Charles Rosen states: “During Beethoven’s lifetime almost none of his piano sonatas were played in Vienna in public.” Vienna lagged behind London, Paris, and even New York in the institution of the public concert, and the public piano recital didn’t exist until Liszt.
Beethoven sometimes played his piano sonatas in private music gatherings but their primary function was to generate income by the sales of sheet music. The piano sonatas were mostly performed by amateur pianists in their homes playing for themselves or for family and friends.
Eventually, Beethoven’s later piano sonatas became too difficult for amateurs. After his death, a shift occurred as the music was recognized as more appropriate for professionals performing in large concert halls.
But in 1795, solo piano music was strictly Hausmusik.
In its breadth, organization, virtuosity and dynamism, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 3 has been compared to a piano concerto, with a broadly conceived opening movement, a delicate slow movement with surprising outbursts, quasi-cadenzas in both outer movements, and a joyful finale.
#Beethoven250 Day 48
Piano Sonata No. 3 in C Major (Opus 2, No. 3), 1795
WQXR hosts Taiwanese-American pianist Ching-Yun Hu for a breathtaking performance before an appreciative audience.
Beginning with his first three piano sonatas, Beethoven has begun a “journey through the possibilities of music and emotion, finishing in territories of feeling and spirit and sonority unknown and unimagined until Beethoven found them.” (Jan Swafford, “Beethoven,” p. 193)