Piano Sonata No. 26 (Beethoven)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major op.81a , often just called Les Adieux , was composed in 1809 and 1810 and was printed in Leipzig in 1811 . The programmatic occasion was the flight of Archduke Rudolf , the important patron and friend of the composer, from the Napoleonic troops from Vienna .

With its non-musical references and program headings , the work can be regarded as an exception in the composer's sonata oeuvre . The influence of poetic ideas, which Beethoven has repeatedly seen, becomes directly tangible in him.

Title page of the first edition 1811

construction

All three sentences are preceded by a motto that determines their character and - as in the pastoral - clarifies the programmatic orientation: farewell, absence and return.

First sentence: Farewell

The first two bars of the Sonata, which Beethoven with the syllables Le - be - probably overwrote.

Adagio / Allegro, C minor / E flat major / 2/4 time / alla breve

As in some of Beethoven's other piano sonatas - such as the Pathétique - the work begins with a slow, sixteen-bar introduction in adagio tempo, which is opened by the falling farewell motif, which also characterizes the main movement of the sonata . While it becomes the core of the second theme there, the “upbeat fourth interval” of the second bar shows itself as the determining impulse of the first theme from bar 17. The goodbye motif can be found in different derivations and transformations in many other places in the first movement so at the end of exposure , and several times in the implementation , in which it - now in all, instead of quarter notes and bills of exchange or in combination with the core motif of the first theme - in ever more distant tonalities transposed is.

adagio

The farewell motif , which consists of so-called horn fifths and thus imitates the sound of a horn , ends surprisingly in the second bar in the seriously resigned fallacy in C minor , caused by the C octave of the left hand. Siegfried Mauser writes: "The fact of farewell and the end, represented by the conventional closing phrase, is thus both affectively exaggerated and conveyed emotionally."

According to Jürgen Uhde, the basic idea of ​​saying goodbye in the introduction is not only expressed through the serious mood and calm devotion of this adagio. The harmony is also used to shape the farewell - in the sense of increasing distance. Because when the farewell motif is repeated from bar 7, completely unexpected harmonic domains open up: Instead of the tonic , the farewell formula now begins with a diminished seventh chord , which, contrary to the expected resolution to F minor, surprisingly turns to the dominant seventh chord of the root key but not - as expected - is led to the tonic, but to the sub-median in C flat major, with which Beethoven is very far removed from the key's origin.

Allegro

The chromatically richly modulating Adagio is followed ( attacca ) from bar 17 onwards by the main Allegro part of the first movement, the fiery character of which seems to be in unexpected contrast to the serious mood of the Adagio. The lively head motif could rather express good wishes and lively waving instead of sadness about the departure of the friend, although the chromatically sloping lower voices of the left hand with their sigh motifs add a painful component and question the happy impression.

The first theme of the Allegro, bars 17–22

The theme unfolding over eight bars can be viewed as a twofold wave movement. The rhythmically distinctive, very lively down and up of the first four bars is continued in the next four bar in reverse order. The expansive eighth note accompaniment of the left hand underlines the gesture from bar 21. The melody unfolds powerfully and dynamically over a sudden crescendo development from piano to sforzato two octave leaps to the high B with a final downward movement.

The coda that begins from bar 162 is remarkable , with 94 bars being astonishingly long compared to the development of just 40 bars. It begins with the main theme and already from bar 181 quotes the characteristic fall of the third of the farewell motif, which appears again in whole notes and is imitated several times. In bar 197, Beethoven dolce repeats the motif in the original horn-like notation of the beginning of the sonata, figured by broken chords and runs of the left.

At the end of the poetic coda from bar 223, Beethoven repeats the imitation, incorporating a canon episode with strikingly dissonant overlaps. This shows his preference for secondary rubs : the lead note and the base note sound at the same time as the horn signals of "the vanishing carriage" are pushed into one another.

The coda forms a counterbalance to the meaningful Adagio. Due to the two poles, the first movement appears to be stretched in a strong frame. The farewell, delayed again and again, becomes a formal idea here. For Jürgen Uhde, the coda “protests” against the flow of time that it wants to capture.

Second sentence: absence

Andante espressivo, C minor, 2/4 time

The short andante is in the parallel key of C minor and has a two-part song form. With its plaintive, dragging motifs, the rich ornamentation, the recitatives, the rhythmic fanning of the 2/4 time (which reaches up to 128 notes) and the sudden, dynamic outbursts typical of Beethoven's subjective style, it deals with the absence of the friend.

