Beethoven 250: Piano Sonata No. 11 (Stephen Kovacevich, 1997)

Albert Gräfle (1807–1889): Die Intimen bei Beethoven / Beethoven and his friends. Publisher: Gebbie & Husson Co. Ltp. Sepia photogravure reproduction of a painting by Albert Gräfle. Other figures represented in the image include Anton Schindler (1795–1864), Sigmund Anton Steiner (1773–1838), Abbé Stadler (1753–1812), Gottfried von Swieten (1733–1803). 27 x 37 cm. This work is in the public domain and therefore the digital images attached to this catalog record may be used without permission. From the collections of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San José State University. From: SJSU King Library Digital Collections. Please click on the image to enlarge it.

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 19/80  Piano Sonatas Nos. 8–11
Stephen Kovacevich, 1997.

Opus 22: Klaviersonate Nr. 11 in B-Dur (1800)
Dem Grafen Johann Georg von Browne gewidmet
    Erster Satz, Allegro con brio, B-Dur, 4/4-Takt, 199 Takte
    Zweiter Satz, Adagio con molto espressione, Es-Dur, 9/8-Takt, 77 Takte
    Dritter Satz, Menuetto/Minore, B-Dur/g-Moll, 3/4-Takt, 46 Takte
    Vierter Satz, Rondo, Allegretto, B-Dur, 2/4-Takt, 199 Takte

AA: Reading about Beethoven I learn that the 11th piano sonata is considered to be among the last among his youthful sonatas and among the earliest compositions in his Empire period.

It is different from the lyrical and humoristic spring brook sensibilities of the preceding sonatas. This one is more like a saga of the will, dynamic, virile and energetic. This aspect is particularly well expressed by Sviatoslav Richter.

The Allegro con brio movement is like a ride through a vast landscape. The Adagio con molto espressione is a journey through the night, to a world of shadows. For Romain Rolland, this movement was "the dream of a shepherd". The Menuetto is like waking up to a bright sunrise and seeing the dance of the dragonflies. The Rondo, allegretto is rich in events and layers. The familiar turns unfamiliar, the ordinary into the extraordinary. Anton Rubinstein found in the fourth movement some of Beethoven's most beautiful pages.

I started with "doctor's orders", listening to Stephen Kovacevich so many times that I lost count. I never got bored, but then I strayed. Igor Levit's new dynamic version conveys the purposefulness of the piece. Brendel, Arrau, Gulda and Feinberg are all great. But next to Richter I predictably found András Schiff's Guardian Lecture particularly rewarding.

For Schiff, this sonata is truly grand, a virtuoso piece, probably composed for Beethoven's own performances in great events. Where the previous sonatas had a string quartet quality, this one is orchestral.

In the second movement Schiff emphasizes Beethoven's unique gravity. The harmony, the dissonances, and the Lydian references were really mysterious "even in 2005" (when Schiff gave his lecture).

In the third movement Schiff notices its Haydnesque origins from which it evolves in new and revolutionary ways.

Of the four movements Schiff offers privileged insights from his own virtuoso pianist's viewpoint. The inner voices in the Rondo allegretto. The toccata developments are "a wonderful way of writing for the piano" such as only an exceptional pianist could invent. In the second movement Beethoven appears as "a master of the legato", also of tempo rubato. In the fourth movement he plays with the "fake fugato" and even includes passages that "sound quite Hungarian" to Schiff's great delight.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: COMMENTS FROM WIKIPEDIA IN THREE LANGUAGES:
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: COMMENTS FROM WIKIPEDIA IN THREE LANGUAGES:

