Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827

Complete Piano Sonatas

Theme 1 Heroic Ideals

Sonata No.29 in B flat Op.106 ‘Hammerklavier’1 I. Allegro 10.242 II. Scherzo: Assai vivace 2.433 III. Adagio sostenuto, appassionato e con molto sentimento 12.504 IV. Largo – Allegro risoluto 11.23

Sonata No.11 in B flat Op.225 I. Allegro con brio 6.596 II. Adagio con molt’ espressione 6.137 III. Menuetto 2.548 IV. Rondo: Allegretto 5.22

Sonata No.26 in E flat Op.81a ‘Les Adieux’9 I. Das Lebewohl (Les Adieux). Adagio – Allegro 6.1510 II. Abwesenheit (L’Absence). Andante espressivo 2.5811 III. Das Wiedersehen (Le Retour). Vivacissimamente 5.19

Theme 2: Eternal Feminine – Youth

Sonata No.4 in E flat Op.712 I. Allegro molto e con brio 7.3913 II. Largo, con gran espressione 5.5514 III. Allegro 4.4315 IV. Rondo: Poco allegretto e grazioso 6.02

Sonata No.9 in E Op.14 No.116 I. Allegro 5.3717 II. Allegretto 3.1318 III. Rondo: Allegro comodo 3.08

Sonata No.10 in G Op.14 No.219 I. Allegro 6.2720 II. Andante 4.0321 III. Scherzo: Allegro assai 3.24

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Sonata No.13 in E flat Op.27 No.122 I. Andante – Allegro – Tempo I – 4.3523 II. Allegro molto e vivace – 1.4624 III. Adagio con espressione – 2.0625 IV. Allegro vivace – Presto 4.46

Sonata No.14 in C sharp minor Op.27 No.2 ‘Moonlight’26 I. Adagio sostenuto – 4.2727 II. Allegretto – Trio – 2.1128 III. Presto agitato 7.15

Theme 3: Assertion of an inflexible personality

Sonata No.1 in F minor Op.2 No.129 I. Allegro 3.4030 II. Adagio 4.2531 III. Menuetto: Allegretto – Trio 2.5132 IV. Prestissimo 4.42

Sonata No.2 in A Op.2 No.233 I. Allegro vivace 6.1734 II. Largo appassionato 4.3935 III. Scherzo: Allegretto – Trio 2.5436 IV. Rondo: Grazioso 5.49

Sonata No.3 in C Op.2 No.337 I. Allegro con brio 9.4438 II. Adagio 5.4239 III. Scherzo: Allegro – Trio 2.5840 IV. Allegro assai 5.10

Theme 4: Nature

Sonata No.15 in D Op.28 ‘Pastorale’41 I. Allegro 10.0242 II. Andante 5.2343 III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace – Trio 2.1844 IV. Rondo: Allegro, ma non troppo 4.25

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Sonata No.21 in C Op.53 ‘Waldstein’45 I. Allegro con brio 9.5846 II. Introduzione: Adagio molto – 3.1347 III. Rondo: Allegretto moderato – Prestissimo 9.42

Sonata No.22 in F Op.5448 I. In tempo d’un menuetto 4.4849 II. Allegretto – Più allegro 4.59

Sonata No.25 in G Op.7950 I. Presto alla tedesca 4.1751 II. Andante 1.3952 III. Vivace 1.51

Theme 5: Extremes in collision

Sonata No.5 in C minor Op.10 No.153 I. Allegro molto e con brio 5.2754 II. Adagio molto 6.1755 III. Finale: Prestissimo 4.18

Sonata No.6 in F Op.10 No.256 I. Allegro 5.2957 II. Allegretto 3.5658 III. Presto 2.15

Sonata No.7 in D Op.10 No.359 I. Presto 6.4860 II. Largo e mesto 8.1961 III. Menuetto: Allegro – Trio 2.3762 IV. Rondo: Allegro 4.15

Theme 6: Resignation and action

Sonata No.16 in G Op.31 No.163 I. Allegro vivace 5.5864 II. Adagio grazioso 8.2365 III. Rondo: Allegretto 5.54

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Sonata No.17 in D minor Op.31 No.2 ‘Tempest’66 I. Largo – Allegro 8.3367 II. Adagio 5.5768 III. Allegretto 6.01

Sonata No.18 in E flat Op.31 No.369 I. Allegro 7.5570 II. Scherzo: Allegretto vivace 4.2171 III. Menuetto: Moderato e grazioso – Trio 3.3972 IV. Presto con fuoco 4.27

Sonata No.28 in A Op.10173 I. Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung 3.4874 II. Lebhaft, marschmäßig 5.2675 III. Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll – 2.1076 IV. Presto – Geschwinde, doch nicht zu sehr und mit Entschlossenheit 7.15

Theme 7: Eternal Feminine – Maturity

Sonata No.24 in F sharp Op.7877 I. Adagio cantabile – Allegro ma non troppo 6.2378 II. Allegro vivace 2.41

Sonata No.27 in E minor Op.9079 I. Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck 5.1880 II. Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorzutragen 6.25

Sonata No.30 in E Op.10981 I. Vivace, ma non troppo – Adagio espressivo 3.1882 II. Prestissimo 2.2383 III. Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung 10.54

Sonata No.31 in A flat Op.11084 I. Moderato cantabile, molto espressivo 5.5985 II. Allegro molto 1.5986 III. Adagio, ma non troppo – Fuga: Allegro, ma non troppo 8.34

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Theme 8: Destiny

Sonata No.8 in C minor Op.13 ‘Pathétique’87 I. Grave – Allegro di molto e con brio 8.1588 II. Adagio cantabile 4.2889 III. Rondo: Allegro 4.27

Sonata No.12 in A flat Op.2690 I. Andante con variazioni 6.1691 II. Scherzo: Allegro molto – Trio 2.2692 III. Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un eroe 5.4093 IV. Allegro 2.31

Sonata No.23 in F minor Op.57 ‘Appassionata’94 I. Allegro assai 9.3195 II. Andante con moto – 5.3196 III. Allegro, ma non troppo – Presto 7.34

Sonata No.32 in C minor Op.11197 I. Maestoso – Allegro con brio ed appassionato 8.4298 II. Arietta: Adagio molto, semplice e cantabile 14.34

HJ Lim piano

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Beethoven, a creature of Prometheus

It is far from easy to attempt to understand Beethoven’s relationship with the Creator, which was extremely complex and prone tomany twists and turns. However, I felt it was essential to try to get to the bottom of this spirituality to understand the thoughts andinspiration behind Beethoven’s sonatas. With this in mind, two significant events in 1800 should be considered side by side: thediscovery of the myth of Prometheus and the composer’s increasing and now incurable deafness. Beethoven, at the peak of hisphysical and creative life, had to deal with two totally opposing aspects: the heroism of a demigod and the vulnerability of his all-too-human condition.

This myth, which he set to a ballet in The Creatures of Prometheus in 1801, had everything you could think of to inspire a youngcomposer for whom music was the highest art form of them all, as well as the most appropriate way of conveying the Divine Word toman. To quote Bettina Brentano in her letter to Goethe:

‘With him (Beethoven), any arrangement is a way of organising a superior existence, and he himself feels that he is the creator ofa new basis on which spiritual life will reveal itself to the senses.’

Like Prometheus, who gave fire to mortals, Beethoven saw the Divine Word spread among men through his music. What’s more,this enlightenment also helps us to understand his passion, which admittedly was quickly switched off, for Napoleon, as Beethovensaw a saviour in him. According to Anton Schindler: ‘He hoped that Bonaparte would establish a republic according to Plato’sprinciples, with a few modifications, and would thus lay the foundations for the universal happiness of the human race.’

