78, and 81a, the “Lebewohl.” The last of these is one of Beethoven’s only serious experiments with program music, which made it an important reference point for many 19th-century composers. 77, which exemplifies the vital role improvisation played in all of Beethoven’s music, and the Sonatas Op. Works discussed come from this comparatively fallow period and will include the Fantasy, Op. This lecture examines the intersection of these three issues, and of his life and music more generally.
But for the next several years, he stalled dramatically, as he dealt with the onset of his deafness, severely trying personal circumstances, and the struggle to find what would become his late style, which to a remarkable degree involved the total reinvention of his musical language.
Topics will include Beethoven’s use of the piano, and the use of the sonata as a “vehicle” for the pianist, the ways in which this and other early sonatas conform to the model established by Haydn and Mozart and the ways in which they do not, and the foreshadowing of the fixations of the later years, while holding, at least on the surface, to the conventions of the time.įrom 1793 until 1809, Beethoven composed at a steady pace. Topics will include Beethoven’s use of the piano and the use of the sonata as a “vehicle” for the pianist, the ways in which this and other early sonatas conform to the model established by Haydn and Mozart and the ways in which they do not, and the foreshadowing of the fixations of the later years, while holding, at least on the surface, to the conventions of the time. 7, which is the largest and altogether one of the most impressive of the early works. This is problematic, for various reasons, but the first 13 of the 32 sonatas do, in a sense, form a unit.
The Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation supports Curtis's lifelong learning initiatives.īeethoven’s work has traditionally been divided into three or four periods. This season's Curtis courses are sponsored by Linda Richardson in loving memory of her husband, Dr. Its main aim is to explore and demystify the work of the performer, even while embracing the eternal mystery of Beethoven’s music itself. (These might include: the relationship between Beethoven the pianist and Beethoven the composer the critical role improvisation plays in his highly structured music his mixing of extremely refined music with rougher elements and the often surprising ways in which the events of his life influenced his compositional process and the character of the music he was writing.) The course will feature some analysis and historical background, but its perspective is that of a player, not a musicologist. Each lecture will focus on one sonata and an aspect of Beethoven’s music exemplified by it. This course takes an inside-out look at the 32 piano sonatas from the point of view of a performer. Two hundred years after his death, he is everywhere in the culture, yet still represents its summit. At the same time, Beethoven’s music is casually familiar to millions of people who do not attend concerts or consider themselves musically inclined. For many musicians, he represents a kind of holy grail: His music has an intensity, rigor, and profundity which keep us in its thrall, and it is perhaps unequalled in the interpretive, technical, and even spiritual challenges it poses to performers.
Our relationship to Beethoven is a deep and paradoxical one.
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