Beethoven:"Hammerklavier" Piano Sonata #29 in Bb major - A Flight of Fingers

1/5/11 – Beethoven: Piano Sonata #29 in Bb major

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosphy.
Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.
-Ludwig van Beethoven

            “The Mount Everest of Sonatas,” or Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” begins far differently than the sonatas I’m more familiar with.  True to its nicknames, the first movement beats you over the head with “B-flat major” in a very triumphant hammering of the opening theme.  While I always think of Beethoven as kind of blurring the lines between the classical and romantic periods, this seems more to be a step back; the music is less emotive to the point of seeming stoic and cold, and more flamboyant in its showmanship.  Admittedly, the same primary complaint I had with the Rachmaninov concerto a couple days ago.  Maybe that’s just the mood I’m in.  Regardless, the treatment of the following themes is decidedly baroque in its predictable harmonic progressions in fifths and fugues.  The development offers some decent harmonic flights, but the calculated, overly repetitive rhythmic structures seem to keep the first movement from, well, developing.  So much that when the recap comes around, you hardly notice the original statement has left.

            The second movement Scherzo, breaking from typical sonata form, seems at times to be an extended coda to the first movement.  Clocking in at under 3 minutes, it hardly holds its own amidst the surrounding movements, ranging from 9:15 to nearly 15 minutes.  Again, the singular rhythmic motif, a dotted “bum-baDEE-dum” hardly seems out of the exposition by the time it comes back.  I’m beginning to wonder if my tonal palate, educated (or mutilated, depending on your perspective) by constant study of 20^th century composition, has led to an oversimplified notion of common practice tonality.

            On the other hand, the adagio third movement delivers what the first two seemed to lack.  (Did I mention that I’m a sucker for slow movements?)  Also, I find Beethoven to be at his best in the minor keys.  Here, in part because of it’s length, I lose track of the themes, and forget to keep track of the analysis – if the first two movements were heavy of exposition and recapitulation, this seems to stay in a state of constant development.  And I am very ok with that.  I’d rather lose myself in this movements wandering than become quickly bored with the other two.  Everyone always comments on Beethoven’s passion and fury; I could give or take the fury.  Give me the “appassionato e con molto sentemento” any day.

            The final movement begins with a particularly slow and contemplative introduction that helps bring the listener down from the mountaintop of the third movement and back into the world of fugue and the aforementioned fury.  Even then, after a brief statement of the allegro theme, Beethoven returns to the soft introduction, leading into an accelerando like an avalanche, gaining speed the further it progresses.  This time, however, the fugue stays primarily centered around the minor key, and I think in perspective now of the third movement, seems to be more tempered than the cold-natured first movement.  About 2/3 of the way through, it becomes apparent that the introduction is more that just an introduction, but a recurring theme in and of itself.  The contrast between these slower respites and the finger-flying fugue themes, lends a balance in textures that seemed lacking in the first two movements.  Of course, the final moments of the movement drive the tonal center back to a solid Bb major.  (And the theory gods rejoice, as all is right with the world.)

Next up - Carmen McRae Sings Great American Songwriters
Next week - String Quartet #2 (György Ligeti)