We may observe a paradox whereby the coexistence of his progressing deafness and his Promethean heroism resulted in aspiritual conflict. Indeed, it may seem hard for us not to notice the similarity between Beethoven who lived at odds with the Creatorbut who wanted to elevate humanity through music, and Prometheus who gave fire (knowledge, spirituality) to mankind, but who waspunished by the gods. So by cursing and revolting against the Creator and defying Him with his Promethean music, Beethoven wastrying to overcome the vicissitudes of his life. The core of his thoughts is reflected in the composer’s letter to his childhood friend,Karl Amanda, in 1801: ‘[…] Your Beethoven is very unhappy to live in conflict with Nature and the Creator. More than once I havecursed the latter for exposing His creatures to the mercy of the slightest misfortune, so much so that even the most beautiful floweris often reduced to wilting or being crushed. […]’, and to his friend Wegler in 1801: ‘[…] My youth, I can feel it, has only just begun[…] For some time now my physical strength has been increasing more than ever, and the same goes for my mental faculties. Everyday, I get closer to my ultimate goal, which I can sense but cannot describe. […] I want to seize fate by the throat; although it willnever completely come to me – Oh, it would be so wonderful to live a thousand lives!’

However, this rebellion against his own fate would not last, reaching its climax in 1802 when, pushed to breaking point, Beethovenwrote his testament in Heiligenstadt. In this document, a perfect example of the conflict of a cursed genius, Beethoven would displayan inhuman strength by choosing the path of resignation. And Plutarch would lead him towards acceptance. But perhaps it waswisdom rather than strength, as far from bowing to resignation, or being ‘led’ by Plutarch, he embraced and accepted this fate. Thisacceptance of his condition ceased being a fight and became second nature, a fact, and even a virtue. The Creator was thereforeperceived as a being to whom he owed complete submission and whom he must serve.

Whereas before he cursed the Creator, bemoaning the fact that ‘the most beautiful flower is often reduced to being crushed andwilting’, he now writes in his notebook that: ‘The world was not formed by the fortuitous reunion of atoms: established forces andlaws, whose origins lie in the most rational intelligence, were the foundation for this unchanging order and could, inevitably and notfortuitously, flow from these atoms. The order and beauty reflected by the organisation of the Universe demonstrate to us theexistence of God […]’, and ‘Submission – Resignation – Resignation! And we know how to take a moral advantage from the most

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profound distress and make ourselves worthy of God’s forgiveness,’ he wrote in his notebook. What a transformation!What a journey he has been on to arrive at this! The fate of a miserable creative mind is now made sublime and sacred. Now

resignation has become necessary and vital for him, as he writes in his notebook in 1811: ‘Resignation, profound resignation to yourfate! That alone will allow you to accept the sacrifices that “service” demands […]’. He goes on: ‘It is with calm and resignation that,placing my trust, Oh Lord, in your perpetual kindness, I want to submit myself to all of the eventualities of Fate […]’, ‘The essentialcharacteristic that distinguishes a man worthy of the name is that he perseveres, regardless of his difficult and conflictingcircumstances’ or, ‘Let us consider the difficulties of existence that litter our paths, as signposts to a better life.’

He went one step further when he willingly chose the difficulties that had by now become essential. In his letter to his ImmortalBeloved, he wrote: ‘[…] I have felt a certain pleasure, as always, when I have happily overcome an obstacle […]’, and to CountessErdödy: ‘We […] were only born for suffering and joy, and one could almost say that the most distinguished among us take joy fromsuffering.’

Even difficulties became an endless source of creative inspiration for Beethoven, and his art began to resemble the Kantian visionof Schiller, who wrote: ‘The first law of tragic art is to represent suffering nature. The second law is to represent moral resistance tosuffering.’ In light of these reflections, we can see how Beethoven transcends the Myth of Prometheus, the demigod imprisoned in theCaucasus, refusing to resign himself to his fate. For Beethoven bowed to the will of God while also giving spiritual fire to humanity. Andall of these battles between rebellion and attempted resignation and acceptance are reflected in his sonatas.

This is why I consider this cycle by Beethoven to be the most intense intimate journal that there is, a journal in which the geniusexpresses, we could almost say illustrates, all of the facets of a life, sometimes made sublime, sometimes idealised, often poignantlyfilled with realism.

As creative genius is veiled in divine mystery, it would be pointless to attempt to scrutinise or claim to understand it. There havebeen many theoretical analyses of Beethoven’s sonatas, and mine looks more closely at the emotional, human, spiritual andpsychological aspects. Indeed, it is rare to be able to tackle a cycle of works that encompasses the whole life of a composer, and inwhich the three key aspects of a human being are united: inner, outer and spiritual life. More than any other composer, Beethoven’smusic is directly connected to events in his life, whether they were romantic, tragic, political, social or spiritual.

As well as being an intuitive and inspired creative mind, Beethoven was also a thinker, a philosopher and an enlightenedintellectual. Each of his dedications is connected to an internal state of mind, a historical event, with an element of friendship, ofgratitude, of honour, and even of symbolism, dedicating his major sonatas to the Freemasons, or to followers of the Enlightenment.Studying and embracing all 30* of Beethoven’s sonatas can help performers better understand the meaning in each one. All of theseconsiderations would not be valid without a source coming from Beethoven himself, or at least somebody close to him. The manyaccounts that we have, the letters and personal notes, are incredibly valuable. In fact, they help us transport ourselves back to thedays of Beethoven, bringing us even closer to the composer.

Each sonata should be performed with as much freshness and innovative inspiration as it could have conveyed to Beethoven’scontemporaries. Thus the revitalisation of the language of passion, of the movements of Beethoven’s heart, of the impact and shockthat this music triggered at that time, is inevitably one of the key tasks of performers. Playing Beethoven’s sonatas is not just aboutperforming pieces of music: it is an attempt to understand all the different facets of a human being, to attempt to shine a light on ourown truth. While Beethoven’s music can help us understand the person that he was, exploring his life can also help us grasp his music.

Alfred Cortot once said: ‘The “know thyself” approach of Greek philosophy should be a constant theme for musical performers.In my view, the stereotypical tradition of a masterpiece leads to the invigorating impulse that the interpretation of a courageously

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expressed sentiment impresses on it.’ All composers have a vital need for the help of performers to be able to perpetuate andcommunicate their music to a larger number of people, to help convey their ‘divinity’ to the listener. However, I have the feeling that,as a performer, I am not only at the service of the composers, but that in turn I use them to convey divinity, and thanks to them, I can attempt to get closer to and communicate with their muse. This is probably what Cortot meant when he spoke of ‘forgettingthe instrument to convey only the essence is how we can equal the great’.

*When it came to the sonatinas Op.49 Nos. 1 & 2, educational pieces that were composed to train pupils and published againstthe composer’s wish and well before the Sonata Op.2 No.1 in F minor which he wanted to be published as his first ever sonata andindeed, here, the Beethovenian signature is strongly impregnated, I chose to respect the latter’s intention by separating them fromthe main cycle.

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Heroic Ideals: Sonatas Opus 106, 22, 81a

Written as programme music, the sonata Op.81a, known as ‘Les Adieux’, explicitly describes departure scenes, absence and the joyof reunion. Composed to celebrate the departure of the imperial family, fleeing the French army as it marched into Vienna in May 1809,this sonata magisterially describes the sustained sadness felt for a governmental rather than sentimental and personal event.

The first three chords of the first movement solemnly announce the departure of an archduke, with horn-like sounds, the typicalinstrument for announcing royal events. This motif of three falling chords prevails throughout the first movement.

This hurried departure, fleeing the French army, is musically expressed in bars 21 and 22, in the flair of the leap up an octave,followed by the melodic chromatic fall expressing pain, the accompaniment for which (bars 21–28) is reminiscent of the mechanismof a wheeled carriage in motion. The brutal wrench is expressed by the descending sixths in bar 33, contrasting with the descendingC minor scale, finally arriving in the key of E flat minor, where this motif of the three ascending chords from the introduction isdowngraded, expressing the pain once more. In bars 50–53, it is presented as a lyric song, where the expressiveness is reinforcedby the chromatic ornaments accompanying it, followed by a melodic line and these four bars are a paraphrase of the first four of theAllegro, bars 17–20, where this motif is heartbreakingly broken into jumping fourths, contrasted by the descending chromatic thirdsgoing in the opposite direction to the ascending melodic song.

