To Barry Cooper, the “three sonatas of Opus 10 form a triptych, thoroughly contrasted in character yet integrated by subtle interrelationships” (“Beethoven,” p. 79) The third of the three sonatas (also known as the Piano Sonata No. 7) is the only one with four movements.
The 2nd movement is marked “Largo e mesto,” the last word unusual in tempo indications but meaning “mournful.” Charles Rosen refers to its “extraordinary pathos” (“Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas,” p. 139) but warns pianists to resist the “temptation to play too slowly.”
To Lewis Lockwood the 2nd movement “breathes an air of desolation,” (“Beethoven,” p. 107) but he suspects that it is probably not unlike Beethoven’s slow improvisations that would sometimes move listeners to tears.
Maynard Solomon calls it “eloquent and somber,” foreshadowing “the disintegrating passage at the close of the Eroica Symphony’s Funeral March movement.” (“Beethoven,” 138) To William Kinderman, it is “one of the great tragic utterances in early Beethoven.” (“Beethoven,” 45)
The somber mood of the 2nd movement is dispelled by the 3rd movement Minuet and Trio, but tentatively and gently at first until the Trio abandons all concession to subtlety.
The stop-and-go of the final Rondo Allegro revives some of the humor from the second sonata. Angela Hewitt refers to “it’s inventiveness, abrupt changes of mood, expressive pauses, and especially its capricious ending that dissolves into thin air.”
#Beethoven250 Day 101
Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Major (Opus 10, No. 3), 1798
American pianist Eric Zuber in a piano competition in Tel Aviv.
#Beethoven250 Day 101
Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Major (Opus 10, No. 3), 1798
The piano skills of Hong Kong-born Tiffany Poon are matched by her ability to precisely position the camera for a perfect view of the keyboard.
In 1798, the 66-year-old Joseph Haydn completed what is perhaps his greatest work: The oratorio “The Creation” is based on the Books of Genesis and Psalms, and Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” but imbued with humanist and Enlightenment values and Haydn’s joyful worldview.
The first private performance of Haydn’s “Creation” was in Vienna in April 1798. It’s not known if Beethoven attended, but it’s likely he did. The oratorio premiered in London in 1800, and then in Paris on Christmas Eve after an assassination attempt on First Consul Bonaparte.