1st Movement: Hammer Blows in c minor

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Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Part 3

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Curtis Institute of Music

Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Part 3

41 ratings

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.

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Op. 10 No. 1

Opus 10 number 1: The "c minor Mood"6:06

Opus 10 number 1: Extremes of Tempo and Character1:49

1st Movement: Pulse as a Source of Character9:26

1st Movement: High Drama within the Conventions of the Time2:38

1st Movement: A Development with New Material4:28

1st Movement: Hammer Blows in c minor4:37

2nd Movement: An Adagio Oasis9:36

2nd Movement: A Coda that Expands the Movement’s Scope8:16

3rd Movement: Prestissimo!5:04

3rd Movement: Short-Short-Short-LONG3:16

3rd Movement: Beginning with Defiance; Ending with Mystery7:20

Conheça os instrutores

Jonathan Biss
Neubauer Family Chair in Piano Studies
Performance Faculty

So, we arrive at the recapitulation.

It is, again, orderly: it does just what it is supposed to, but in very powerful ways.

The first theme is shortened in a brusque manner that really drives home the terseness

of the movement as a whole – I know I’ve used that word a lot, but it really does get to

the heart of how this music functions, how it makes its effect.

Here’s the end of the first theme in the exposition,

(MUSIC)

and in the recapitulation.

(MUSIC)

The notable thing is not that it has been shortened--

Beethoven often tweaked his recapitulations,

in ways large and small –it’s that it ends so abruptly.

None of the edges in this movement are softened,

and this is probably the hardest edge of them all.

There’s no c minor chord, just an octave (MUSIC), and because we are expecting a continuation

of the theme, that ensuing silence is very grim.

So, the critical moment in a recapitulation is always the arrival of the second theme–

you must be getting bored of hearing me say this by now –

because it is now transposed into the work’s home key.

In this piece, Beethoven achieves this in a somewhat novel and really very powerful way.

(MUSIC)

So, here is the theme, but not in c minor (MUSIC), but F Major (MUSIC).

This is out of context, unexpected, and provides a moment of sweetness in a movement that is

really largely devoid of such moments.

(MUSIC, TO FORTE.)

And there it is, the c minor.

(MUSIC CHORD)

It has merely been postponed, and that makes its eventual arrival more powerful,

a real hammer blow.

(MUSIC)

It’s not only the first time we get this theme in c minor, its also the first

time we hear it played forte.

There is now anger in it: c minor Beethoven.

On the subject of hammer blows, the movement ends with a big one.

You’ll remember that the exposition ended with a lyrical closing theme.

(MUSIC)

The theme returns at the close of the movement, but transposed into c minor,

Beethoven will not allow it to just drift away this time.

(MUSIC)

Remember how I said that the exposition begins with a bang and ends with a sigh?

Well, the movement as a whole is bookended by two bangs – whenever we are in c minor,

there is a total absence of remorse.

However much material this movement might pack in –and it really is quite a lot, with the

standard two themes supplemented by the closing one, and then the extra one in the development

– it is always moving inexorably, even ruthlessly, towards this c minor conclusion.

Even when he is being cut-and-dried and unyielding, Beethoven’s musical personality

is still riveting to observe in action.

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