view of the import ance and t he difficulty of deciding on
the ri ght t empo it may be well t o follow the example of
some great artists who, before they begin, make a point
of recalli ng some cha ract eristic theme about the t empo of
which t here can be no questi on (such as the horn-motif
of the Ninth). In this case, t he third subject in A flat
minor (bar 51), which Riemann 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 hink of it as a mer e epilogue.'
That the repeat of the opening in G flat (bar 5) must sound
differ ent from t he 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 writ ing out or even thinking out trills i n
exact time is pedant ic. Trill s and ornaments such as
mordents and appoggiat uras ar e a t est of t he player 's own
judgement. A trill is any numb er of repet iti ons of t wo
notes: how many should be left to the player to decide.
The same applies t o pauses: t hey shoul d not be calculated
1 Strictly speaking, Ri emann's 'epilogue ' is the transition between
the second subject proper and the codet ta. P.H.
86
SONATA I N F MI NOR, OP . 57
in advance. They are interrupti ons of the rhythmic pulse
and have vari ous causes, meanings and effects. If the
length of a pause were t o be measured, its aim, namely the
suspension of count ing, would be denied. Feel them,
don' t count them!
The transition t o t he development is effected by t he
enha rmonic change from A flat minor to G sharp minor;
the latter is the relative minor of B major which is the
dominant of the ensuing E major.
The following phrases containing t rills should be
'orchestrated ' in differ ent colours. Ways of obtaining t his
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 ri sing figures in bars 2 19 ff. the rhythm
shoul d be well articulated:
The D flat in bar 228 should be played wit h the r ight
hand.
The fact that audiences have been known to applaud
after the fortissimo chords in the Pi u allegro of t he coda
is a sign of the ir ignorance 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
reduced, with the help of the soft pedal, t o a volume which
allows the melodic line 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
I ,
SIXTH LECTURE
but remember that this r efers t o the quavers, not crot -
chets, Most difficult is, perhaps, t he first vari ation whe re
an exact alternation between quaver chor ds and rests in
the right hand is confronted with the perfect legato of
the syncopated bass. In the subseque nt vari at ions the
music r ises t o ever grander heights. The demisemiquavers
must be played expressively, though lightly and t enderl y.
The ff which is printed in most edit ions at the climaxes
of the third var iation is not aut he nt ic. All bri lliancy must
be eschewed. The last variation becomes calmer and
calmer. The penultimate bar, with the diminished
. seventh, r eally belongs t o t he previous bar (bar 95). The
D flat in the trebl e of bar 96 should be played as a
melody-not e:
'g
A ,
1':\
., .
"
' d '
-r
If
P ';' 1'!
~
l ' ~
s
In the autogr aph, the arpeggio sign of the last chor d
applies only to the left hand. The unbroken touch of the
r ight ha nd gives t his chord its piercing int ensity. The
t errible relentlessness of the following bars should be ob-
tained by st abbing at t he keys with a fixed wrist .
According to Ri emann, the last moveme nt is in sonat a
form. I rather r egard it as a Rondo whose first episode in
C minor, though it opens with t he rondo theme, goes off
in a differ ent direction. Aft er the double-bar t he t heme
comes back in a strange har moni zati on and then gives
way to a second episode in B flat minor.
88
SONATA I N F SHARP MAJOR, OP. 78
It is important to stress the anxiety inher ent in this
subject . Beethoven's instruction to r epeat the long sect ion
aft er the doubl e-bar is odd. It is never compli ed with, but
anyone who has the necessary sta mina should try it ,
t aking the t empo allegro ma non troppo as directed and
holding back his final r eserves of strength, and-this
appli es to the whole work- seeing t hat the whole body is
r elaxed even in the great est bursts of fury.
And so we leave this work, awestruck by such creat ive
power. Hi s first encounter wit h it must be an unforget-
tabl e exper ience for every musical person.
Sonata in F sharp minor, Op, 78
,
Beethoven himself stoutly championed this sonata against
the claims of the more popular ones. The dedication t o
Ther ese von Brunswick suggests that a great deal of deep
personal feeling went into t he work, so much so, indeed,
that Reinecke thought it shoul d always be played in
pri vat e. I would not myself attribute the composer's
championing of the work to such purely personal r easons,
nor to the proverbial fondness of par ents for their less
successful children but r ather to t he fact that it repre-
sented a new style. Everything is in a state of flux here,
cross-references and allusions appear throughout the
work, though the re is never any dir ect imitation; every-
thing is homogeneous, yet everything is differ ent. Ther e
is a meaning in every note which we feel but cannot ex-
plain. For me, the eighth bar of the Allegro is a concentra-
tion of the t wo introductory bars-thus, one may safely
consider the Adagio the first subject . In the second move-
ment we ha ve t he picture of a happy love, car essing and
89
SIXTH LECTURE
conversing, until the piece ends with loud rejoicing. The
form is A A BA B and Coda (der ived from A).
Sonata in G major, Op, 79 (Sonatina)
' Sometimes even Homer nods' , one is inclined t o say in
r egard to t his har 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 prest o. The dolce in bar 67 proves
t hat the harmonic 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. The new four-bar phrase begins every
t ime at t he corresponding place. The leggiermente in bar
1 2 , and t he end of the first movement, shoul d be played
lightly and playfully.
The second movement has a melancholy air , of t he
kind expressed in Goethe's "Schafers Klagelied' . The
first , fourth and seventh quavers of the bass-line should
be somewhat accented.