The first part of the theme consists of a second-third rotating motif with a dotted rhythm that is mournful and questioning in character, while the second part, introduced by thirty-second figurations, has something comforting with a longer episode in G major . The C minor appears here as an axis around which a circle of keys is described that extends to G and D flat major. This instability is explained by the formal idea of ​​experiencing “absence” as something restlessly wandering around.

Third sentence: The reunion

Vivacissamente, E flat major, 6/8 time

The “intoxicating virtuoso finale”, to which the second movement leads directly, “ultimately expresses unmistakably the overwhelming joy of seeing you again.” It is also in the form of the sonata main movement and begins with a breathless introductory passage in the According to Edwin Fischer, "the expectant throws himself against the person returning."

In the maelstrom of wildly pushing pianistic events, it is difficult for the two themes of the movement to take on contours that can be grasped in terms of motifs. They are inconspicuous, appear like "drifting sand" and are less important than the moving sound, which rather determines what happens in the course of the form.

The first theme is based on a simple motif consisting of broken eighth triads, which is subsequently varied several times and played around with virtuosity. The initial piano climbs through forte to fortissimo of a noisy exalted passage with pounding eighths in the left and brilliant sixteenth-note figures and runs in the right hand. This foaming movement is temporarily stopped by a series of sforzato beats played in unison , which ascend and descend successively through two triads, first in the mediante G flat , then in F major . Increased by an octave, there is a variation of this massive sound complex in the piano, which is characterized by repeated eighth chords in the left hand and lively, lively suggestions in the right . From bar 53 the second theme follows in B flat major , which is accompanied by a trill in the right hand and appears as a dialogue between two main voices.

After an undramatic, rather calm and contemplative development from bar 82, which plays with the components of both themes and flows smoothly into the recapitulation, the concluding coda initially turns "inward" and "very poetic" with a slowdown of the main theme [... ] into the tender ". With varying embellishments, a rhythmic entanglement of upper and lower voices and a ritardando turn in pianissimo, she delays the entry of the final cheering fanfare, which ends the work with descending and ascending broken octaves in the right hand.

Biographical background

Archduke Rudolf of Austria in the bishop's robe

In few works by Beethoven the biographical reason can be grasped as clearly as in this sonata. While the interpreters of works with a clearly subjective will to express  themselves - such as the “ Moonlight Sonata ” and the Appassionata - occasionally make a name for themselves with different interpretations and explanations, the situation here is far clearer. The entire imperial family decided to leave for Ofen ( Buda ) before the approaching French troops, only to return nine months later. The Archduke was a student, friend and long-time supporter of Beethoven. How much he valued him can be seen from the numerous dedications, which clearly distinguish the friend from other dedicatees.

In a letter to the Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house , which had also published copies with French titles, Beethoven stated that the German word “Lebewohl” was “completely different from Les Adieux ”. It refers to a person to whom one is "warmly" connected, while the French expression is addressed to an indefinite group of people. This declaration also suggests Beethoven's friendly feelings towards the Archduke.

The first sentence was headed in the manuscript as follows: “The farewell. Vienna, May 4th 1809 on the departure of His Imperial Highness the revered Archduke Rudolph ”.

The lost autograph of the finale was entitled: "The arrival of His Imperial Highness the revered Archduke Rudolph on Jan. 30, 1810".

Interpretations

As a sonata of the name - in combination with the " Sturm " -, the "Mondschein" - and Waldstein Sonata or the Appassionata - is op. 81 a by numerous pianists such as Claudio Arrau , Rudolf Serkin , Solomon , Emil Gilels , Alfred Brendel and Maurizio Pollini bis to the younger generations and interpreted differently. How big the differences can be is evident from an observation by Joachim Kaiser , according to which the longest recording of the introductory Adagio 100, the shortest 60 seconds. According to Kaiser, Solomon and Bruno Leonardo Gelber played the beginning of the sonata with a “slight, painful darkening”. Solomon, for example, introduced the minor part of the second adagio bar with minimal, “unforgettable, expressive hesitation”, while Friedrich Gulda did not and played Beethoven's drama against her intention and without psychology. Gulda tends to stick to the meter to the point of self-denial .

Special features and meaning

In this very frequently played sonata, which Beethoven referred to as “Sonate caractérisque”, he combines a musical motif - the three introductory sounds - with a word consisting of three syllables : “Farewell!” With this he makes it unmistakable a relation of the music to an extra-musical meaning.

Adagio-Allegro transition

The difficult decision

Beethoven gave the title of the finale of the last string quartet No. 16 op. 135 in F major from 1826: “The difficult decision”. He wrote under the grave : “Must it be?” And under the following Allegro : “It must be! It must be!". This corresponds - albeit without words - in the Adagio and Allegro opposite in the Les Adieux Sonata : the last seven bars of the Adagio are characterized by questioning gestures interrupted by pauses, which finally end in two hesitant A flat major sixth chords. The same chord in the forte as the beginning of the forward-pushing Allegro gives the answer: "It must be!"

