Listening To Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas

Piano sonatas--Beethoven's especially--make up such a large part of today's recital repertory that we forget how long it took for this form to be accepted into public concert life. Franz Liszt acted quite daringly when he programmed the "Hammerklavier" Sonata, and this was a rare experiment. In a word, the keyboard sonata was considered, from the 18th century on, a domestic genre, to be played at home and enjoyed by amateurs. This accounts for composers' attitudes towards it: they simply did not give all their attention and greatest effort to the sonata. Furthermore, publishers asked for easy works, which would sell better than difficult ones. (This is a prime reason why Mozart was not popular in his time!)

In Beethoven's day things were not too much different, so we should not expect to find in his sonatas quite the same features that make his quartets and symphonies the most advanced areas of his musical activity. Which is not to say that the sonatas have no interest or are not entirely characteristic; simply put, a sonata can't possibly serve the same purpose as a symphony.

There are piano sonatas from each of Beethoven's creative periods. The first sixteen or seventeen fall into the Early period. Here the relation to the Classic style of Haydn and Mozart is most apparent. Beethoven takes the form as he found it, making few experiments on the large scale. Surely there are typical Beethoven touches on every page, but these are personal characteristics rather than compositional techniques. For example, the familiar dramatic effects in the "Pathetique" sonata have nothing to do with musical devices that Mozart, or Bach for that matter, did not know; it is Beethoven's particular way of using this or that chord or harmony that makes us say, "that's Beethoven."

The sonatas from No. 18 to No. 27, Op. 90 in E Minor, fall into the Middle period. The most popular ones come from this group: Appassionata, Waldstein, Les Adieux, to name a few with nicknames. Here we see Beethoven expanding the musical form and the technique of piano playing; both technical and interpretive demands are greater than before. There is also the extra-musical, poetic element that comes in, obvious in Sonata No. 26, which has titles for each movement: "Farewell", "Absence", "Return" (this is the famous "Les Adieux" (Farewell) Sonata.

In his last period Beethoven wrote relatively few sonatas, Nos. 28-32. These relate to his quartets of the same period. They are more subjective in emotional feeling and more individual with respect to form and technique. Beethoven is here furthest removed from the Classical sonata. He reverts to Baroque forms, such as the fugue, and restores the variation form to its former position of prominence. In a work such as Sonata No. 32, the musical content is so personal that it becomes, para­doxically, super-personal, a universal statement that transcends all musical periods and national boundaries.

The Society has three complete series of the Beethoven Sonatas, each performed by a European pianist of great distinction. We are often asked which is the best. There is no answer! One person cannot have all the answers to the vast interpretive problems Beethoven offers. Each artist approaches them and presents his ideas in his own way, and this involves many variables, such as age, nation­ality, basic temperament, etc. Of the three sets in the MHS catalog, Badura­ Skoda' s represents the traditional Viennese approach (Badura is Austrian) and has the advantage (for many) of coming in a boxed album. Robert Riefling is Scandinavian, and his performances are on the mellow side, somewhat in the grand manner of Wilhelm Backhaus and that generation. Friedrich Guida is German, with a brilliant technique and a literal approach to the score. For some sonatas one might prefer this pianist, for others, another. Each has something to offer.