2nd Movement: An Aria on the Piano

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Del curso dictado por Curtis Institute of Music

Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Part 3

49 calificaciones

Curtis Institute of Music

Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Part 3

49 calificaciones

Welcome to Part 3 of Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas! I'm delighted to launch another set of new lectures of this course as Part 3. As before, this class is meant for people of all levels of experience with Beethoven's music (including no experience at all!). Remember that you are able to watch the lectures as many times as you like, at whatever pace is comfortable for you. As I’ve done with the first two sets of Beethoven lectures, I look forward to meeting with students—online and in person, in various cities. The dates and locations will be posted in the Announcements and Events section, as part of the course content. So please remember to check back there for details. In these four new lectures, we will explore the following sonatas: • Sonata Op. 10, No. 1 • Sonata Op. 22 • Sonata Op. 31, No. 2 • Sonata Opp. 78, 79, 81a The Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation supports Curtis’s lifelong learning initiatives.

De la lección

Op. 22

Op 22: The Sonata that Washed Itself5:56

1st Movement: Wit and Athleticism7:33

1st Movement: Playing by the Rules8:57

2nd Movement: An Aria on the Piano7:08

2nd Movement: Effortless Mastery6:55

3rd Movement: A Rhythmic Link to the Rest of the Work5:35

4th Movement: A Grazioso Goodbye to the Earliest Period12:25

Conoce a los instructores

Jonathan Biss
Neubauer Family Chair in Piano Studies
Performance Faculty

If there is an outlier to this idea of op. 22 being a slightly scaled back version of

op. 7, it’s the second movement.

I might still argue that it’s a fraction less distinctive, but it is glorious, and

in any case, it has a character and a style that is entirely its own.

In the slow movements of both op. 7 and op. 2 no. 3,

the opening themes are most notable for their use of silence.

Op. 2 no. 3:

(MUSIC)

and op. 7.

(MUSIC)

What is so extraordinary about those themes is that Beethoven manages to sustain them

OVER so many silences, with each of the rests acting as a question mark.

The slow movement of op. 22 is in a way almost the exact opposite:

the miracle of its opening theme is its unbroken melodic line.

I’m not sure that I’d call it operatic, but it most definitely vocal in a way that

those earlier stop-start themes are not.

Its entire first section, amazingly, is one uninterrupted phrase

which takes a good minute to play.

(MUSIC)

This is yet another retort to the "Beethoven wasn’t a great melodist" fallacy:

it is impeccably balanced, and the line spins and spins, without a single stilted moment.

This movement is essentially a sonata form, which is unusual for a slow movement; slow

movements can have many different forms, but generally speaking, they don't have developments,

which by definition means they are NOT sonata forms.

What I played just now was the first half of the exposition – the first theme area.

I’ll now play the second half, really for no other reason than that

you ought to hear how beautiful it is.

(MUSIC)

Beyond the fantastic beauty, there are a couple of items of note here: first

of all, as we approach the second theme, there is a series of appoggiaturas that lean towards

minor, giving the movement a hint of darkness much in the same way that the closing theme

of the first movement did.

(MUSIC)

And now, when we come to the second theme itself, the writing is again very vocal.

Both main themes in this movement have this steady accompaniment of repeated eighth notes,

which feel very much like song accompaniments, in that they are there to support,

and not to distract.

(MUSIC)

Again, very vocal and very beautiful.

I would be disinclined to use the word "lovely" to describe much of Beethoven’s music –

it doesn’t feel like it has enough weight and gravitas

to fit a personality as intense and questing as his.

But this slow movement is intentionally lovely.

It doesn’t lack depth, but its beauty doesn’t always feel the need to serve some greater

purpose; the beauty is the point.

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