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Leave it to the Piano Guys to concoct something as neat as this.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10, No. 3, was dedicated to the Countess Anne Margarete von Browne, and written in 1798. This makes it contemporary with his three string trios of opus 9, the violin sonatas of opus 12 and the violin romance that became his opus 50 when later published. (The year also saw the premiere of a revised version of his second piano concerto, whose original form had been written and heard in 1795.[1])
It is divided into four movements:
- Presto – cut time
- Largo e mesto – 6/8 in D minor
- Menuetto: Allegro – 3/4 in D major – G major – D major
- Rondo: Allegro – common time
For many classical music lovers, Beethoven’s eighth violin sonata lives in the long, fiery shadow of the ninth, better known as the “Kreutzer”. This is easy to understand, as the Kreutzer is a prime example of the stormy side of Beethoven—the one many listeners see as his most exciting and revealing trait. However, just as his eighth symphony is the kinder, gentler companion to his towering, formidable ninth, the eighth violin sonata, shorter and less aggressive than the ninth, shows a more lyrical side of Beethoven.
Bill Moyers introduces a film that I, very much, want to see. Watch as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony travels the globe and what it means to people and societies.
The sonata was originally dedicated to the violinist George Bridgetower (1778–1860), who performed it with Beethoven at the premiere on 24 May 1803 at the Augarten Theatre at a concert that started at the unusually early hour of 8:00 am. Bridgetower sight-read the sonata; he had never seen the work before, and there had been no time for any rehearsal. However, research indicates that after the performance, while the two were drinking, Bridgetower insulted the morals of a woman whom Beethoven cherished. Enraged, Beethoven removed the dedication of the piece, dedicating it instead to Rodolphe Kreutzer, who was considered the finest violinist of the day.[1] However, Kreutzer never performed it, considering it “outrageously unintelligible”. He did not particularly care for any of Beethoven’s music, and they only ever met once, briefly.[2]
Sources suggest the work was originally titled “Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer [Bridgetower], gran pazzo e compositore mulattico” (Mulatto Sonata composed for the mulatto Brischdauer, big wild mulatto composer), and in the composer’s 1803 sketchbook, as a “Sonata per il Pianoforte ed uno violino obligato in uno stile molto concertante come d’un concerto”.[3]
Structure
The piece is in three movements, and takes approximately 43 minutes to perform:
Adagio sostenuto – Presto – Adagio (about 15 minutes in length)
Andante con variazioni (about 18 minutes)
Presto (about 10 minutes)
The sonata opens with a slow 18-bar introduction, of which only the first four bars of the solo violin are in the A-Major-key. The piano enters, and the harmony begins to turn darker towards the minor key, until the main body of the movement — an angry A-minor Presto— begins. Here, the piano part matches the violin’s in terms of difficulty. Near the end, Beethoven brings back part of the opening Adagio, before closing the movement in an anguished coda.
There could hardly be a greater contrast with the second movement, a placid tune in F major followed by five distinctive variations. The first variation transliterates the theme into a lively triple meter while embellishing it with trills, while in the second the violin steals the melody and enlivens it even further. The third variation, in the minor, returns to a darker and more meditative state. The fourth recalls the first and second variations with its light, ornamental, and airy feel. The fifth and final variation, the longest, caps the movement with a slower and more dramatic feel, nevertheless ending in carefree F major.
The calm is broken by a crashing A major chord in the piano, ushering in the virtuosic and exuberant third movement, a 6/8 tarantella in rondo form. After moving through a series of slightly contrasting episodes, the theme returns for the last time, and the work ends jubilantly in a rush of A major.
This finale was originally composed for another, earlier, sonata for violin and piano by Beethoven, the Op. 30, no. 1, in A major.[4]
It doesn’t matter who you are. You gave your best, your worst and everything in between. Congratulate yourself for making it to here, prevailing or failing with your challenges. It doesn’t matter who you are. You are a worthy person and deserve to celebrate this one time, this one milestone of a thousand milestones.
Celebrate with me. For jocundity, for exultation, for the sheer epic magnitude of emotion expressed in the music of Beethoven. Prepare happily for Cry, Rinse and Repeat. Feel what unbounded joy is like through his music. Know that we are insignificant specks in a vast universe and yet, despite this fact, we create such works of unfettered jubilance.
It doesn’t matter who you are – Happy New Year – Thank you everyone who contributes to this blog and takes the time to read and comment here at DWR, may this year be kind to you and those you love.
Best Wishes,
The Arbourist
Almost posted the 9th again. Whoops. :)
The concerto is divided into three movements:
- Allegro in E-flat major
- Adagio un poco mosso in B major
- Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo in E-flat major
As with Beethoven’s other concertos from this time period, this work has a relatively long first movement. (At twenty-five minutes, the Violin Concerto has the longest; Piano Concerto Nos. 4 and 5 each have opening movements of about twenty minutes.)
I. Allegro
The main theme of the first movement.
The piece begins with three full orchestra chords, each followed by a short cadenza, improvisatory in nature but written out in the score. These short cadenzas recur intermittently throughout the piece.
As music’s Classical era gave way to its Romantic era, composers began experimenting with the manner in which one or more solo instruments introduced music. Beethoven had already explored such possibilities in his Piano Concerto No. 4, but the monumental piano introduction in Piano Concerto No. 5 – it lasts for nearly two minutes – foreshadowed future concertos such as Mendelssohn‘s Violin Concerto or Tchaikovsky‘s Piano Concerto in B-flat minor.
The first movement is deceptively complex. Despite its use of simple chords, including a second theme constructed almost entirely out of tonic and dominant notes and chords, it is full of complex thematic transformations. The complexity is intensified once the piano enters with the first theme, as the expository material is repeated with far more complex variations, virtuoso figurations, and complex modified chords. The second theme enters in the surprising key of B minor before moving to B major and at last the expected key of B-flat major several bars later.
Aside from the opening cadenzas, the movement follows Beethoven’s trademark three-theme sonata structure for a concerto. The orchestral exposition is a typical two-theme sonata exposition, but the second exposition with the piano has a triumphant virtuoso third theme at the end that belongs solely to the solo instrument. Beethoven does this in many of his concertos. The coda at the end of the movement is quite long, and, again typical of Beethoven, uses the open-ended first theme and gives it closure to create a satisfying conclusion.
II. Adagio un poco mosso
The second movement in B major is, in standard contrast to the first, calm and reflective. It moves into the third movement without interruption when a lone bassoon note B drops a semitone to B-flat, the dominant note to the tonic key E-flat. According to Alex Ross, this movement supplied the melody for Bernstein‘s “Somewhere” from West Side Story.[2]
III. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo
The main theme of the third movement.
The final movement of the concerto is a seven-part rondo form (ABACABA), a typical concerto finale form. The piano begins the movement by playing its main theme, then followed by the full orchestra. The rondo’s B-section begins with piano scales, before the orchestra again responds. The C-section is much longer, presenting the theme from the A-section in three different keys before the piano performs a cadenza. Rather than finishing with a strong entrance from the orchestra, however, the trill ending the cadenza dies away until the introductory theme reappears, played first by the piano and then the orchestra. In the last section, the theme undergoes variation before the concerto ends with a short cadenza and robust orchestral response.
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