Absence is expressed in the second movement, whose early tenth chord conjures up the feeling of emptiness, with the regular quavers conveying the long slow passing of time. We can also see the early signs of the joy of the return in bars 17 and 33.The same musical procession of ornaments is used in bars 9 and 10 of the third movement, expressing the excitement about the reunion.

These ornaments, frequently tinged with urgency, are often used by Beethoven in his piano sonatas, in the breathless panic ofthe ‘Tempest’ in the first bars of the first movement, carefree and mocking in bars 57–60, or, in another form, but with the samerhythm in bar 56 of the first movement of Op.111 to express a terrifying spark of anger.

The scene and the urgency of the departure, the momentum of the flight, the moving carriage, the pain of separation and thejoyful excitement of the reunion are described as well as expressed in a universal way.

For me, the Great Sonata Op.22 represents the genesis of the ‘Hammerklavier’ Op.106 and the heroic pinnacle of Beethoven’sfirst Viennese period before his Heiligenstadt crisis. As he wrote to his editor of Op.22, ‘this sonata is really something,’ and itmarks an important stage in Beethoven’s development in terms of the secret thoughts that drove him. With this in mind, I feel itworth mentioning a work written at the same time as Sonata Op.22, a ballet called The Creatures of Prometheus composed in 1800which is all about the role of art in awakening the latent spiritual forces in mankind. This work, not particularly well-known today,lasts for more than an hour and a half and was an extremely important production, as the first instance of the motif of thePromethean fire, created by a simple musical unit of four perpetual, swirling semiquavers, repeated and circulating throughout theballet, can be found in Sonatas Op.27 No.1 (Allegro vivace), Op.57 (3rd mvt.), Op.111 (1st mvt.) and the great fugue of SonataOp.106. This musical, philosophical and mystical illustration of the myth of Prometheus would influence many future works: the‘Eroica’ Symphony, which was dedicated to the First Consul, contains the final theme of the ballet, showing the joy of humanity, as itgains knowledge. And we find the musical motifs of the ballet in Sonatas Opp. 22, 31 No.3 and especially in the first revolutionarychords of the First Symphony which are a direct repeat of the introduction of the ballet. It is interesting to remember that the firstperformance of this work provoked a lively, violent reaction. In Schindler’s words:

‘As for the music of the ballet, it was no longer played in Beethoven’s lifetime. […] We only mention this to talk about the negativeeffect of a certain chord with which this overture begins. It is worth noting that it took just one chord for Beethoven to make

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irreconcilable enemies, even among musical experts. Beethoven himself talked about this famous chord, describing how a number ofprofessors of composition from the Viennese School, who had not previously spoken against him, declared themselves his enemies.’

Schindler was of course talking about the first shocking chords of this ballet, because the chord marked with the inversion of thedominant seventh in F major, the augmented fourth and sixth, opens this ballet! Furthermore, by reusing the first chords of this ballet,shunned by critics, in the First Symphony that he went on to compose immediately after the ballet, he confirmed not only hiscommitment to his Promethean vision, but also his independent spirit. He went on to write to his publisher Hoffmeister, whocomplained about the severe criticism of Beethoven’s work: ‘Let them speak, they cannot make anybody immortal by their chattering,just as they cannot deprive anybody of the immortality that only Apollo can bestow’ (1801).

Going back to Op.22, we can see how it musically illustrates the different stages of the Promethean myth. To begin with, themusical unit of the Promethean fire, represented by relentless semiquavers, invigorates and launches the first movement, runningthrough the work like a spiritual fire spreading among mankind in the myth; then the reverie and meditation of mankind faced with thisdivine spark that gives them access to this knowledge is expressed in the Adagio. Following the theme of The Creatures ofPrometheus where dancing lights the fire in men, Beethoven introduces the Menuetto, an aristocratic dance rather than a Scherzo.The Rondo follows, its graceful feminine melodic curve characterising the theme, with a warlike central passage. This is part of theseries of ‘feminine Rondos’ to be observed in Op.2 No.2, Op.22 and Op.31 No.1, which follow exactly the same pattern. Thus theeternal feminine dominates the forces untamed by grace (4th mvt.).

While the Promethean idea is expressed in Sonata Op.22, it is the creative spirit elevating mankind that is present in all musicalforms and facets in the Sonata Op.106, ‘Hammerklavier’: after 20 years of the Napoleonic wars and his defeat, the Viennesereturned to a peaceful existence. They shunned any arts with an element of conflict and revolution, moving towards Italian stylesthat were popular at the time, and pleasant music flooded into salons. Meanwhile, following his own path, even going against thisgeneral trend which Beethoven described as being ‘the frivolous, sensual spirit of the moment, 1815’, he chose to look to the past.

So the older Beethoven was characterised by a keen interest in Bach and a studious exploration of counterpoint, instrumentalrecitative and variations. This in-depth study can already be seen in Op.101, written in a counterpoint style, and reaches its pinnaclewith the Sonata in B flat Op.106, in which Beethoven introduces an immense fugue, and his writing becomes more elaborate than inany of his other music.

While the aesthetic laws of music are a microcosmic interpretation inspired by the secret laws of the universe, and a musicalidea carries a certain universality, the first explosive chords of the first movement could be described as the Big Bang, the creationof the world, the trigger of all sonata movements human conscience (bars 5–16). This first movement, with its almost inhumanscope, also contains the explosion of the divine spark, impressed with explosive accents and the eruption of the expressivethoughts that result from it. Initially written for a four-part choir to celebrate the name-day of Archduke Rudolf on 17 April 1818, theproject went in another direction and achieved a Promethean grandeur.

In his notes on the Scherzo, Beethoven wrote: ‘A little house, scarcely big enough to live in it alone. And then a few days in thisdivine Brühl! – Keen regrets or desire, liberation or realisation!’ It is hard to know whether this relates to this Scherzo; in any case, thelively dancing rhythm evokes the heroic dance that guides the spiritual fire spreading among mankind in the ballet The Creatures ofPrometheus, then the theme of the trio in B flat minor reminds us of the initial theme of the ‘Eroica’ symphony.

It would be almost useless to attempt any analysis or explanation of this Adagio, one of the most fervent, intimate andcontemplative of all sonata movements. As music is a symbol and a mysterious metaphor for our interior, emotional life, it issometimes almost impossible to describe it in words, so the profound desolation and bitterness that runs through this movement isalmost indescribable. However, after this long internal journey, one that is so intense and poignant, we emerge in some way

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consoled, with our wounds healed, as though this Adagio were a sweet universal moan, caressing human pain, and thanks to whichmankind feels understood.

The Largo that precedes the great fugue alternates between dream and action, with snippets of improvisation and polyphony, likea sort of recollection of Bach’s Toccatas. Then a vibrant energy erupts from a profound jumble, before disappearing, preparing forthe arrival of the fugue (bar 10).

The subject of the great fugue begins with one note propelled towards the trill, as though this impulse creates a spiritual flame.It bursts out, frenetically, ceaselessly, reminding us of the motif of the Promethean fire, and this spiritual flame is developed overand over, leading up to a huge universal explosion, reaching its pinnacle in bars 243–248. From this blaze of the Promethean sparkemerges a soothing, consoling song (the central fugue in D major), a fleeting moment of rest before the stretto begins in bar 294,one of the most frantic pieces of music that you can imagine, summoning up a general hysterical panic, before falling into theobscurity of the universe, where only a mysterious palpitation can be heard (bars 373–383) with vestiges of the beginning of thesubject of the fugue. Then order is restored and the Promethean flame returns at bar 384, heroic, to triumph and impose thissupreme mission of awakening the latent spirits of mankind.