The last movement, in rondo form, reminds us of the
counter-stat ement t o the first subject in the last move-
ment of the G major concerto. The first episode is in
E minor , t he second in C major.
Sonata in E flat major , Op. 81A
This sonata was dedicat ed to t he Archduke Rudolf, Beet -
hoven's pupil in composit ion, and it bears t he autograph
t itle: ' Das Lebewoh!. Rei der Abreise S. Kaiser!' Hoheit
9
0
SONAT A I E FLAT MAJOR, OP. 8 l A
des Ver ehrt en Erzherzogs II.udolf. Wien, am 2 1. May
, 80g.' Beet hoven was indignant when t he publisher
Breitkopf, with an eye on the international market, pub-
lished t he sonata with the French titl e Les Adieux. At
t he t ime, a wave of patriot ic feeling was passing through
t he land. Beethoven was caught up in it and it led him to
t he use of German tempo directions and of t he t erm
Hammerklauier . Duri ng t he occupa tion of Vienna by the
French t he Archduke had to leave the city, and Beet-
hoven wanted to express his feelings of fri endship to-
wards his most dist inguished patron. Lat er on, incident-
ally, 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 acquir ed a
universalihuman r efer ence and appl icati on in t his sonata,
which is an exa mple of t he kind of programme music of
which Beethoven hi mself said (r eferr ing to the Pastoral
Symphony) : ' Not painting, but t he expression offeeling.'
I n t his sonata, too, we find the int er woven style which
we have already met in Op. 78. Once again, everything
is so int errelat ed t hat it even is doubtful where the second
subject begins: if it is in bar 55 (bar 'g of t he Allegro)
then neit her of the t hemes begins in t he tonic and t he
t reble is an inversion of th e main subject; but perhaps it
is the espressivo passage of bar 50 (bar 54 of t he Allegro)
which r epeats t he main subj ect note for not e: we meet
the thr ee not es of the int roduction everywhere . The
clear B flat major in bar 50 is more of a quiet contrast
to t he main theme t han bar 55; most li kely, t his is t he
second subject proper. That Beethoven used t he notes
G- F-E flat with conscious int ent in t he Allegro sub-
ject is shown by t he tenuto ma rk in bar , 8.
The coda is particularl y t ender and poeti c. 'vVe hear
9
1
SIXTH LECTURE
the posthorn vanishing in the distance and the beloved
fr iend disappeari ng in a cloud of dust , yet t he r ealm of
absolute music is never abandoned.
The int erwoven style also predominates in t he second
movement, entitled L'Absence, which recalls the intro-
duction to t he first movement. It has t wo t he mes of
contrasting mood: a sigh of forsakenness at t he beginning,
and then a consoling cantabi le-wit h the left hand enter-
ing somewhat rudely in staccato demisemiquavers: the
staccato should be played in t he usual Beethoven manner ,
that is, it should be a r inging, not a piercing staccato;
when Beethoven want s the har sh kind he uses the wedge-
shaped staccato sign. Unfortunately this distinction was
abolished by ni net eenth-century engravers.
The movement falls into t wo halves: from bar 21
onwar ds the first half is r epeated not e for note in anothe r
key. In t hi s lament, the fingers must become spir itual
feelers conveying the finest tremors of emotion to t he
list ener's mind and heart.
Aft er the introducti on t o the Finale, whi ch stands for
t he first embrace of t he reunited fr iends, t here is t he
difficulty of giving adequate expression t o the simple
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 and
loose ar m. The joy of reunion should not be stifled by too
much panting and puffing but expressed in a fr ee and
happy style of playing.- ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SEVE NTH LECT URE
Tempo and Metronome
In connexion with the subject of t empo and the obser va-
tion of metronome markings I cannot help r emembering
the experience of Beethoven' s pupil Ferdinand Ri es whe n
he endeavoure d t o secure a re pr int of Beethoven's Sym-
phonies in London. He asked Beethoven for metronome
numbers, which the composer duly sent to Ri es by letter.
The letter did not arrive and Ri es asked the master to
send them again. Beethoven metronomi zed the sym-
phonies again and sent the numbers to London. Mean-
while the first letter had arrived and it t urned out that
Beethoven had given completely differ ent numbers each
t ime . When he heard about it he cr ied: 'Let us not have
any metronome numbers at all !' It is said that whe n
Brahms was asked to supply metronome numbers for the
Intermezzi he answere d: ' Do you think I'm such a fool
as to play the m the same way every day?'
We have passed through three stages in the question of
t empo . To begin with, the re was the object ive and
academic attitude which Li szt lat er r idiculed as pedantic
and' Lipsian' . In the interpret ation of Bach, in particular,
it led to t hat dry professorial style of playing which makes
Bach sound boring, and whe n applied to the other classics
makes them appear to have been constructed with a t ape-
measure. Yet it is unquestionable t hat a great deal of
good musical liter ature has been based on t his academic
foundation, and it is certainly more pleasant to hear an
academically correct performance than -a babbling and
stammering one lit up by flashes of genius.
9J
SEVENTH LECTURE
Ther e followed t he Romant ic movement, the lat e, in-
t er esting, beautiful, delicat e chi ld of the Revolution.
Since phases of development in interpret ation always
come lat er t han t he corresponding phases in the creat ive
sphere, we rea ped what the romantics Schumann and
Liszt sowed, beauty and fr eedom certainly, but also con-
siderable licence in the matter of pedalling and t empo as
well as an excess of emot ion.