The dissonances in the coda of the first movement

The dissonances at the end of the coda of the first movement, which for Alfred Brendel already indicate Beethoven's new style , led to different reactions and comments. The publisher Ries omitted half of the coda in a new edition in order to avoid the "mistake". While Edouard Herriot interprets the dissonance as a sign of sincere pain, Jürgen Uhde seems to have just overcome it. He explains the strange sounds as composed reverberation effects: the further away one goes, the more the calls mingled; the sound solemnly turns into bell effects . The passage seems like an anticipation of musical impressionism .

Transcendent aspects of meaning

Some reviewers such as B. Jürgen Uhde are of the opinion that the work points beyond its specific reason for creation and has an independent and generally applicable aesthetic value. The meaning of the composition is not limited to the reference to the archduke and the fixed period between farewell and return. The phenomena of farewell, absence and return would be implemented musically in a generally applicable way. According to Uhde, some interpreters related the presented basic situations in the sense of the poem "Finding again" from Goethe's West-Eastern Divan more to the separation and return between lovers and the perceived separation and return beyond the human sphere than an event "in space". Here, as there, a cosmic whole should be embraced.

attachment

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ The impression of breathlessness results primarily from the ascending chain of sighs in bars 9 and 10, which can only appear breathlessly excited because of the extremely fast tempo.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegfried Mauser: Beethoven's piano sonatas, a musical work guide. Beck, Munich 2001, p. 116
  2. ^ Siegfried Mauser: Beethoven's piano sonatas, a musical work guide. Beck, Munich 2001, p. 117.
  3. ^ Jürgen Uhde: Beethoven's piano music. Volume 3, Sonatas 16-32, Reclam, Stuttgart 1980, pp. 276 f.
  4. ^ Harenberg piano music guide, Ludwig van Beethoven. Sonata in E flat major op 81a "Les Adieux", Meyers Lexikonverlag, Mannheim 2004, p. 155.
  5. ^ A b Alfred Brendel: Reflecting on Music. Beethoven, The New Style. Piper, Munich 1984, p. 75.
  6. ^ A b c Siegfried Mauser: Beethoven's piano sonatas. A musical factory guide. Beck, Munich 2001, p. 119.
  7. ^ Jürgen Uhde: Beethoven's piano music. Volume 3, Sonatas 16-32, Reclam, Stuttgart 1980, p. 286.
  8. ^ Jürgen Uhde: Beethoven's piano music. Volume 3, Sonatas 16-32, Reclam, Stuttgart 1980, p. 290.
  9. ^ Edwin Fischer : Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas. Wiesbaden 1956, p. 104.
  10. ^ Jürgen Uhde: Beethoven's piano music. Volume 3, Sonatas 16-32, Reclam, Stuttgart 1980, p. 295.
  11. ^ Jürgen Uhde: Beethoven's piano music. Volume 3, Sonatas 16-32, Reclam, Stuttgart 1980, p. 297.
  12. ^ Jürgen Uhde: Beethoven's piano music. Volume 3, Sonatas 16-32, Reclam, Stuttgart 1980, p. 298.
  13. ^ András Schiff: Beethoven's piano sonatas and their interpretation. Bonn 2007, ISBN 978-3-88188-107-4 , p. 69.
  14. ↑ Quoted from Jürgen Uhde: Beethoven's piano music. Volume 3: Sonatas 16-32; Reclam, Stuttgart 1980, p. 271.
  15. ^ Jürgen Uhde: Beethoven's piano music. Volume 3: Sonatas 16-32; Reclam, Stuttgart 1980, p. 271.
  16. ↑ Joachim Kaiser: Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas and their interpreters. Frankfurt a. M. 1975, p. 444.
  17. ↑ Joachim Kaiser: Great pianists in our time. Glenn Gould and Friedrich Gulda. Piper, Munich 1996, p. 217.
  18. ^ Jürgen Uhde: Beethoven's piano music. Volume 3, Sonatas 16-32, Reclam, Stuttgart 1980, p. 288.
  19. ^ Jürgen Uhde: Beethoven's piano music. Volume 3, Sonaten 16-32, Reclam, Stuttgart 1980, pp. 271-272.

literature

  • Beethoven's piano sonatas and their interpretation, “ Finding a language for every note”, András Schiff in conversation with MartinMeyer . Verlag Beethoven-Haus, Bonn 2007, ISBN 978-3-88188-107-4 .
  • Edwin Fischer : Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas, a companion for students and enthusiasts . Insel-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1956.

Web links