After he finished his ‘Hammerklavier’ sonata, Beethoven said: ‘Now I know how to write’. Indeed, he used almost all musicaltechniques possible: retrogression, contrary motion, canon, imitations and inversions, and he would tell his publisher, Artaria, whenhe handed over the manuscript: ‘Here is a sonata that will give pianists a challenge when it is played in 50 years’ time.’

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On Beethoven’s metronome markings

The tempo indications for the ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata are incredibly important. Indeed, Beethoven took particular care to includethem at the express request of his pupil, Ferdinand Ries, who was preparing to publish the English edition of Op.106. Furthermore,when he saw that his metronome was not working, Beethoven waited for a new one, and then took great care on each marking. Andwe know that Beethoven’s metronome at that time, today owned by the Beethoven-Haus museum in Bonn, corresponds perfectly tomodern ones.

Going back to his metronome markings: by giving minim = 138 for the opening Allegro and crotchet = 144 for the final Allegrorisoluto (the great fugue), which is considered to be ‘unplayable’ nowadays because it is ‘too fast’, here Beethoven indirectly givesus the musical design of Opus 106 which he heard in his head when it was written. But what is ‘too slow’ or ‘too fast’? Comparedto what framework, basis or reference? Thinking about this, I feel it is particularly important to analyse and consider the one andonly tempo indicated by the composer in his piano sonatas, as we can see that this extreme vitality is only associated with anAllegro and not with a Prestissimo, giving us a very precise and valuable idea of the design of Beethoven’s musical timing. We alsofind this energy, brought about by the fluidity of Beethoven’s metronome indications, in all his symphonies, which, played inaccordance with these details, take on a new fresh, revolutionary form.

So thanks to these tempo indications given by the composer himself, we can also place the other sonatas, using these worksas a reference with their clear tempo markings.

However, I can only agree with Beethoven, who, fascinated by, but then tired of, the problems caused by this device, declared:‘No metronome! If you have the right feeling, you do not need one. If you do not, the metronome will be of no use to you!’

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Eternal Feminine –Youth: Sonatas Op.7, Op.14 Nos. 1 & 2, Op.27 Nos. 1 & 2

We know Beethoven the thinker, the humanist and the revolutionary. But in this chapter, we see an often forgotten but just asimportant aspect of Beethoven running through the sonatas, namely his passionate romanticism. According to Ries, his copyist,pupil and personal secretary: ‘Beethoven adored the company of women, especially young pretty ones. Frequently, when we walkedpast a charming young girl, he would turn round, look at her again through his pince-nez and smiled or giggled when he saw that Ihad noticed. He was often in love, but usually not for very long. When I joked one day about the conquest of a beautiful lady, heconfessed that it was she who had enslaved him, more forcefully and for longer, namely seven whole months.’

Highly popular and sought after by the Viennese aristocracy shortly after his arrival in Vienna, 1798–9 were euphoric years forthe young Beethoven, who now had a number of patrons and young noblewomen among his pupils. His determination to find hisEternal Feminine, the innocence of the mischievous young girls and their graceful faces, the sighs and torments of a young loverare clearly present in this little cycle.

The sonata in E flat Op.7, the first to be called ‘Grand Sonata’ and to be published under a single opus number, is marked bythe quest for what Goethe described as ‘The Eternal Feminine’. It was also known as ‘Die Verliebte’ among the Viennese, ‘thebeloved’, and was dedicated to the young composer’s passing infatuation of the time, Barbara Keglevics, nicknamed CountessBabette. According to Carl Czerny, this sonata was composed in ‘a passionate state of mind’ and this aspect is clearly expressedin the spirited enthusiasm of the first movement and in the Rondo, whose theme is imbued with feminine grace, in dialogue withthe masculine spirit. This Rondo is part of the series of rondos found in sonatas Op.2 No.2, Op.22 and Op.31 No.1, containing themelodic curve of the theme and a virile central passage of a combative nature. The Largo conceals an unusually profoundmeditation. The reversal of the ninth chord in bar 6, rare for Beethoven, underlines the contemplative, almost mystical aspect ofthe young composer.

The two Opp. 14 and 27 are like twins, each one grouping together two sonatas representing the Eternal Feminine. While thefirst are joyful, innocent, mischievous and full of humour in E major, where the melancholy is never serious, as the bitterness is notyet present, those of opus 27 are permeated with reverie, the drama of love, heroism and tragedy. According to those close to him,he played bars 9–25 of Op.14 No.2 ‘as though he were wooing a lady’.

We know that the idea, which came from Schindler, of adding a title to each sonata, bypassed Beethoven. According toSchindler, Beethoven explained the pointlessness of naming his sonatas with these concrete examples: ‘When these two sonataswere created [Op.14, Nos. 1 and 2], everybody saw the painting of a battle between two principles, or a dialogue between twopeople, one imploring, the other resisting’; while the two sonatas Op.14 ‘are a dialogue between a man and a woman, or a loverand his mistress. In the second, this dialogue is even clearer, and the opposition between the two main parts is even moresensitive than the first.’

1801 was a year of hope in which Beethoven met a woman who for the first time gave him a glimpse of the possibility ofmarriage. This young girl was Giulietta Guicciardi, to whom he dedicated the Sonata Op.27 No.2, and she was full of life andbeauty. However, this hope for love in Beethoven’s life may be considered to be a ‘flower between two chasms’, in the words ofFranz Liszt, who used them for the first time to describe the second movement of this sonata, as Beethoven was really tornbetween this young woman and the drama of his crippling infirmity.

So the two sonatas of Op.27 represent the duality of this period, which was both luminous and dark, with No.1 as thebackground to the aristocratic society of the Brunswicks, by whom Beethoven was fully embraced as a member of the family, givinghim the loving warmth of which he had always dreamt, as was the case in Bonn with the Breuning family. Beethoven wasworshipped by Therese and Josephine and treated like a brother by Franz Brunswick, to whom he would go on to dedicate the

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Sonata Op.57, the ‘Appassionata’. The serenity, nobility and joy that reign in the first movement of this sonata take us straight into thecastle of Korompa, the Brunswicks’ home where Beethoven was a regular summer guest as a resident teacher. This was also whereBeethoven met their cousin, Giulietta, from Italy.

The beginning of this sonata in E flat major is the perfect description of a duo amoroso; the theme of the Adagio is a declaration ofburgeoning love, a night-time murmur to the song of nightingale and the moon, complicit in this fervent, intimate confidence. However, theeternal battle with Fate would appear in the Allegro molto e vivace, where the end of each phrase falls towards the last four bars,underlining the four notes of ‘Destiny knocking on the door’. It is followed by a heroic finale, a perpetuum mobile similar to the finales ofthe sonatas Opp. 26 and 54, where the motif of the divine Promethean fire returns.

However, this happiness is touched with tragedy, as Giulietta was not of his social class, and this love made him feel the pain of hisinfirmity even more keenly, all the more excruciating as she favoured a young officer and mediocre composer: ‘You will scarcely believethis wretched, melancholic existence that I have led for the last two years: the weakness of my hearing has turned me into a ghost andmade me avoid the world. I must have seemed like a misanthrope, and that is far from true. What completes this metamorphosis is anenchanting young girl who loves me and whom I love. […] Alas, she is not of my standing [...]’ (Beethoven to Wegler, 1801).

The situation worsened with the inevitability of his deafness. This drama is played out in the sonata ‘Quasi una fantasia’, thedarkness of Op.27, whose original title was ‘Alla Madamigella Contessa Giulietta’. Beethoven introduced an Adagio sostenuto in the firstmovement. It is a profound, free, improvised monologue with the rhythm of a funeral march, but distorted by the broken chords, anaccompaniment that becomes the main tune at the climax (bars 32–39) on the poignant ninth chord, where this voice would become likea solo, abandoning its role of simple arpeggios. The fragility of the happiness is conveyed by the ephemeral, intangible character of theAllegretto, where Giulietta’s portrait is gracefully sketched out, as is Beethoven’s in the trio, a tender, sighing lover. A frantic fight againstthe fatality of love and fate is played out in the last movement.

