Beethoven 250: Piano Sonata No. 4, "Grande Sonate" (Stephen Kovacevich, 1999)

Engraving of a painting by Albert Graefle (1807-1899): Die Intimen bei Beethoven. With Anton Schindler, Sigmund Anton Steiner, Abbé Stadler and Gottfried von Swieten. From: Pinterest from: sjsu.edu.

Beethoven: The Complete Works (80 CD). Warner Classics / © 2019 Parlophone Records Limited. Also available on Spotify etc. I bought my box set from Fuga at Helsinki Music Centre.
    Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827.
    Beethoven 250 / corona lockdown listening.

From: CD 18/80  Piano Sonatas Nos. 4–7
Opus 7: Klaviersonate Nr. 4 in Es-Dur (1797)
"Grande Sonate"
"Die Verliebte"
Widmung: Babette Gräfin von Keglevich de Buzin
The first piano sonata to which Beethoven gave an opus number of its own.
    Stephen Kovacevich, piano, 1999

AA: I'm slowing down in my Beethoven project. From the piano sonatas I knew already mainly the usual ones, and I have kept re-listening to the first four, with which I need to get properly acquainted in the first place. They are no apprenticeship works of the 25–27-year old but already personal masterpieces in the classical idiom. The fourth piano sonata is even more original than the first three. Having found the András Schiff lectures I have listened to them and rotated different interpretations of the fourth piano sonata, including, besides Schiff and Kovacevich, also Schnabel, Kempff, Arrau, and a particular favourite, Maurizio Pollini (thank you for the tip, Esa Salovaara!). Somehow Pollini sustains a most consistent vigorous flow during the entire 26 minutes. They all have something original to say. Claudio Arrau conveys the beauty of the third movement most tenderly and subtly, without missing anything from the sinewy argument. I agree with Arrau that that movement is a confession of love and that the appellation "Die Verliebte" is deserved.

The nobility is emphasized in Sviatoslav Richter's interpretation.

Listening to the symphonies, the piano concertos and the violin concerto that open this edition of Beethoven's complete works I was thinking about Goethe, Wilhelm Meister and the Bildungsroman.

With the piano sonatas I am reminded that Beethoven was the contemporary of the golden age of German philosophy. All the four greats – Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel – published their keyworks during Beethoven's lifetime. Hegel (1770–1831), for instance, was almost an exact contemporary. Terms such as absolute idealism, the phenomenology of the spirit, Weltseele and the world-historical individual ring a bell with Beethoven. Hegel saw in philosophy, art and religion manifestations of the absolute spirit. More eloquent evidence than Beethoven is hardly possible to imagine.