Recording
Title: Maurizio Pollini Edition
Performer: Maurizio Pollini
Year: 1977
Length: 26 minutes
Review
We come at last to the final piano sonata by Beethoven, don't worry he'll keep us companied for a while still, as he goes progressively into a more transcendental part of his live, but the piano sonatas end here.
The sonata's structure is strange, being composed only of 2 movements. Those two movements are, however, more than enough to make this one of the most interesting piano sonatas by Beethoven, come on he even invents boogie-woogie jazz!
The second movement is again the most weighty and more interesting, and it has a couple of variations which sound modern to the point of pre-figuring jazz music. This is not only truly unexpected but also immediately recognisable when you are listening to it. In this sonata Beethoven is again exploring counterpoint to great success.
Final Grade
10/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The final movement, in C major, is a set of variations on a 16-bar theme, with a brief modulating interlude and final coda. The third variation is remarkably jazzy and often referred to as the "boogie-woogie variation", and the last two are famous for introducing small notes which constantly divide the bar in 36 resp. 27 parts, which is very uncommon. Beethoven eventually introduces a trill which gives the impression of a further step (ie. dividing each bar into 81 parts), though this is extremely technically difficult without slowing down to half-tempo.
Barenboim plays the first movement:
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