The personification of Beethoven in the sonatas as the hero of these tragic dramas reaches its paroxysm in this sonata in C sharpminor. So the three sonatas of Op.31, written at the same time as he was writing his testament at Heiligenstadt, could be seen as therenaissance of a wounded hero as seen in the chapter ‘Resignation and Action’.

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Assertion of an inflexible personality: Sonatas Op.2 Nos. 1, 2 and 3

Three years after he arrived in Vienna, Beethoven published the three sonatas Op.2, composed when he was 24. They express all of theyoung composer’s originality and his typical confrontation with Fate, in other words, with the personifications of authority, of power and ofinevitability, and this dread of fate would dominate his future sonatas like an obsession. However, in this work, this battle would comeacross as a rebellious, unresolved question.

From the start, the first four chords played by the left hand in the first sonata in F minor announce the imposing rhythmic motif thatwould become the opening theme of the Fifth Symphony (‘Fate’), as well as the rebellious, Dantesque colour that Beethoven’s music wouldgo on to embrace. The uniqueness is expressed in the Menuetto, which, rather than a classic 3/4 time minuet, takes on an ambiguitywith pick-up notes and phrases with four crotchets starting on the third beat.

The piano’s grandeur in the last movement, filled with urgency, with angry, shouting chords, surprises us with the extreme duality that appears with the ‘implacable-imploring’ characters. Then, combined with the Prestissimo instruction, this movement takes onthe tumult of a psychic madness, which soothes the central section in E major, with its dreamlike feel. Spiritual reverence surgesthrough the slow movement, like a pacifying consolation.

The drama of the first sonata is fiercely contrasted with the freshness, vital, optimistic energy, and the joyous, playful passion of thefirst movements of the second and third sonatas. An ardent spiritual dimension comes out in the Largo appassionato, brimming withreverence, with a religious element reflecting the quest for the Divine. Beethoven’s originality is once again demonstrated in these sonatasNos.2 and 3, in which, instead of a traditional minuet, he includes a scherzo, before then reserved for the symphonies in which he wouldalso excel, playing on the ambiguity between the scherzo and the minuet, as in the first symphony for example, where Beethoven’srevolutionary decision would transform the Menuetto in G major into a scherzo: instead of indicating a restrained tempo for an aristocraticdance, he marked it Allegro molto e vivace, where it ceased being recognisable as such, transformed into a frenetic, effervescent dance!And so a new symphonic era for the piano began with Beethoven.

The last movement of the second sonata is the first of a series of rondos that would continue in the sonatas Opp. 7, 22 and 31 No.1,whose gracious theme, with an ever-so-feminine melodic curve, is countered by the central section which is much more combative, virileand imposing.

It is interesting to remember that after Beethoven, the sonata form would become very important for composers keen to mobilise allof their musical resources and expressions, frequently in tragic, minor keys. This began with Beethoven, who, after composing a number ofinoffensive, polite sonatas, including the sonatinas Op.49, published his Sonata in F minor as number 1, with its undeniable Beethovenian signature, already rivalling his predecessors with his astonishing musical ambition.In response to a great expert, who said that he was no Goethe or Handel and that he should never think he would become either, as wewould never again see masters like them, Beethoven said: ‘It is very regrettable, your Excellency, but I cannot have anything to do withmen who have neither faith in nor esteem for me, solely because I am not yet universally well known.’ (According to Griesinger, a Saxondiplomat in Vienna).

Later on, several great composers would follow in his footsteps, including Prokofiev or Scriabin with their first sonatas, also in F minorand Chopin with his Sonata in C minor, all composed before they reached 20 years of age, exploding with the effervescence of theircreative energy, the energy of young composers who were destined for greatness. In around 1795, Beethoven wrote in his notebook: ‘Havecourage! Despite all the failings of the body, my genius must triumph. This is my 25th year, and this year must reveal the finished man. Theremust be nothing left to do.’

According to the customs of the time, Beethoven brought a number of works together under one opus number, but unlike his

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contemporaries, the works he grouped together were spiritually and emotionally linked, representing the most extreme, contrasting states.There are no relationships in terms of key, but each of the three pieces of Opus 2 and Opus 10 conveys a momentarily dominant state ofmind, with a very distinctive character: the first works of Opp. 2 and 10 represent Fate in its F minor and C minor keys; No.2 conveys theimpish, joyful, rural juvenile passion; then their No.3 is like a synthesis of these two contrasting aspects in an expanded form. So all ofthese opus sets complement each other, representing all psychological variations when united, creating a sort of grand symphony in threemovements or the structure of a triptych.

However, after the beginning of the ‘new path’, starting with the ‘Waldstein’ sonata Op.53, he stopped grouping the sonatas togetherunder one opus number, and this series of trilogies would end with Opus 31 (resignation, and action). Starting with Op.7, he broke withthis tradition by publishing single sonatas as Op.7, 13 or 22, often with the title of ‘Grand Sonata’, as though the sonata contained all thefacets of a unique experience, like a complete poem.

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Nature: Sonatas Op.53, Op.28, Op.79, Op.54

After drawing a line under this long dramatic period associated with his deafness, the frustration of his poor social standing and his manyfailures in love, Beethoven took a new path. As he said himself: ‘I am not happy with my work so far. Henceforth I am going to take a newpath’ – structurally of course, but also conceptually: Beethoven is no longer the main character, or the hero; he steps back, insteaddescribing the universe and the fate of the human condition. If there is a battle, it will be between humanity and threatening nature, andthis battle will be a way to rise up and surpass oneself in action. Ultimately, passionate and personal conflict disappears, to be replacedby recollections, impressions, and sentiments on a much more universal level.

Could it be a coincidence that the sonata Op.53 is dedicated to his first patron, Count Waldstein, thanks to whom he was able to goto Vienna with his letters of recommendation, and who opened the door to Viennese high society for him? Among these letters, there wasone that was prophetic and imbued with mystery:

Dear Beethoven, you are going to Vienna to fulfil a wish that you have expressed for a long time: Mozart’s genius is still in mourning, lamentingthe death of his disciple. (...) Through uninterrupted diligence you will receive Mozart’s spirit through Haydn’s hands.

For it is interesting to observe that this sonata, with its mysterious echoes and highly unusual musical ideas, with its generous use ofthe pedal, which created a strange atmosphere for the time, and its harmonies with their universal colours, is dedicated to the very CountWaldstein who was a free thinker, a Freemason, a follower of the Enlightenment. So a new esoteric dimension is introduced in this sonata,known as ‘The Dawn’, as the rising of the sun is a metaphor for the awakening of the conscience, the elevation of the soul, meetingBeethoven’s cherished mission, ‘the creator of a new basis on which spiritual life will reveal itself to the senses’.

Consider the repetition of the chords at the start, or rather the vibration of the universe and the quivering of the air, the sparklinglights, preparing for Nature to wake up after a long night, the mysterious Adagio molto where there are no real set themes, but onlyflashing apparitions, reminiscent of the feeling of the unknown and the obscurity of a sea where a deathly silence reigns after the storm,the journey between the keys reflecting the eerie colours of the clouds illuminated by the full moon.

Then out of nowhere, an expressive voice emerges in the Rondo, as though human emotion is contrasting with the impersonaluniverse. The procession of sublime harmonies like a changing sky (bars 112–142) and the generous use of the pedal, capturing thesubtle colours and vibrations of the air, prefigures the first so-called ‘impressionist’ composers.

It is even more fascinating to compare this sonata dedicated to Count Waldstein with sonata Op.28, the ‘Pastorale’, in whichimpressions of nature are seen personally and romantically rather than universally. It expresses elements of nature (the caress of thewind, reflections in the water, the horizon etc.), the feeling of joy in the soul as it melts into the landscape, and the immense happinessthat nature brings. These are always accompanied by harmonies and expressive melodic lines.