Then came t he purifiers: Busoni, Stravinsky, Bartok,
Hi ndemi th, Toscanini. And we interpret ers are now fol-
lowing in their footst eps. The kind of performance we
aspire to is one that 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 trimmi ngs, but is
not devoid of feeling and expression. Do not let us forget ,
however, that it is impossible for the composer to put
everything in the score. Our aim should not be the kind
of pur e soil and st er ile air in which nothing will grow.
Without humus, wit hout bacteria, t here can be no life!
It is all very well to examine the manuscript with a mag-
ni fying glass to try and see wher e t he c of a 'crescendo '
begi ns, so as to per form it in accordance with the t ext;
one must also have the emotional capacity t o shape the
crescendo in the way Beethoven int ended. Fidelity to t he
score is not enough, vital t hough it was t o correct t he sub-
jecti ve and irr everent attit ude wit h its plush curtains and
dimmed lights. Let me quote, ther efore, what Schindler
said about the playing of Baroness Dorothea Ertrnann, to
whom the Sonat a, Op. 10 1 , was dedicat ed :
' She divi ned even t he most hidden int enti ons in Beet-
hoven's works as certainly as if they wer e in black and
white in front of her.. . . She appeared t o have an inborn
sense of rubat o. . . . She gave a differ ent nuance to t he
94
SO ATA I N E MI NOR, OP. go
main motif in the second movement of the Sonat a, Op, go,
at every occurrence, somet imes flattering and caressing,
somet imes melancholy. In t his way this artist was able to
sway her audience.'
Sonata in E minor, Op, 90
The int er woven style again predominates in t his work.
Rhythms and motifs undergo met amophorses producing
patterns which differ externally but are inwardly related.
Like t he nymph who is turned into a laurel-t ree or a
r eed, the divine soul lives on within the new 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 it s anacrustic charact er, going, as it does,
from a strong to a weak beat. The melodic element
G-F sharp of the opening subject undergoes similar
changes, in the second subject , in the codetta and at the
end of the development. Bar 25 r esul ts from a combina-
tion of the rhythmic element of the main subject with
the beginning of its melodic 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 movement does not cha nge until
bar 55, and Beethoven's ritard. before bar 55 and the
subseque nt a tempo show that the composer felt that
95
SEVENTH LECTUR E
somet hing new was starting at this point. Before t he
recapitulation t here is a t ra nsition skilfully worked by
augmentat ion and dimi nution, whi ch it is qui te difficult
to bring off.
Even though t he second movement is strictly commit-
t ed to its rondo form, the interwoven style is st ill present
in t he developing sect ions and t he coda. It is splendid, the
way Beethoven abbreviat es, twists and transforms the
thir d bar of the rondo t heme until the very last bar
where it reappears in its first shape. Such thi ngs make us
feel that Nature's laws of organic growth are r eproduced
on the spir it ual level- we are re minded even of the
inocul ati on of plants by t he way a secondary theme is
grafted onto simple, strong, primary material.
The sonata was composed in 1814 and dedicated to
Count Moritz Li chnowsky, t he brother of Karl, whom we
have already met. The Archduke Rudolf made his own
handwritten copy of it. The directions are only in Ger-
man. Billow ri ghtly draws attenti on to the fact t hat when
Beethoven wrote ' Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar
vorzutragen' he was t hinking of the average pianist's
habit of rattling off all Rondos as if they were' Rondeaux
brillants '. The t empo must r emain perfectly flowing,
however , and in place of t he r ather indefinit e and in-
volved German words a better direction for the many
non-Ger man speaking pl ayers would be something like
Allegretto oantabile or amabile.
Sonata in A major, Op, 101
Apart from the first movement of Op. 109, this sonata is
the last in the interwoven style. The novel incorpor at ion
9
6
SONATA I N A MAJ OR, OP. 101
of a fugue in the sonata sche me is not a struct ural device,
but aims at enhanced expressiveness. That is t he great
difference between a Bach and a Beethoven fugue. Just
as in t he I inth Symphony Beethoven thought it neces-
sary to introduce t he chorus in the last movement to give
even grander expression to his visions than the instru-
ment al resources of the other movements had enabled
him to do, so in the late piano works he uses the fugue as
a vehicle for the expression of strong, concentrated
emotion. We shall return to this in our discussion of
Op. 106. Her e, in Op. 101 , the form is st ill ra ther open;
but the way one thing grows out of another, the way the
form of the sonat a is hidden, as the structure of a tree is
concealed by t he foliage, the way t he syncopated not es be-
come the' very pulse of t he work-all t his is qui t e unique.
The intimat e connexion bet ween the movements is
proved by t he r epeat of the beginning of t he first move-
ment before the Finale. The whole piece should sound
like a continuous fantasia. This sonata demands every-
t 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 acquaintance we appreciate how well the
Italian and German tempo directions supplement one
another here.
A characterist ic of the first movement is t hat any feel-
ing of fulfilment, of finality, is denied until the coda
motif. Everything r emains open and 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 movement, Alia Marcia, should be played
G 97
SEVENTH LECTURE
rather in t he manner of a string quartet. The indepen-
dence of the parts leads to overlappings in t he rhythm,
which are not easy to negoti at e within the fixed metre.
