Sonata no 20 de beethoven biography

Piano sonatas written by Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven wrote 32 mature piano sonatas between 1795 and 1822. (He also wrote 3 juvenile sonatas at the age of 13 and one unfinished sonata, WoO. 51.) Although originally not intended to be a meaningful whole, as a set they comprise one of the most important collections of works in the history of music.Hans von Bülow called them "The New Testament" of piano literature (Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier being "The Old Testament").

Beethoven's piano sonatas came to be seen as the first cycle of major piano pieces suited to both private and public performance. They form "a bridge between the worlds of the salon and the concert hall". The first person to play them all in a single concert cycle was Hans von Bülow; the first complete recording is Artur Schnabel's for the label His Master's Voice.

List of sonatas

Juvenilia

The first three sonatas, written in 1782–1783, are usually not acknowledged as part of the complete set of piano sonatas because Beethoven was 13 when they were published.

Early sonatas

Beethoven's early sonatas were highly influenced by those of Haydn and Mozart. Piano Sonatas No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 11, 12, 13, and 15 are four movements long, which was rather uncommon in his time.

Middle sonatas

After he wrote his first 15 sonatas, he wrote to Wenzel Krumpholz, "From now on, I'm going to take a new path." Beethoven's sonatas from this period are very different from his earlier ones. His experimentation in modifications to the common sonata form of Haydn and Mozart became more daring, as did the depth of expression. Most Romantic period sonatas were highly influenced by those of Beethoven. After his 20th sonata, published in 1805, Beethoven ceased to publish sonatas in sets and published all his subsequent sonatas each as a single whole opus. It is unclear why he did

performed by Rudolf Buchbinder, or below by Alfred Brendel

(cover image by Rodion Kutsaev)

Each performer has the freedom here to create something different…

Sir Andras Schiff

(cover image by Rodion Kutsaev)

As discussed in the article from earlier this week regarding the first of the two sonatas in this opus number, it’s deceiving. The opus number 49 would seemingly put them at around the time of the third piano concerto, third symphony, or the Waldstein sonata, but no. In listening to these works, it should be apparent that they don’t date from this period.

Beethoven’s op. 49 sonatas were published in 1805, but composed a full decade earlier, in 1795-96, around the time he composed the op. 7 or 10 sonatas. The pieces were presented to the publisher by Beethoven’s brother Kaspar, against the composer’s wishes. They are sometimes referred to as the “Leichte sonaten” or ‘light sonatas,’ and were written as simpler works for friends or relatives.

The second of the two op. 49 sonatas is in G major, in two movements, as follows:

1. Allegro ma non troppo
2. Tempo di menuetto

As with op. 49 no. 1, we have only two movements, and this work is really even simpler than its counterpart “featuring less sophistication” with no dynamic indications at all, and is thus considered to be the easiest of all of Beethoven’s sonatas. Both movements are in G.

As is standard practice for our discussion of the Beethoven piano sonatas, I’ll draw your attention to Sir Andras Schiff’s superb (and slightly shorter) lecture on the work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6i8UDoIzLQ

You could really just listen to that.

As mentioned earlier in the week, neither of these works bear a dedication, and Schiff says they must have “a certain pedagogical purpose,” as we saw with no. 19. As Schiff emphasized in the previous lecture, while it’s important from an educational stand

Piano sonatas written by Beethoven

The Piano Sonata No. 19 in G minor, Op. 49, No. 1, and Piano Sonata No. 20 in G major, Op. 49, No. 2, are short sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, published in 1805 (although the works were actually composed a decade earlier in early to mid 1797). Both works are approximately eight minutes in length, and are split into two movements. These sonatas are referred to as the Leichte Sonaten to be given to his friends and students. They are his first two numbered piano sonatas with only two movements rather than three or four.

The Piano Sonata No. 20 was possibly written around the time Beethoven composed the Third and Fourth sonatas, but because it was published in Vienna in 1805, nearly a decade after it was actually written, it was assigned then-current opus and sonata numbers, which classified it alongside works from the composer's middle period. Very similar circumstances caused Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 to appear as his second, even though it predated the first.

Beethoven often suppressed works in his early years, either revising them later for publication or determining that they were not fit. In fact, he withheld many early works from publication for life. In the case of these two sonatas, it was Kaspar van Beethoven, the composer's brother, who decided they were worthy of publication. Against the composer's will, he presented them to a publishing house, thus allowing posterity to hear works that might otherwise have been lost or destroyed.

Sonata No. 19

Charles Rosen, while noting the sonata's lack of technical challenges, states that it is a "deeply affecting and distinguished work".

Movements

First movement

The first movement is written in standard sonata-allegro form. After the first and second theme, it moves into the recapitulation with very little development. After restating the theme in the bass with new counterpoin

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Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 in Bonn. Bonn is situated in today’s Germany, but Germany was not a country in 1770 as we know it today. Bonn was the main city in one of the many mini-states that created the area we now call Germany. In fact, the concept of uniting people through the concept of belonging to the same country was not fully established back then. France was the first country in Europe to really build on that concept and Germany was slow to follow. Beethoven lived during a very turbulent era in European history.

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Beethoven grew up with a grandfather who was a bright star in the music world of Bonn, and that meant being a musician hired by the court. The ruler of Bonn was basically a prince, and his court had an orchestra and a group of singers. The musicians were seen and treated as servants. Beethoven’s father, on the other hand, was a mediocre singer who, as many people back then, became an alcoholic and an embarrassment to his family, leaving young Ludwig as a guardian of the family when his mother died in 1787.

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Beethoven was not a wonder-child, and he hasn’t left us any great pieces which he wrote as a child. He was a bright star as a young piano virtuoso, though. He traveled to Vienna for the first time in 1787, but that was cut extremely short because his mother died. The second time he left was in 1790 and this time he never returned to Bonn.

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Beethoven quickly established himself as a prominent piano virtuoso, and a fantastic improviser. As a composer, he still had years to go before he could claim to be at the same heights as Haydn and Mozart, but he would eventually surpass them in fame and status.

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Now to the sonatas: a solo sonata was not considered a piece for a big stage, but more a piece to be played in a private setting. Public concerts were rare in those days, and if they happe