We know what a keen walker Beethoven was, and that, as he walked, he made notes, worked, sang out loud, sometimes cried out!According to Schindler, Beethoven even used to walk in the most terrible weather! So the Andante (meaning ‘walking’ in Italian) movementis about the walk of a true thinker. Everything is expressed in it: the thoughts, the gently sombre emotions of a philosopher walking slowly(the Alberti bass), and the carefreeness of birds is juxtaposed with the melancholy of the walker. However, human pain does not affect theequanimity of nature.

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This pastoral carefreeness could be a sweet lesson for mankind and a consolation to Beethoven as, according to one extract,underlined by Beethoven from Christian Sturm’s book entitled Nature is a school for the heart:

She (nature) clearly shows us our duties towards God and our neighbour … Hence I wish to become a disciple of this school and to offer Himmy heart. Desirous of instruction, I shall seek after that wisdom which no disillusionment can confute; I shall gain a knowledge of God, andthrough this knowledge I shall obtain a foretaste of celestial felicity.

So for him, nature is the representation of God, or supreme wisdom, or the Creator as he likes to call Him in his notes:

The world was not formed by the fortuitous reunion of atoms: established forces and laws, whose origins lie in the most rational intelligence,were the foundation for this unchanging order and could, inevitably and not fortuitously, flow from these atoms. The order and beauty reflectedby the organisation of the universe demonstrate to us the existence of God.

Sonata Op.79, also known as the ‘Cuckoo’ because of the birdsong that can be heard in the first movement, is surprisingly simple,innocent and childlike. It is without a doubt to this sonata that Beethoven was referring when he wrote to Therese Malfatti, a young pianistwhose talent he encouraged: ‘You will soon receive other compositions from me, in which you should not have to complain about difficulties’(May 1810). The Italian influence is clear in the second movement, the Andante, like a little romance, a precursor of Mendelssohn’s Songswithout Words.

Op.54 returns to the aristocratic Minuet form, the first movement full of grace and simplicity, but containing a central passagereminiscent of a galloping horse, with the character of a noble knight. The last movement takes on the form of a perpetuum mobile similarto the ends of sonatas Op.27 No.1 and Op.26.

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Extremes in collision: Sonatas Op.10 Nos. 1–3

Following the same ‘triptych’ theme that we have seen since opus 2, the three sonatas of Op.10 present extreme polar opposites: thesonata Op.10 No.1 has the Beethovenian key of ‘Fate’, heralding the Fifth Symphony. The brutal, violent atmosphere of this sonata seemsto contain the revolutionary, rebellious spirit of the young composer whose musical evolution was progressing during a period in which theUnited States declared their independence (in 1776), the Bastille was stormed (in 1789), and the Napoleonic wars were raging. A spirit ofcontemplation surges through the slow movement, charged with questions and contemplation, followed by the last movement with all of itspanic and urgency, the Prestissimo, including its attempts at heroism in bars 17–27.

A total contrast with the following sonata in F major, where joie de vivre and the concept of the rural idyll prevail. After that comes thesonata in D major, with a grand structure that includes one of the most tragic of Beethoven’s Largos. This slow movement, composedwhen he was just 28, is suffused with a poignant hopelessness, and even the slight glimpse of hope that seems to rise up in the centralpassage in F major is immediately dampened by the pounding diminished seventh chords in bars 35 and 37. Emerging from this intenseinner journey, the minuet introduces a consoling light in the Menuetto in D major, for once classical and more conventional, as though toappease the untamed spirits, followed by an attempted dialogue and reconciliation with the Rondo: Allegro. This last movement ends on thesame note as the Largo, namely a D in the same low register, but this time it is a D full of joy that closes this trilogy Op.10, reflectingBeethoven’s eternal optimism.

The three sonatas of Op.10 are built on a collision between two opposing expressions, equivalent to Yin and Yang. From the first barsof each of the three sonatas, we can see this confrontation between domination (theme 1) and supplication (theme 2):

Op.10 No.1: Theme 1, bars 1–2; Theme 2, bars 3–4.The confrontation between willpower and frivolity (Op.10 No.2): Theme 1, bars 12–13, 14–15, 41–45, and 57–58;

Theme 2, bars 13–14, 15–16, 38–41 and 55–56.The collision between challenge and pacification (Sonata Op.10 No.3): Theme 1, bars 1–4, 11–16; Theme 2, bars 5–10.Keenly interested in nature, Beethoven’s expressive power goes beyond harmonic function and the structure of conventional forms. He

revives the form of the sonata by covering the whole range of Sturm und Drang from these early sonatas, introducing aggressive anddamaging forces. Beethoven’s musical and spiritual independence is described in the words of Ferdinand Ries:

During a walk, I was talking to Beethoven about two parallel fifths, which were very clear and created the most wonderful effect in his fourthquartet in C minor; he had not noticed them and said that they were not fifths. As he always used to carry blank sheet music around with him,I asked him for some and wrote the passage with the four parts on it. When he saw that I was right, he said: ‘Now, and who has forbiddenthem?’ As I did not know how to take this question, he repeated it several times, until finally, I answered, surprised: ‘But those are thefundamental rules!’ The question was repeated again; so I said to him: ‘Marpurg, Kirnberger, Fuchs, and other theorists.’ He replied: ‘And so Iallow them!’

This anecdote fits in perfectly with a phrase that Beethoven wrote one day in French in the margin of a sketch: ‘There are no rules thatcannot be broken for the sake of BEAUTY.’

According to the customs of the time, Beethoven brought a number of works together under one opus number, but unlike hiscontemporaries, the works he grouped together were spiritually and emotionally linked, representing the most extreme, contrasting states.

There are no relationships in terms of key, but each of the three pieces of opus 2 and opus 10 convey a momentarily dominant state

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of mind, with a very distinctive character: the No.1s of opus 2 and 10 represent Fate in its F minor and C minor keys; the No.2s of thesetwo sets convey a sense of impish, joyful, rural juvenile passion, while their No.3s are like a synthesis of these two contrasting aspects inan expanded form.

So all of these sets complement each other, representing all psychological variations when united, creating a sort of grand symphonyin three movements, or the structure of a triptych.

However, after the beginning of the ‘new path’, starting with the ‘Waldstein’ Sonata Op.53, he stopped grouping the sonatas togetherunder one opus number, and Op.31 would be the last in this series of trilogies (‘Resignation and action’). Starting with Sonata Op.7, hebroke with the tradition of grouping together a number of sonatas under a single opus number by publishing single sonatas as Op.7, 13 or22, often with the title of ‘Grand Sonata’, as though the sonata contained all the facets of a unique experience, like a complete poem.

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Resignation and action: Sonatas Op.31 Nos. 1–3, Op.101

Composed at a turning point in Beethoven’s life, for me, Op.31 represents the rebirth of a wounded hero, illustrating all the symbols of ahero: Life (No.1); Combat and death (No.2); Resurrection and victory (No.3).

Opus 31 begins with a sonata underlining the two fundamental elements of life: Yin and Yang. At the beginning of the first movementthere is a sort of game of hide-and-seek between these elements, now a friendly dialogue, now a violent torment, or both in turn, (Yin: bars66–73, Yang: bars 74–87). Furthermore, when the two poles come together (bars 30–45, 134–169), a whirlwind of energy is unleashed,as though the unison creates the strength. This sonata includes an Adagio grazioso, a great love song, in which Beethoven usesportamento, borrowed from singing, in bars 4 and 5, as well as purely ornamental features and flourishes, rare for Beethoven (bars 74,76), heralding Field and Chopin’s future nocturnes. Then once again there is one of the feminine rondos that we see in Sonatas Op.2No.2, Op.7 and Op.22 with their graceful initial themes and elegant melodic curve.

