Beethoven how many piano sonatas

It was not to be. At the news that his mother was mortally ill, Beethoven hurried home to be with her. By the time he returned to Vienna, Mozart was dead. His relationship with his new professor, Joseph Haydn himself, had its frictions; but when Beethoven later insisted that he learned nothing from Haydn, that was palpably untrue. These pieces are technically demanding, requiring clarity, brilliance, lyricism and energy in equal measures. It opens with that famous slow movement, then a minuet and a tumultuous finale.

Beethoven requests that the first movement be played without damping the strings at all — perhaps testing the boundaries of the latest model of piano. The third, in E flat, is perhaps even more remarkable: intimate, generous, teasing and filled with exuberance. In two movements, the second introduced by an extended slow introduction, the work evokes positively orchestral textures and the second movement, based on the theme of a Rhenish song, seems filled with pealing bells.

Lucifer, once the bearer of light, plunges down from heaven into eternal darkness. He loved playing it, and marvelled at the theme of the first movement rising from the depths.

The entire work has such nobility and passion it is small wonder the publisher gave it the name by which it is known. As with the Pastoral Symphony , the only Piano Sonata where Beethoven tells us what his music represents though not as literally as with the Symphony is Les Adieux.

It has become known by its French name, since the publishers subtitled it in French, but the original rather more cumbersome German title was Das Lebewohl, Abwesenheit und Wiedersehn [The Farewell, Absence and Return].

Beethoven composed it in the most fraught year in recent Viennese history. On 9 May Austria yet again declared war on France. Napoleon Bonaparte, who had occupied Vienna three years before peacefully, this time decided to teach the recalcitrant Austrians a lesson once and for all.

He led his Revolutionary Army into Austria and marched them north east to Vienna. Word travelled ahead. Anyone who could, fled from the city. Roads were choked with people, wagons piled high with furniture and belongings.

It was decided that the Imperial royal family, headed by the Emperor, should leave Vienna for their own safety. Beethoven told the Archduke he would compose a Piano Sonata to mark the occasion.

This he duly did. Above the three descending opening chords of the first movement he wrote on the manuscript page: Le-be-wohl. It is a beautiful piece of music, and as always with Beethoven when you know what lies behind its composition, you listen to it with entirely different ears.

We come to the most monumental of all the Piano Sonatas, the Hammerklavier. This was the work that Beethoven composed at the height of the traumatic court case, when he was composing little else. What spurred him to do it?

More than likely the thoroughly prosaic fact that at the beginning of the year he had received a remarkable gift. Beethoven loved the piano, with its heavier English action which suited his music and playing style, and he was touched to see that Ferdinand Ries had signed his name on the board behind the keys. He gave it to Franz Liszt in , who treasured it but never played on it, saying he was not worthy to press the keys that Beethoven had pressed. In the early s the piano was restored — a major task which involved virtually rebuilding it.

Shortly after this it was transported briefly to England where the Malaysian-born English fortepianist Melvyn Tan performed on it. For this journey it was insured for five million pounds! The opening sequence of chords, preceded by a fleeting note in the bass and a multi-octave leap by the left hand, is humanly impossible to play at the metronome speed marked by Beethoven. It sets the tone for the work.

Massive, monumental, taking the Piano Sonata to totally new heights. Fugue, counterpoint, double trills … it is as if Beethoven is saying look at what I can do. But as ever Beethoven is rarely satisfied.

Around eight months after completing the Hammerklavier , and six months after sending it to Ferdinand Ries in London for publication, he wrote to Ries with an additional bar he wanted inserted at the start of the slow movement — just two notes, played in octaves. Ries protested that the work was about to be published, and to stop it now would cause unnecessary problems. Trios - General discussion regarding Beethoven's trios for various instruments and ensembles.

Sonatas for Cello and Piano - Discussion about Beethoven's five cello and piano sonatas. Sonatas for Violin and Piano - Overview of Beethoven's ten sonatas for violin and piano. String Quartets - Brief analysis of Beethoven's seventeen string quartets. The Opera "Fidelio" - The background, subject and influences of Beethoven's only opera. The Concertos - Beethoven's five piano concertos, his violin concerto and triple concerto analyzed.

The Overtures - Brief overview of some of the most important Beethoven overtures. Iulian Munteanu, Onesti, Romania. All Rights Reserved. Beethoven's Life Beethoven's Music.