Beethoven 250: Piano Sonata No. 13 (Stephen Kovacevich, 1999)

Franz Hegi (1774-1850): Ludwig van Beethoven in Erlengebüsch bei Wien / Beethoven in an alder thicket near Vienna. Ca. 1834. Engraving. 33 x 28.75 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.

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 20/80  Piano Sonatas Nos. 12–15
Stephen Kovacevich, 1999 (Nos. 12–14) and 1998 (No. 15)
Opus 27 "Sonata quasi una fantasia"

Opus 27 Nr. 1: Klaviersonate Nr. 13 in Es-Dur (1801)
Der Fürstin Josephine von Liechtenstein gewidmet.
    Obschon die Sonate formal keine expliziten Sätze besitzt, ist es dennoch üblich sie in vier Sätze oder Abschnitte zu gliedern. Dabei ist die hier vorgenommene Beschreibung und Gliederung als Vorschlag zu verstehen. Je nach Standpunkt sind auch andere Abgrenzungen und Deutungen möglich.
    Andante, Es-Dur, Allabreve – Allegro, C-Dur, 6/8-Takt – Tempo I
    Allegro molto e vivace, c-Moll, 3/4-Takt
    Adagio con espressione, As-Dur, 3/4-Takt
    Allegro vivace, Es-Dur, 2/4-Takt – Tempo I, 3/4-Takt – Presto, 2/4-Takt
Die Aufführungsdauer der gesamten Sonate beträgt etwa 15 Minuten. (Data from Wikipedia).

AA: Klaviersonate Nr. 13 in Es-Dur, Op. 27 Nr. 1 starts with a simple phrase, hardly a melody, slowly blossoming into a wealth of nuances, harmonies and variations. The serene and lucid Andante grows into a deeply moving monologue intérieur.

Having abandoned the classical piano sonata form in the preceding "Trauermarsch" sonata, Beethoven did not look back, and here there are formally no separate movements, although on my cd the piece is divided into four tracks. They are to be played attacca, without breaks.

This sonata has remained "in the shadow of the Moonlight", Number 2 of the Opus 27, both sonatas publisheded under the joint title "Sonata quasi una fantasia". The thirteenth piano sonata has hardly ever been heard on a soundtrack of a film, but it is a haunting masterpiece.

Adagio con espressione is a piece of Beethoven at his most profound.

I listen to different interpretations. Stephen Kovacevich is sober and appealing. Daniel Barenboim displays noblesse. So does Artur Schnabel who, however, takes shortcuts in rapid and tricky moments. My favourite is Grigory Sokolov. He conveys both a tender sensitivity and an atavistic Urwald sense in a very Beethovenian combination. Listening to Sokolov I'm in a magic forest. In painting, I'm thinking about Ivan Shishkin's "Morning in a Pine Forest". Perhaps because I'm myself in a pine forest where four young bears are roaming. The dancing passages in the Andante and the Allegro vivace evoke the play of bear cubs.

...

Per Tengström tells about a pianist colleague who had planned to play the complete repertory of Beethoven's piano sonatas but lost his enthusiasm by Number 13 which he found boring. It is boring if you don't find the way to its stratosphere.

Likewise, Romain Rolland was disappointed with Piano Sonata Number 13. For him, it was not a reflection of Beethoven but of the dedicatee, Princess Josephine von Liechtenstein. If this was the case, what an enviable and wonderful reflection. But for Rolland, this piece was shallow and superficial. Yuri Kremlev saw in the Allegro vivace an affinity with Russian and Ukrainian folk dances.

András Schiff also quotes a disappointed expert: Hans von Bülow, the first pianist to have Beethoven's complete cycle of piano sonatas in his repertory. For him such four-square phrases were not worthy of Beethoven. Schiff himself is enthusiastic of the "sonata quasi una fantasia" innovation where "sonata" means discipline and "fantasia" spells freedom. What is new for Schiff here is the wonderful sonority, the fullness of the piano sound, the enhanced use of the two fists of the pianist. In the Allegro molto e vivace he detects anticipations of Schumann's night pieces, and in Allegro vivace an affinity with the Nietzschean concept of the Dionysian.

Ivan Shishkin (1832–1898), bears painted by Konstantin Savitsky (1844–1905): Утро в сосновом лесу / Morning in a Pine Forest. 1886. Oil on canvas. 139 cm (54.7 in); 213 cm (83.8 in). Tretyakov Gallery. "Сосновый бор" (1872)-это "портрет" досконально изученного прикамского леса, где вырос сам художник. Портрет, глубоко правдивый как в общей формуле, так и в мелких частностях, портрет торжественный по своему строю, требующий известной зрительской дистанции и в то же время откровенно личный по отношению к объекту. При характеристике произведений Шишкина выявляется их нерасторжимая художественная целостность, в них одно качество не существует без другого. Так, в его полотнах не выглядят диссонансами ни порхающие бабочки на фоне могучего корабельного леса, ни медведи, взирающие с вожделением на дерево с ульем в сосновом бору, или полевые цветы, пестрящие золотое море ржи и написанные с благоговейным вниманием. Это единый живой мир природы во всей возможной для изображения полноте его воплощений. Шишкин стремился выявить, запечатлеть устойчивые ценности пейзажа. Он создавал образы, в которых природа выражала себя почти в абсолютной степени. Величественный строй его произведений, производный прежде всего от самого объекта, во многом базируется и на постоянном соотнесении малого и огромного, эфемерного и вечного. From: Wikipedia / Tretyakov Gallery. Please click on the image to enlarge it.

http://digitalcollections.sjlibrary.org/cdm/search/searchterm/Portraits%20Beethoven%20Full%20figure/mode/exact/page/2
https://www.beethoven.de/en/archive/view/6559862288809984/Beethoven+playing