The harmonic changes from the tonic F major to the
upper t hir d, A major, and the lower t hir d, D flat major;
which replace the usual tonic-dominant relation, also
contribute an eccentric element . By such means Beet-
hoven avoids over-emphasizing the heroic aspect of the
march. Hi s pedalling in t he D flat major passage (bar 50)
shoul d be strictly observed. The Tri o--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 insert-
ing a repeat afte r bar lo- an idea worth trying.'
The introduction to the last movement-A dagio ma
non troppo- should be pl ayed with t he soft pedal-una
corda. It is faintl y reminiscent of certain melismata in
Bach's Chromat ic Fantasia. It must 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 finale 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 pianistic merriment.
The form is sonata form, wit 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 he kind of
humour he shows in t he lat e quartets. It is amusing to
sense the relief of an audience when inst ead of t he strict
fugato, he suddenly goes cheerful again and fini shes the
pi ece in gay excitement .
1 Good editions, such as Heim-ich Schenker's, contain thi s
repeat. P.H.
E I GHT H L E CTURE
Beethoven's Circle of Friends
It is possible t o a large extent to deduce the composit ion
of Beethoven's circl e of fr iends fr om the dedications of
his works. He dedicated Op. 2 to Joseph Haydn but the
r elat ionship with him was more that of pupil and teacher.
The dedicat ion of Op. 7 to the Countess Babette von
Kegl evics was perhaps already a token of manly affection.
In Bonn, Beethoven was on fri endly terms with the von
Breuni ng family which consisted of a widow, three sons
and a daughter . Whilst Frau von Breuning tri ed to be a
mother to him, and t each him good manners, he became
t he inti mat e fr iend of the daughter Eleonore and left he)'
a page from hi s album on his departure from Bonn,
Hi s great patron in Bonn, Count W'aldstein, has alre ady
been mentioned 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 t hat Beethoven came to Vienna and gained
admittance to ar istocratic circles in that city. The Pri nce
Carl von Li chn owsky and his wife gave hi m a cordial
welcome, and he lived for a t ime in their palace. The
Prince' s brother, Count Moritz Lichnowsky, to whom
Beethoven dedicated the Sonat a, Op. go, was also one of
his great admirers. Through the Li chnowskys he was
r eceived by Count Browne, who became a champion of
hi s music; t he three piano sonat as, Op. 10, were dedicat ed
to t he Countess Anna 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 hi s sister Therese.
99
EI GHTH LECTURE
A few of hi s pupils also became close fri ends. These in-
cluded Ferdinand Ri es who later went toEngland to devot e
hi mself t o the publicati on of Beethoven's works in that
country. He also wrote the ' Biographical Notes ' on Beet-
hoven's life wit h Wegeler. Car l Czerny should also be
mentioned. He was t he pupil who supplied valuable in-
formation about Beethoven's own int erpret ations in hi s
pi anoforte method. Since Czer ny was the t eacher of Li szt
the interpret ati ons of t hese two artists represent a dir ect
line from Beethoven to us.
Beethoven made fr iends with t he musicians at the Court
Theatre, including t he violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh, the
cellist Nikolaus Kraft, and the violinist Georg Hellmes-
berger and others. Among t he singers who made a deep
impr ession on him wer e Herr Demmer, who sang Flores-
t an in Fidelio, and t he t wo women Henriette Sontag and
Wilhelmine Schroder-Devri ent, The latter contribut ed a
great deal to Beethoven's fame by her portrayal of
Leonor e in Fidelio.
The letter s t o the Immortal Beloved and the meet ing
with J:l ettma Brentano belong t o this period. Her lively
spir it , imagination and enthusiasm for Beethoven led to
a free dom in her conversation with him that was rare.
Her main purpose was probably the desire to supply
Goet he wit h news about Beethoven. She put letters from
Beethoven into circulat ion of which the aut hent icity is
doubtful. Goethe himself described hi s meeting with
Beet hoven and summed it up by saying: ' I have never
seen a more concentr ate d, energet ic, fervent art ist . I can
well understand 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 have t he soul of an
artist and was able to divine what went on in Beethoven's
1 0 0
BEETHOVEN' S CIRCLE OF FRIENDS
mind and soul better t ha n many a stickler for academic
exactness. Goet he and Beethoven did not become great
fri ends because they were both such strong characters .
The shrewd, wordly-wi se court ier Goethe was unable to
fathom Beethoven's t empestuous nature.
I do not wish t o say anything about Beethoven's
' Immortal Beloved' because ther e was great doubt about
her personality for a long t ime and the stories that were
fastened t o her are t oo fantastic. But I will ment ion one
possible explanat ion: the letter t o t he Immortal Beloved
was found among Beethoven's effects. It had t herefore
never been sent. Is it not conceivable t hat Beethoven did
not want such a beautiful letter to be lost and kept it for
himself?
Beet hoven was caused great anxiety by his nephew
Karl and hi s unsuccessful attempt at suicide. Beethoven
tri ed t o ful fil hi s obligations towards hi s family but he was
too ignor ant of t he world t o do much good. It is well
known t hat the hard of hearing easily t end to become
suspicious. That may have been the reason why Beet -
hoven's circle of fr iends became smaller as t ime went on.
His best fr iends often had to suffer from his suspicious-
ness. For example, the fait hful, though somewhat pedan-
t ic Schindler, whose task it was to check the t akings for
performances of Fidelio at t he Court Theatre, was accused
of inexact it udes in his accounts. He was only appeased
when Beethoven called on him at t he Oper a House to
apologize in person.