Op.31 No.2, known as the ‘Tempest’, is an enigmatic sonata, veiled in mystery. When Schindler asked Beethoven about the meaningof this sonata, he replied: ‘Read Shakespeare’s Tempest.’ My first attempt at deciphering this phrase was to look in Shakespeare’s workto find a significant meaning that could have a musical parallel in this sonata: the fury of nature, indifferent to human supplication, whereall are subject to the same fate when confronted with divine force, whether a king or a jester. Indeed, all the elements are present in this sonata; storm, supplication, implacable force and panic. One passage stands out because of its strangeness, the Largo recitativesin bars 143–148 and 153–158: unlike a conventional recitative, these are supported by the pedal, creating a mysterious atmosphere ofsound, giving an esoteric meaning and a new dimension to this battle between nature and mankind. For the famous tempest inShakespeare’s play is not a natural meteorological phenomenon, but rather something artificially created by Ariel, the spirit of air, on theorder of the magician Prospero. In a stroke of genius, the recitative thus takes the form of an incantation, an esoteric magical prayer,highlighting the power of the spirit over substance, thanks to the unusual use of the pedal in such a passage, probably a first in music.

Written at the same time as the Heiligenstadt Testament, this sonata also reflects the mental evolution of someone on the edge ofsuicide: the darkest, most dramatic thoughts are explored in the tiniest variations. After the battle between fate and the pleading mortal(movement 1), a profound meditation and a dialogue with the spiritual beyond (2), we witness a suicide scene combining panic,hopelessness and rebellion, resulting in a final collapse (3). According to Czerny, the last movement was composed during the summer of1802 in Heiligenstadt, when a galloping horse was heard beneath Beethoven’s window. This episode, the staccatos of the beginning of theinitial theme of this rondo, as well as the unsustained bass, underline the breathless character and agitation of an inner tempest.

Thankfully, Opus 31 does not end on such a tragic note. After writing his testament in Heiligenstadt, Beethoven drew a line under hissuicidal ideas by accepting his fate with all its vicissitudes and closing this tragic chapter with the sonata in E flat major. Here more thanever before we are aware of this desire to overcome, to be victorious. It includes a great scherzo, which presents a sonata form with aheroic, warrior character, as though it is the ultimate battle against Fate. In the first movement, the four notes of Fate, so threatening anddark (bars 3–6) are now ironic in bars 20 and 21, and played down in bar 48, where the dread of Fate is almost ridiculed. The virile energyof the Presto con fuoco, full of joy and optimism, closes the work, triumphantly emerging from this long internal battle, and concluding thischapter. Beethoven can now begin what he called ‘a new path’ at the end of 1802 (in a letter to his friend Krumpholz), with the‘Waldstein’ sonata.

After the acceptance of resignation, comes action, Opus 101, through which a mortal attempts to overcome the vicissitudes of life.The action of the artist is in his work, and he finds his inner peace in it. So, after a moment’s hesitation, where the sweetest dreams hover(movement 1), hard and fast reality returns in the form of an unrelenting march (2), before returning to contemplation in the form of asweet, introverted appeal (3), then returning to action (4) including a great fugue.

Opus 101 follows a pattern, observed in the notes on this sonata, and explained by Schindler, namely: Dream states – Call to action –Return of the dream states – Action. Thus action arouses conscienceness, and man only exists in so far as he creates.

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Eternal feminine – Maturity: Sonatas Opp. 78, 90, 109, 110

While the theme of ‘Eternal Feminine, Youth’ fitted with a pining young man, this chapter reflects a higher, spiritual, idealised love. Thememories of past love reminding him of his immortal beloved, as well as his blinding love and passions, are replaced with a certain levelof maturity.

The term ‘Eternal Feminine’ appeared for the first time in the last verse of Goethe’s Faust, Part II: ‘The Eternal Feminine draws usupward.’ Goethe, like Beethoven, was perpetually in search of the ideal woman for most of his life, and we see this aspect in the characterof Faust torn between the allegory of virtue presented by Margarethe and Helen’s beauty.

However, more than earthly love, it seems to me that Eternal Feminine designates the part of Yin in nature and in mankind, referring tothe mother-goddess, milk of the earth and the seed of life, the holy woman. It is a sublimated desire that guides man towards a universalyearning for transcendence.

In analytical psychology, we find this concept in the ‘Woman Wisdom’ and ‘Woman of sublimation’ of the ‘Anima’ – the personificationof all feminine psychological tendencies in the male psyche, proposed by Carl Jung.

Opus 78 is dedicated to Therese Brunswick, and legend has it that she was secretly in love with Beethoven, and that they wereengaged in secret in 1806 but Beethoven broke off the relationship. We have no undeniable proof to confirm whether any suchrelationship existed between them. However, we do know that Beethoven had a close friendship with the Brunswick family, to whom hededicated many major works. We also know that many women in this family were a great source of amorous, passionate inspiration forBeethoven. So the spirits of Countess Josephine von Brunswick and her cousin Giulietta Guicciardi are clearly present in the previousEternal Feminine theme. Therese Brunswick, who was more discreet and often in the background, was the most modest of the three andshe remained a spinster, dedicating her life to charitable work until the end of her life.

My view when it comes to this sonata is more focused on hope, simplicity (musical and formal), and promise rather than an amorousode to Therese (furthermore, when this sonata was published, the dedication was not yet there). During this year, in which Beethovencomposed the Sonata Op.78, he was yearning for a happy union in marriage, and discussed his wedding plans with his friend Ignaz vonGleichenstein asking him to ‘find him a woman’, then at the same time that he wrote this sonata Op.78, he was working on a lied basedon a poem by Goethe, called Mignon, in which the invitation on a journey to a wonderful land and the promise of a better world arebrilliantly poeticised, and the theme of the introduction to the Sonata Op.78 is directly taken from this lied. It is also worth pointing outthat the three ascending chord motif (‘Laß uns ziehen’ – Let us go! – in bars 12 or 14) contrasts perfectly with the three descendingchords for ‘Lebewohl’ in the sonata known as ‘Les Adieux’.

Op.90 is dedicated to Count Moritz Lichnowsky, who married an actress after a long period during which he faced opposition from his family about the marriage. Beethoven, who was aware of this, said that he was relating this love story in the sonata (see Schindler),the first movement of which would be a ‘Battle between the head and the heart’, while the second movement was a ‘Conversation withthe beloved’. Indeed, in his letter dated 26 September 1814, Beethoven wrote to the Count: ‘Since I do not want you to believe that any proceeding I have undertaken could be motivated by a matter of self-interest or anything of that sort, I tell you that soon, a sonata of mine will be published, that I have dedicated to you. I wanted it to be a surprise, as this dedication had been reserved for you for along time […].’

The two sonatas Opp. 109 and 110 reflect an idealised, spiritual love, characterised by the very personal atmosphere of a greattenderness. They were initially dedicated to Antonie Brentano, to whom the Diabelli Variations were also dedicated, and she is also one ofthe candidates for his one of the possible ‘Unsterbliche Geliebte’ – immortal beloved – along with Countess Josephine von Brunswick.Although he had not seen Antonie since 1812, he still felt a fond friendship towards her, telling Schindler that they (she and her husband)

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were his only friends. Archduke Rudolph had demanded the dedication for Opus 111, and so he dedicated Op.109 to Antonie’s daughter,whom he saw for the last time when she was ten years old. Almost like a final tribute to the woman he had once loved.

Opus 109 reflects Beethoven’s brilliance as an improviser. The wonderfully tender passages (Vivace) are interrupted twice byexpressive and contemplative rebellions (Adagio), which evaporate like a dream in embellishments, and so in the Vivace section, there ispeace, while in the Adagio, agitation prevails in the form of a plaintive recitative. The Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo is without adoubt the most intimate and profound declaration of love expressed in Beethoven’s music. This love is transformed in the variations, aform that he would adopt once again to formulate his deepest thoughts in the Arietta of Op.111.

The indescribable tenderness that runs through the first movement immerses us in the purest, most ideal love, it might not be acoincidence that Op.110 was written when Josephine von Brunswick died in 1821. Beethoven adopted the fugue once again in this sonata,which, far from being pushed to the extreme as in Op.106, the ‘Hammerklavier’, takes on a more confessional form. Partly because thiswas a religious form of music, the expression of his love is transcended and spiritualised, as though this sonata were an ultimate homageto love and its requiem.