German Wikipedia: "Die Klaviersonate Nr. 11 in B-Dur steht am Ende von Beethovens „jugendlichem“ Sonatenwerk, der sogenannten „ersten Schaffensperiode“.
    1. Satz. Die Tonart und der heitere Tonfall des 1. Satzes erinnern an das in derselben Zeit entstandene 2. Klavierkonzert. Die gebrochenen Akkordfiguren der Durchführung finden sich ähnlich auch in der Klaviersonate Nr. 21 („Waldstein-Sonate“) und der Klaviersonate Nr. 23 (sogenannte „Appassionata“). Anders als in einigen anderen Beethoven-Sonaten hat der erste Satz weder eine 2. Durchführung noch eine Coda; er lebt aus der inneren Dynamik, die Pianisten wie Schnabel, Richter und Gulda hörbar machen.
    2. Satz. Der 2. Satz steht in der Subdominanttonart Es-Dur.
    3. Satz. Der dritte Satz, ein Menuett, steht in B-Dur, das Trio (Minore) in der Paralleltonart g-Moll.
    4. Satz. Das Rondo orientiert sich an der Grobgliederung A-B-A-C-A-B-A-Coda, gestaltet jedoch jeden dieser Teile in immer neuen Varianten individuell aus. Dass man die Mittelstimmen und Zweiunddreißigstel klar und trotzdem „recht schnell“ spielen kann, haben Feinberg, Gieseking und Arrau gezeigt.
    Denis Matthews äußerte, dass die Sonate „überraschend frei von Überraschungen“ sei. Joachim Kaiser sieht sie als „männliches Meisterstück, das sich weder pathetisch noch elegisch profiliert“. Die im Vergleich geringere Beliebtheit der Klaviersonate Nr. 11 könnte an den konzertanten, musikalisch aber eher „harmlosen“ Ecksätzen liegen. Beethoven selbst äußerte, dass sich der Kopfsatz „gewaschen“ habe." (German Wikipedia)

English Wikipedia: "Beethoven regarded it as the best of his early sonatas, though some of its companions in the cycle have been at least as popular with the public." "Prominent musicologist Donald Francis Tovey has called this work the crowning achievement and culmination of Beethoven's early "grand" piano sonatas. (The "grand" modifier was applied by Beethoven to sonatas with four movements instead of three.) Subsequent sonatas find Beethoven experimenting more with form and concept."

Russian Wikipedia: The first movement: "Romain Rolland speaks of this part of the sonata in this way, referring to the Empire style, to which she gravitates: “... Op. 22 (in its first part) will show this style in all its sheer strength and strict brilliance. This is the breath of the rising Napoleonic generation.""

Second movement of the sonata Adagio con molto espressione: Romain Rolland gives it this definition: “The counterweight ... heroic tension is a shepherd’s daydream, when the winner, suddenly jumping off his horse, widely unbuttoning his high collar of his uniform, indulges in rest after his intense activity."

The fourth part of the sonata Rondo, Allegretto, B-dur, according to A. Rubinstein: “... one of the most beautiful pages of Beethoven. What can be compared with the charm of the first motive? In which opera can you find something like that?"

"Sonata No. 11 is a very peculiar work of Beethoven, heroizing the era of Napoleonic campaigns and social entertainments. The theme taken as a basis significantly limited the composer's creative intent, and this is probably the fact that subsequent Beethoven's works overshadowed the too semi-official and ostentatious style of this sonata." (Russian Wikipedia)

Russian Wikipedia:

Ромен Роллан так отзывается об этой части сонаты, имея в виду стиль ампир, к которому она тяготеет:  «...Ор. 22 (в своей первой части) покажет этот стиль во всей его чистой силе и строгом блеске. Это дыхание подымающегося наполеоновского поколения.»

Ромен Роллан даёт её такое определение: «Противовесом... героическому напряжению является пастушеская греза, когда победитель, внезапно соскочив с лошади, широко расстегнув высокий воротник мундира, предается отдыху после своей напряженной деятельности.»

Четвёртая часть сонаты Rondo, Allegretto, B-dur, по мнению А. Рубинштейна: «    ...одна из прелестнейших страниц Бетховена. Что может сравниться с очарованием первого мотива? В какой опере можно найти что-либо подобное?»

Соната № 11 весьма своеобразное произведение Бетховена, героизирующая эпоху наполеоновских походов и светских развлечений. Взятая за основу тема существенно ограничила творческий замысел композитора, в этом вероятно и заключается тот факт, что последующие произведения Бетховена отодвинули на второй план слишком официозный и показной стиль этой сонаты.

Бетховен. Соната для фортепиано No. 11
https://www.belcanto.ru/beethoven_ps_11.html
Ю. А. Кремлев
Фортепианные сонаты Бетховена →
Все нотные цитаты даны по изданию: Бетховен. Сонаты для фортепиано. М., Музгиз, 1946 (редакция Ф. Лямонда), в двух томах. Нумерация тактов дается также по этому изданию.