Some of hi s fr iends remained loyal to the end. Pri nce
Lichnowsky woul d wait pati ently in the ante-cha mber
when he knew t hat Beet hoven was composing or im-
provising within. The older Beethoven became the more
hi s fame extended and foreign 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
and withdrawn. At the t ime of the Congress 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 his appearance at her
house, and he 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
Beethoven, we are st ill 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 pl an for r ebuilding t he
Beet hoven Hall in Bonn to fruit ion.
Looking back, one may say that whilst Beethoven's
many fr iends had some idea of the greatness of his per-
sonality and made every effort to underst and him, life
it self- the circumstances of t he t ime, the wars and Beet-
hoven's own character-s-oft en made it impossible for
them to give him the kind of fri endship he really needed.
Sonata in B flat maj or, Op, 106
( Grosse Sonat e fiir das Hammerklavier )
Published in 1819 by Artar ia, and composed in 1818 about
the same t ime as the Ninth Symphony, this is indisput edly
the great est of the sonat as, a fact whi ch Beethoven him-
self 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 wait for
more than fifty years: it was only at the end of the last
I 02
SONATA I N B FLAT MAJ OR, OP . 10 6
cent ury t hat Bulow won for it the pl ace which it deser ves
in t he concert -hall.
' The sonata was written in dismal circumst ances; it is
hard to have to writ e for one' s bread,' is another st ate-
ment of Beet hoven' s refer ring t o this work. At t he time,
the soles of hi s shoes were so worn t hat he could not go
out of doors.
Li szt' s re ndering of t he work is said t o have been the
great est feat any piani st mi ght have been capable of. He
scored the Adagio for strings, and t hi s work was the last
that he played befor e his death. Weingartner arra nged
t he whole work for full orchestra.
In connexion wit h the dedicat ion t o the Archduke
Rudolf, it is int 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 hand entit led: ' Kant ate
fur Orchester und Chor auf den Text "Vivat , vivat
Rudolfus " '- which coincides exactly with the openi ng
of the sonata . This version for choir and orchestra con-
firms us in our opinion that Beethoven' s metronome
mark of J = 138 for the first movement (and, inciden-
tally, also that of t he Adagio) is wrong, because t oo qui ck.
It is unpleasant even on t he pi ano 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 har-
moni es
IO]
EIGHTH LECTURE
is impossible at t his speed. The list ener would fail to grasp
the sequences and Beethoven's directi on cantabile would
be impossible to fulfil. But it would be utterly impossible
for a choir to sing ' Vivat Rudolfus ' at this speed.
The main subject , which Br ahms imi t at ed in hi s C
major Sonata, Op. 1, contains the essent ial germs of the
whole movement. To eliminate the difficulty of the
initial skip by t aking the first B flat major chord in the
r ight hand would mean losing t he tension of this mighty
lion-li ke leap. On the oth er hand, it is possible to play the
first bass-note with the r ight hand. Small hands may omit
the D of the r ight hand 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 which Beethoven int ends t o
introduce the second subject . But befor e t his, the hands
must glide and wheel in per fect concor d over t he angelic
figuration of the transition. The small > signs in bar 76
and also in bars 78, 82 and 84 probably indi cate a slight
lengthening of t he not e. The t r ill on t he G in bar 10 6
and the following bars must be cont inued without a
break. In bar ' 72 I play e inst ead of f which is harsher
c c
but seems mor e Beethovenish t o me!1 Ma ny edit ions have
G sharp instead of G in bars 2 1 0 and 2 12 in the first
quaver in the ri ght hand .
1 Yet cont rapuntally, the F (contai ned in all editions) would seem
harsher, breaking as it does the symmetry of the sequence. P.B.
10
4
SONATA I N B FLAT MAJ OR , OP. 10 6
Then follows t he famous transiti on to the r ecapit ula-
tion 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 t hat all t he A sharps ought to
be A nat urals, which would produce t he F major chord,
the domi nant of B flat . If that is so, Beethoven forgot the
natural before the A eight t imes. This assumption is sup-
ported by a pr eliminar y sketch . Plausible though t his may
sound it seems to me quite possible all the same that
when he came to work on the passage Beethoven intro-
duced this crazy, concealed anticipat ion of B flat major;
there are too many har moni c extravagances and meta-
morphoses in this work t o r eject the possibility that the
simple cadence of F major to B flat major see,?ed t oo
commonplace t o him. In any case, it is hardly a matter of
life or deat h, and a mistake in t he t empo is much more
ser ious than an error her e. evertheless, this passage
makes the loss of the manuscript particularl y r egr ettabl e.
Aft er t he r ecapitulation comes the glor ious transition
t o G flat major which is lat er changed to F shar p maj or .
. The second subject follows, i n t he main key of B flat .
The coda recalls t he or iginal purpose of t he work : one
can see the congratulators wit hdrawi ng and hear their
cheers dying away in t he distance.
