András Schiff - Sonata No.17 in D minor, Op.31/2 "The Tempest" - Beethoven Lecture-Recitals

András Schiff - Beethoven Lecture-Recitals
Wigmore Hall (London, UK), 2004-06
András Schiff last performed the complete Beethoven piano sonatas at Wigmore Hall from 2004-06 to overwhelming critical acclaim, with the editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, describing one particular performance as ‘a riveting mixture of erudition, analysis, passion, wit and memory’.
On the day before each of the eight recitals in the series, the world-renowned pianist, pedagogue and lecturer gave a lecture-recital in which he explored the works to be performed. Deeply engaging and insightful, these thought-provoking lecture-recitals, recorded live at the Hall, are available below as eight audio lecture-recitals.
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[@kitbirskovich1838]

I played this sonata in recital my 2nd year of college and remember it very well. Today, age 69 (one month older than Maestro Schiff) I feel stirrings that I can't explain, as if he were telling me of things at the time I heard and could not explain. I no longer have a recording of the recital from spring 1973 but I may now whisper to that young girl Yes you played Beethoven even then! Tears.

[@tinkerchel]

LECTURE NOTES: --------------1st movt: sonata--------------- 1. begins on a dominant 6th chord, not on a tonic nor in tempo. 3 different characters & tempo indications on the first page. 2. @4:19 a mini-recitative. Long recitative passages later. That's why in some countries this is called "the recitativo sonata". 3. @5:21 the first time we arrive at Dm, the home key. In the bass is a Mannheim rocket. 4. @6:25 orchestral textures: thick tremolando for the string 5. @7:50 we'll hear this "double slurs & diminished 7th chord" figure 20 years later in Op.111 6. @8:16 sounds like a new theme with the Neapolitan 6th chord, but is actually a retrograde of an earlier theme 7. @9:55 usually pianists play this section fortissimo which is wrong. It should be Sforzando within piano when it goes to the bass. Only the last Sforzando is in fortissimo. Then subito piano. 8. the only Dm Beethoven sonata. Although the 9th Symphony is also in Dm. An existential key for Beethoven 9. 😍@11:49 the bridge motif that takes us back to the repeat of the exposition is a quote from Bach's "St. John's passion". it also appears in Beethoven's cello sonata Op.69, and Op.110(and Op.109's 1st movement, as pointed out by Jonathan Biss in one of his Beethoven sonata lectures.) 10. @14:06 a rest for the first time 11. @18:11 "the goosepimple spot" --------------2nd movt: sonata without development--------------- 12. starts on the mediant in B flat. The first bar is almost like an afterthought, like the first bar in the slow movement in the "Hammerklavier" 13. motifically Beethoven closes the 1st movement with a 1/3(F-D), and begins the 2nd with another 1/3(D-F) with a tone in between. 14. @23:46 the motif of the 1/3 is played by a wind instrument like an oboe, and the strings answer. The melody is divided by different instruments. --------------3rd movt: sonata--------------- 15. all 3 movements are in sonata form 16. @29:34 even though I don't necessarily agree with the galloping anecdote, I could kinda hear the galloping with the progressing movements of the groups of 4 notes indicating the landing of a horse's 4 hoofs. 17. @31:11 in the first 4 bars, Beethoven always holds down the second note. What a breathtaking little detail. It really adds to the haunting yet beautiful mood~😍 18. @32:38 the little interruption: 2 exclamation marks with the chromatic scale 19. @33:31 in the second theme, the near manic repetition of this 2-slurred-note motif calls back the first movement 20. @34:47 the development section pays homage to J.S. Bach: theme inversions & double counterpoint like in a Bach invention.

[@AllWordsAreDust]

Thanks for this, especially with the time stamps!

[@tinkerchel]

@@AllWordsAreDust So happy to know this helps hehe~d(*・ω・*)b♪

[@wuyipiano]

Bravo😂 Thank you so much, these lesson recordings are treasures.

[@chuanyingyu8156]

20:40 2nd mvt 28:58 3rd mvt

[@ShirleyYu19]

❤ thank you

[@monistefmontesdeleon5238]

Beethoven died in a stormy march night 1827. It said, that on the moment of his dead, a big lightning and thunder struck the night, whereas he raised his fist and looked up with a fierce expression as if in a last attempt to fight against death. Then he sank back onto his bed and was gone. The last bars of the last movement with the cromatic scale after which the music dies away, almost literally describe this moment. I‘m not saying that beethoven foresaw his own last moments, but this music reveals so much of his personality: he had to overcome so many tragical events in his life; a terrible childhood with an abusive father, illness, deafness, isolation, loneliness, just to mention a few. And yet he kept fighting till the end and conserved the essence of humanity despite all the odds and left us this essence through his music.

[@jacksong2538]

appeigios******

[@monistefmontesdeleon5238]

This ist why I wrote „it is said“. I don‘t know, if the story is really true, but that wasn‘t my point. It‘s about his personality and how he had to overcome many tragical events in his life and how he dealed with them.

[@sebastian-benedictflore]

@@jacksong2538 what? No

[@MrFriulderino]

thanks for uploading this wonderful lecture!

[@adamblock5141]

Schiff has a performance of this Sonata on YT, in Tokyo, that I adore ❤

[@ericrakestraw664]

The finale of the next Beethoven sonata (Op. 31/3) sounds more like horses galloping.

[@matttondr9282]

Thanks for uploading these, this is pure gold!!

[@gricks1808]

Thanks. Very informative!!

[@user-ik3cx4rh2l]

marvelous!,

[@militaryandemergencyservic3286]

30:33 IS sCHUBERT D 958 LAST MOVEMENT

[@taeyangshairdryer6478]

Thank you😌😌

[@man0sticks]

Schiff states that Adagio is slower than Largo. Did he mis-speak?

[@tylerstoner7051]

He may have but he also might have meant in the context of this piece. I’d guess the former but who knows

[@Slawyes]

This is a superb analysis. But what I disagree with is the galloping part: I can see the galloping in allegretto tempo (not in the allegro/presto that most play it). ta Dada Da sounds like 4 feet of a horse galloping, not fast but not slow either (allegretto!) 1 23 4 is four feet of a horse moving faster than walk but slower than running. Which means allegretto by default doesn't it?

[@Slawyes]

A horse galloping might be comparable to a human hogging, not presto or allegro, but not adagio either. Something between running and walking. That's what the tempo should be in my opinion. Although i agree that many performers play it too fast.

[@sebastian-benedictflore]

WHAT? Adagio slower than Largo???

[@roberts932]

bar 5 is indicated adagio but no ritardando.

[@tompianohotmail]

It has a fermata and convention is the tempo slows as you approach a fermata