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Destiny: Sonatas Opp. 13, 26, 57, 111

The key to Beethoven’s views on Fate is expressed in these four sonatas belonging to different periods in the composer’s life between1798 and 1822. It is rather surprising that in 1798, the year in which one of his most poignant sonatas was written, the ‘Pathétique’, hewas just a young man, and nothing hinted at the tragic life that he would lead. His future deafness had not yet been revealed, or at leasthe only felt the very early warning signs, but this sonata was the dramatic peak of his first Viennese period, and contains a strikinghopelessness, as though it could predict his future life.

The first heavy chord of the ‘Pathétique’, in the key of Fate, which would on its own be enough to express the highest degree ofpathetic tragedy, turns into a wounded cry. The agony of the song, ruthlessly interrupted by the forthright chords of Fate (bars 5–8) is sotragically powerful that we would be almost pained and terrified to imagine a similar situation on a human level. The drama is thustranscended, and leads towards the unrelenting fight between rebellion and attempted flight, and the dialogue with Fate (Allegro di molto e con brio) interspersed with profound, painful meditations.

Even in the sweet key of A flat major, the Adagio cantabile is tinged with a gentle plaintive melancholy. In the last movement, thedrama of the key of Fate is transformed into a graceful, almost dancing rondo, and these two elements, Fate and imploring man, whichwere in cruel opposition, seem to be softened, paving the way for a potential reconciliation. In fact, the plaintive element, accompanied bythe rhythm of Fate with the left hand, takes the upper hand by responding, and asserting itself defiantly against these Dantesque chords(bars 18–24), then taking flight in free song (bars 25–32). Then the ‘victim’ almost becomes dominant in bars 33–43, where theDantesque element is half-erased, only leaving echoes of its relentless chords (bars 33–36), and then finally only existing as an imitation(bars 37–40). These two elements seem to achieve perfect harmony, uniting like a chorale in the second couplet, but this is short-lived,developing into a frenzied hand-to-hand combat (bars 107–112). After the double reprise of the refrain, we go back to the stormy conflictin the coda, where the original ‘victim’ becomes just as tireless as Fate by defying it and rebelling against it. Then, exhausted by this lifeand death fight, he falls completely (bars 198–202). The curtains seem to close, but a last attempt at reconciliation arrives, followed bythese two chords, forming the eternal question with the augmented sixth and its resolution in the dominant six-four chord. But in vain, asFate has the last word, and is still a challenge to be faced.

Surprisingly, emerging from the heroic culmination of The Creatures of Prometheus and the Sonata Op.22, the work that followedstraight after this Promethean climax was contemplative and intimate, introducing a funeral march in the guise of a slow movement. Thecomposer called it ‘Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un eroe’. This enigmatic description justifiably arouses some curiosity, as this march wasnot commissioned after a death of a statesman or close relative. Instead of the usual Adagio or a Largo, and especially in the middle of asonata imbued with delicacy (mvt. 1 and 4), this funereal inspiration is intriguing. During 1800–01 fate caught up with the youngcomposer, cruelly showing him his vulnerability and status as a powerless human being with the confirmation of the incurable deafnessthat forced him to withdraw from society. ‘I avoid all social situations, because it is impossible for me to say to people “I am deaf”,’ hewrote to Franz Wegeler in 1801.

Indeed, in the first movement of this delicate, almost fragile work, we can detect his emotional condition, the inner aspects of his ownfragility and his psychological states transformed throughout the variations of the first movement as though taking a nostalgic look at thesimple pleasures of life, now lost and beyond his reach. Could this ‘Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un eroe’ be a personification? Shortlyafter this sonata, he would write his testament in Heiligenstadt.

We could look at this funeral march from another interesting perspective: We know the story of the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, how whenNapoleon was named Emperor in 1804, Beethoven felt betrayed, and tore up the first page of the symphony that was originally dedicatedto him. But if you look closer, you can see that Beethoven was already having some doubts about Napoleon as early as 1801, when hewrote this sonata Op.26, containing this ‘march for the death of a hero’.

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The General, then the First Consul of the French Republic, signed a concordat with the Vatican (July 1801), and Beethoven washorrified by this and refused the suggestion by his publisher Hoffmeister that he compose a sonata for the occasion because, for him, thisconcordat was a sign that Bonaparte was betraying the revolution. Beethoven responded by writing to his publisher in 1802: ‘Have youfallen under the spell of the devil Sirs? – to suggest that I write such a sonata!’ and instead, he sent this ‘Marcia funebre’!

The Scherzo, with its warlike feel contrasting with the elegance of the first movement, is a heroic transition that prepares the groundfor the moment when he plunges into the solemn atmosphere of the march. The last movement, the Rondo, arrives like a sort of sweetresurrection. The tragedy is set aside, and death is once more supplanted by a renewed life in an intangible form made of memories. It isan inner victory over death and Fate, contrasting with that of the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, which represents a triumphant victory. Just like thepleasures of the past that fade in the mind, the phrases of this Allegro, which fade when they have scarcely begun, remind us of thetransience of the joys of life. The veiled, tender colour and the pastel tone of these phrases are like sweet memories buried in our mind.However all of this reminiscing is ruthlessly interrupted by the affirming and rebellious central section in the key of Fate, made up oftireless chords that remind us of the cruel reality.

More than a personal conflict between our self and Fate, the Sonata Op.57, called the ‘Appassionata’, embodies the destructive forcesof Nature, impervious to man’s misfortunes. It is one of those rare moments in Beethoven’s music when fate and inevitability triumph. Thedrama is such in this first movement that, with a practically unique breach of the rules of the sonata form, Beethoven removes the repeat ofthe exposition. Beethoven told Schindler to refer to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, in which humans are powerless, subject to the same fatewhen confronted with divine power, whether they be a king or a jester.

It is also worth citing Ferdinand Ries, who was present at the creation of this sonata:

On a similar walk during which we got lost so we did not get back to Döbling, where Beethoven was living, until eight o’clock, he was hummingthe whole time, and would sometimes suddenly cry out to himself, constantly going up and down, without singing precise notes. When I askedhim what he was doing, he replied: ‘I have thought of a theme for the last Allegro of the sonata [Op.57].’ As soon as we returned to theapartment, he sat down at the piano before he had even taken off his hat. I sat down in a corner and he had soon forgotten I was there. Heworked furiously for at least an hour on the superb new finale that now ends this sonata. Finally he got up and was surprised to see me,saying: ‘I cannot give you a lesson today; I need to carry on working.’

So we see the ‘furious’ elation that animated Beethoven during the creation of this Allegro. Opus 111 is the solution to the enigma, the path to wisdom, providing the solution to the conflict between comedy and tragedy that

drove Beethoven throughout his life. More menacing and dramatic than ever, Fate seems to be at its pinnacle in the first movement. It isin fact the ultimate challenge to Fate, a supreme battle, not for victory, but for peace. Beethoven suggests resolution in the followingmovement where, much more than a victor, he enters into the sort of union with the divinity for which he has been searching for so long,going through different stages (the variations of the Arietta) of his own metamorphosis. The trill is now the climax, intensifying the celestialcondition, and achieving serenity at last.HJ LIMTranslation: Syntacta Translation & Interpreting

HJ Lim records exclusively on Yamaha CFX pianosRecorded: VII–VIII.2011, Faller Hall, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Executive producer: Andrew CornallProducer: HJ Lim

Session supervisor/Recording engineer/Post-production: Arnaud Orieux Yamaha piano technician: Kazuma Suzuki

Project coordinators: Maggie O’Herlihy, Harrison ParrottDesign: Paul Marc Mitchell for WLP Ltd.

Photography: Simon Fowler� 2012 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by EMI Records Ltd.

� 2012 EMI Records Ltd. www.emivirginclassics.com www.hjlim.com