The Scherzo which, astonishingly, appeared afte r t he
great Adagio in the London edit ion, must glide swift ly
past like a ghost. The exact repetition of the not es is
difficult and a matter of keeping the wrist loose, not of
changing fingers. The Trio, which r esembles t he one in
the Sonata in E flat, Op 7, must also gi ve a feeling of
insubstanti alit y. The canon concealed in t he triplet-
figures of t he r ight hand should not be emphas ized but
should mer ely be allowed to glimmer through. The
I 0 5
EIGHTH LECTURE
Pr esto, 2/4 par agraph is a modificat ion of the Trio
subject. The great F major passage which covers the whole
keyboard is, according to Lenz, one of the 'three great
Amazon r ivers of the piano' . 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
Adagio sost enut o. This twenty-minute colloquy wit h t he
piano is perhaps t he most beautiful contribution ever
made to the literature of our instrument . The Apas-
sionato e con molto sentimento which Beethoven r equir es
seems to cont radict the mezza voce, but the contradi ction
is only apparent, since when we have something 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 Lenz' s description of this move ment; but it is in fact
a passionate argument with God which ends in submis-
sion and humilit y, aft er the gift of heavenly consolation
has been received. Metaphors and wor ds ar e only up-
sett ing her e, however, and the statement that 'Music
begins where language ends' is nowher e more applicable.
, Holy peace, how beautiful, how glorious. Here is God,
her e rest to serve Hi m,' Beethove n wrote in hi s sketch-
book.
The first bar was added by Beethoven at a lat e stage.
It ser ves t o force the listener on to hi s knees . I regard t he
movement as consisting of two sect ions, i.e., the whole of
the first part (which includes second and t hird groups in
different keys) is repeated. What comes between is not a
development but a cadenza in the nature of an improvi sa-
ti on. A coda is appended t o the second r epeat. Its pas-
sionate outcry, with the seven F sharps, demands a break
before the re-entry of the first subject. The subject should
I06
SONAT A I N B FLAT MAJOR, OP . 106
then be played quit e softly and r esignedly. The consola-
t ory passage, with the A sharp pointing t o the major,
shoul d be pl ayed with particul ar gentleness. Despit e the
new ent ry of t he first idea in the minor, t he resolution
which t r ansfigures t he end has now t aken place. The
t enths must be struck together, not broken up. The
following aid,
t hat is, pl'aying the A sharp with t he r ight hand, is bett er
tha n an arpeggio, which Beethoven r eserves for the last
chor d.
The way Beethoven leads into t he last movement is one
of his greatest st rokes of genius: leadi ng t he player away
from the sublimit ies back to the ear thly conflict of t he
fugue, foregoing bar- lines, starting four t imes over and
finally, after the gr eat out burst in A ma jor , attaining the
F, whi ch he had begun wit h as in a dr eam, establishing it
now as the dominant of B flat- all this is psychologically
magnificent .
It is not possibl e t o analyse the fug ue her e. The
st udent should r efer t o Busoni' s consummate analysis in
. his 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 writ e a fourth movement worthy of t he pre-
ceding music, but also to give t he pianist a rewar ding
task. But it needs a great mast er like Busoni t o make us
feel that the pi ece is well-written for the instrument.
I 07
EIGHTH LECTURE
Most pianists regar d it as a mer e contrapuntal exercise
and many musicians crit icize it severely on t hat account.
It was, i n fact , intended to be a fine-sounding piano-piece
of great expressive power-the thematic work is merely
the means to an end. With all t he inversions, augme nta-
t ions, crab canons, t he fugue in D major within the
fugue- ' Stage on the st age' , as Busoni calls it- and the
collapse on t he doubl e t r ills, Beethoven int ended t o con-
vey a great emotional experience . Fr om the ruinous
br eakdown of the last page t he opening of t he fugue-
subject r ises like a phoeni x and we realize that this leap
of a t enth harks back to t he begi nning of the whole
sonat a. And so, despite all t he suffering, t he circle closes
with a posit ive affirmation.
In this work, in one creat ion of the spirit, a mortal man
has portrayed and sublimated all the facts of life, its
ri gours, injusti ces, joys, it s heavenly consolations, t he
t emporal and the eternal, the conceivable and the incon-
ceivable.
Sonata in E maj or, Op. 109
Dedicat ed to Maximiliane Brent ano, this sonat a was com-
posed in ,820 and published by Schlesinger in Paris.
Once again, Beethoven reveals a new side of his per -
sonality. The work has the cha rm and luminosity of an
old sweet heart met again aft er twenty years, wit h t he
same noble featur es but spirit ualized and more trans-
par ent.
The tonal sequence of the movements is Major-Minor-
Major . The emot ional seque nce is Soft -Har d-Soft . The
opening of the first movement is not easy to play : the
J08
SONATA IN E MAJOR, OP. 109
rocking, hovering effect must be 'described' with small
arm movements. Finger technique alone will not obta in
t he r equir ed effect. The difference between t he Vivace
and the Adagio is only apparent. The whole t hing must be
of one piece, li ke 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 manu-
scr ipt contains, again and aga in, the words ligato or
legato in red pencil. The p in bar 9 is only over the right
hand. I continue to play forte in the left hand, thus:
The development should be played in one long, un-
broken line. In bar 48 (91 bars before th e second Adagio)
the r ecapitulation begins.
The movement is in str ict sonata form, t he Adagio
espressiio being the second subject. It takes t ime for t he
many expression marks to become so ident ified with the
player's own feelings that they do not appear mer e labels
but part of an organic and absolutely inevitable whole.
The chords in bars 75-77 are important. Insignificant
though t hey may appear, t hey sum up t he essence of
what has gone before.
Though the second movement is marked Prestissimo,
the t ime must be felt as a real 6/8, not 2/ 4 in triplets.
Every quaver should ther efore be given its full value. The
I09
EIGHTH LECTURE
movement is in sonat a form, the second subject beginning
at bar 33. The third movement is in vari ation form and
r epeats the theme, this uniquely beautiful and simple
song, at the end. This concluding repeat shoul d be
pl ayed even more t enderly and with the deepest expr es-
sion. The variations without r epeat marks ar e double
vari ati ons. Below the last t rill on B, one bar befor e the
final statement of the theme, Billow added an F sharp
and D sharp to the melody on the fourth and sixth
quavers. This is not to be r ecommended: the A shoul d
lead t o the G sharp of the theme.
lI D
NI NTH LECTURE
Beethoven Biog raphies
There is a great number of biograph ies of Beethoven. I
should like to make a few personal comments on some of
them. It seems to me that t hose by authors who knew
Beethoven personally or lived in hi s immediat e circle are
more authentic and alive t han those which are mere
scholarly compilations of the facts of hi s life and work.
Naturally hi s later biographers had access t o certain
sources which were not available to his own contempor-
ari es. But .that is not always of decisive import ance.
The first writ ers who lived wit h Beethoven and may be
considered to have been aut hent ic witnesses of his life
were his fr iends Ri es and Wegeler. Ferdinand Ri es was
a hi ghly-gifted pianist and a pupil of Beethoven' s in
Vienna. He later li ved in London, and i n the last years of
Beethoven's life ma de great efforts to br ing him to
London and find good publishers and suppor ters for his
wor ks. The tokens of gratitude and the mat erial assistance
which he r eceived from London wer e at any r at e a great,
albeit belated, joy to Beethoven on hi s death-bed. In
co-operat ion with Dr. Franz Wegeler, a fri end of Beet-
hoven's youth, Ri es published t he Biographical Notes on
L udwig van Beethoven in 1838.
One of the most important witnesses of Beethoven' s
life' was Anton Schindler. Later on, t her e broke out a
bitt er conflict of opinion about him which was evoked by
Beethoven's own cha nging attit udes towards him.
On hi s death-bed Beethoven himself was asked who
I H
NIN TH LECTURE
was best qualified t o writ e his biogr aphy as he conceived
it . Re nominated Rochlit z. Johann Friedr ich Rochlit z was
a well-known aut hor and as editor of the Allgemeine
musikali sche Zeitung in touch with every aspect of musical
life.
When questioned about the pri nciples on which a
biogr aphy should be based, Beethoven r eplied : ' Only t he
whole truth!' And in hi s opinion a biogr aphy shoul d not
appear until ten years after t he subject's death.
Schindler kept to that and did not publish his book on
Beethoven unt il , 840. It is t rue t hat he was a pedant, but
he was nevertheless a genuine fr iend of Beethoven, con-
cerned with the truth and above all with fidelity to Beet-
hoven's musical int ent ions. One thinks of his pious col-
lect ion of sketches for a Tenth Symphony-in whose
existence many people r efuse to believe, since in t heir
view a Tenth would have been impossible after the
Ninth. All t he same , we do know Beet hoven's int entions:
he was aspiring in t hat work towa rds a union of absolute
music with r eligion.
The most important of the lat er biographers was t he
Ameri can, Alexander Wheelock Thayer , who devoted hi s
life and r esources to t he writ ing of hi s work. It was
edit ed by Rermann Deit ers and complete d by Rugo
Ri emann. Unfort unately Riemann used the work t o sub-
stant iate hi s theory of t he predominance of subjects st art -
ing on t he upbeat; he also omitted to explain which par ts
wer e written by himself and which by Deiters. A new
edit ion of Thayer's work would t he refore be very
welcome.
For the rest, I woul d mer ely like t o sket ch the impr es-
sions I have r eceived fr om the innumerable biographies
which have been written since then.
112
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BEETHOVEN BIOGRAPITIIL
The biography by the Russian Wilhel m von L nz,
written in t he middle of the last century, is fascinat ing
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 imaginati on whi ch are character ist ic of
the romantic period in Russia,
Adolf Bernhard Marx went about his task of descr ibing
Ludwig van Beethoven's Life and Work ( , 859) with Ger-
man thoroughness and exha ustiveness; his book not only
became the ma in source of information about Beethoven
to my mother's gener at ion (1858- 1947), but can still
ser ve t he you nger generation of today,
The work of Paul Bekker ( 19l1 ) is written in ap
essentially modern spir it and det ermined by a com-
pletely 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.
The most i mpor tant of the I' OC nt works on J3 i hov n
is the book by WaIt 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 here somet hing of t he spir it which enabled Wilh lm
Furtwiingler to be such a unique interpreter of J3 et-
hoven's music.
The themati c-bibliographi cal catalogue compiled by
Georg Kinsky, which was published after the aut hor 's
death by Hans Halm under t he title Das Werk Beethovens,
is a compendium of everything one could wish t o know
about Beethoven's compl ete works, and I should like t o
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NINTH LECTURE
end my little survey wit h a reference t o t his book which
contains exhaust ive det ails about the date of origin, auto-
graph, publication, first edit ion, references in letters,
dedicati on and lit er at ure of each work.
Finally, a word about the books which deal specifically
with the piano sonatas : t he most important are Karl
Reinecke's book; Theodor Pfeiffer 's Studien bei Hans von
Biilow; Jacques-Gabri el Prod'homme's Beethoven's Piano-
forte Sonatas ; and Tovey's great work, A Companion to
Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonatas .
Sonata in A flat major, Op, 110
Composed in December 1821, without a dedication, at the
t ime when Beethoven was writ ing the Missa solemnis.
The childlike simplicity of t he main subjects warms the
heart as 'one re members all the vicissitudes t hat the com-
poser had t o overcome befor e he could r each this point.
If we call Op, III a masculine work, this sonat a is
feminine, though such descriptions do not go to the heart
of the matt er. The Adagio with the two fugues fore-
shadows the 'Danksagung eines Genesenen an die Gott-
heit', 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 style of all three
last pi ano sonatas strongly points towards t he last quartets.
In the first movement it should be r emembered that the
primal roots of every rhythm are to be found in breath-
ing, the heart-b eat, or the dance-st ep. The only questi on
is, what are the rhythmic units ? They are t he crotchets
her e, and by r eferring the Moderato to them, we shall
keep the tempo from sagging . Yet , in the final bars , every
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SONAT A I NA FLAT MAJ n, P. " Q
not e must be given its utmost value. I n th fifth bru f" on,
t he end the opening subj ect appears in the left ha" I.
The movement is in sonat a form, with a notably simple
development.
The Scherzo should be thought of in c-bar strains (4/4)
with the accent on t he second bar. The Trio shows that
the whol e movement must be taken fairly steadily, so that
the Chopinesque filigre e figuration in the right hand can
achieve its full poet ic effect . The main notes in t he left
hand (D flat , to st art with) ought perhaps, ideally, to
continue sounding. In the coda, t he chor ds fall on t he
unaccented bars and t his gives a pleasantly comforting
effect t o the final F major chor d which comes on a strong
bar .
No break should be made 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 chords 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 the s miquaver
accompaniment of the Ario 0 th le ys should not b
complet ely r eleased at all : the chords sh old b pa k cl as
t ightly togeth r as possible.
The sanglots intercoupes at the r epent l' th r i so
(bar 116) must be played as sensit ively os possible, like-
wise the resurgence of the heart-beats in the last major
chords (bar 132).
The second fugue with the inversion of t he fugal sub-
ject presents the considerable difficulty of integrat ing the
rhythmic augmentation and diminution into the context,
and of developing the accompanying figure of the end
from the fugue subject . That the diminution is not
exactly twice t he speed of t he first statement is shown by
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NINTH LECTURE
Beethoven's own meno allegro and the subseque nt piu
malo.
Great int ensity of touch and skilful pedalling are de-
manded by t he high-lying, radiantly transfigured melody
of t he end. Any acceleration in the last bars would be
wrong.
Sonata in C minor, Op. 111
Dedicat ed to the Archduke Rudolf, 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 summing-up of Beethoven's
whole nature, a testament of his spiritual world which left
nothing for him to say in the form of the piano sonata.
At least , that is how it appears to us poor mortals.
The two movements of this work symbolize this world
and the worl d t o come . Thus, the r elentless figuration of
the first movement in which Beethoven expressed life' s
hard struggle should be chiselled out with steely fingers,
whilst the Arietta, which r epresents the transcendental,
should be played with a touch so dematerialized as not to
seem to be of this wor ld. How is this to be achieved? 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 technique . Be com-
pletely conscious of the relat ive unimport ance of det ails;
be conscious of t he eter nal laws that rule the stars, and
then your hands and fingers will become 'Jlla gnetic' and
conjure up a t ranscendental light from wood and strings.
The first move me nt, Maestoso, should be begun in t he
grand manner. What was said about the dreaded leaps at
the beginning of Op. 106 also applies her e. Beethoven
may have been aware that bars 11 and 1 2 (upper part)
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SONAT A I N C MINOR , OP . '"
contain the upbeat of t he first subject of the Allegro ill
double augmentation. On the other hand, I cannot en-
t irely agree t hat there is an affinity bet ween the second
subject and the first, as demonstrated by Schenker
(Riezler). In this connexion, there is also the question
whether the second minim in bar 115 should be E flat
or c. It is true t hat the harmonizati on of the two par allel
passages is differ ent, but I think the int erval of the
diminished seventh, existing bet ween bass and treble in
the exposit ion, is impor tant and should recur her e in the
form of F sharp-E flat.
The Ari etta in var iation form r equires a complete
cha nge of attit ude on the part of t he player . I n the first
variation the pedal should be used so car efully that the
cello-like part in the left hand can come thr ough qui te
clearly. The time signatures 6/16 and 12/32, alt ernating
with t he basic 9/ 16, might suggest t hat bars 33 an I ~ , 9
ar e longer , but the three quaver uni ts al wn s ,. mnin t h
same , in accordance with the subje t- wlt lit ,. lit or
divided into triplets, se rn iqunv rs, d rnis miquuvers 01'
hemidemisemiquaverso
The section f rom bar 106 to 129 b t w 11 tit fOll tl, alld
fifth variat ion (t he fifth is a doubl vuri uu 11 ) with tlt u
modulation to E fl at, intr oduced by t he s v n J3 ll nts ill
the lower part in bars 112 and 11 3, should be mad to
sound like an improvisation, preparing for the great sixth
variation. At the end one shoul d be conscious of the
beginning of the subject and its inversion in the bass. The
t ie in bar 161 comes off better if the G is taken by the left
hand .
"Ve have come to the end. It shoul d have become clear
Il 7
NINT H LECTURE
by now t hat Beethoven possessed within hi mself the
creat ive power of nature herself, Tremendously subjec-
ti ve t hough he was, he raised the personal to the level of
the t ypi cal and the uni versal and gave us an example of
how it is possible in spit e of mat er ial and human li mi t a-
t ions t o r eveal the eternal in the t empor al.
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