Beethoven's 2nd most famous sonata is amazing and here's why!

[@alexcitron5159]

As a music theorist and pianist, I admire your ability to put a great piece into understandable language, and no doubt make many people want to listen more. Let's just keep between ourselves the fact that Billy Joel did a setting of the 2nd movement :)

[@ryanabshier]

Thanks a bunch! I really appreciate hearing that. One of my big goals is to take more difficult concepts and, rather than scaring everyone off with big words and showing off knowledge, make it understandable for many. I don't think I do it as well as I want to yet, but I'm working on it. Always a balance between going too deep and not in depth enough, using some technical words but not overdoing it. But I love to bring the ideas of theory to the masses in bite sized chunks. If you're a theorist, then you know half the musicians at college for music still really have no clue what they are doing 🤣 So I really do appreciate the kind words and that you noticed that effort!

[@scarbo2229]

They’re all amazing, for multifarious reasons.

[@Blaqjaqshellaq]

My favourite Beethoven sonata (not for lack of competition) is Appassionata!

[@revo1336]

Op 111, #32 here

[@majornewb]

One of my favorite Beethoven sonatas!

[@sskuk1095]

The first sonata I learned! Will always love this piece deeply!

[@subzero597]

Same here 😊

[@Michachel]

First movement was the first real classical piece I learned and got me hooked on the genre

[@g0aty685]

I'd love an analysis of no 17(I might be a bit biased because I'm learning that one right now) Also 26 is great

[@nojohns1748]

Wish you mentioned the unresolved cord right in the coda of the first movement. Beethoven drops that chord and then the audience is left in this insane tension until it's resolved in the final chord of the coda. Gets me every time.

[@mcbuuiop]

Would love to see you do this with another sonata like Waldstein!

[@manuellloreda07]

I love your content, really great video!!

[@JeremyHollon-ff9ow]

The first and second movement are my favorites.

[@bhami]

To me, that second movement will always be the "Karl Haas theme". 😀

[@bw2082]

Too many young people here to know what you are talking about. But if you know you know. 😊

[@noelleggett5368]

‘Hello, everyone!’ Even as a child in Australia in the 1980s, I enjoyed listening to Karl Haas and his ‘Adventures in Good Music’ every week on the radio (on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s national classical music channel).

[@noelleggett5368]

Most of my generation probably thinks of Billy Joel, who turned it into a lovely pop ballad: ‘This Night’.

[@Blaqjaqshellaq]

To me it's "Midnight Blue."

[@ShaunakDesaiPiano]

9:14 I think this is still B, instead of a new C, so rather than a Rondo it feels like a theme and variations, ish, on two themes.

[@hq4pr]

THe first pathetique mov is the only song i can play on piano rn, but Im learning tempest and have played other songs before, also I thought those slow parts in the middle were to give my left hand a break, because thats why I like them

[@JoeRichter1]

Great video. Thank you

[@hkgweigwei]

I played Adagio Cantabile for a recital and wish I could play the first movement. It is just too difficult 😫

[@revo1336]

Same here. Going back to first lessons in Bach.

[@TenorCantusFirmus]

I rank it as my favorite along with the monumental last five. At this point, ranking them in a particular order is very difficult, but for sure the "Pathetique" is a turning point; maybe, the first truly Romantic piano sonata. The second theme of the first movement in his adventurous harmonies almost anticipates Schubert.

[@ericrakestraw664]

Interestingly, in the first edition of the "Pathetique" Sonata, there was no indication of a repeat going back to the Allegro di molto e con brio section. So maybe Beethoven wanted the entire Grave section of the sonata repeated because he considered it part of the exposition. Rudolf Serkin and Andras Schiff are a couple of noted pianists who follow this practice in their performance. Schiff in particular makes a convincing case for repeating from the beginning of the movement in his lecture on the "Pathetique."

[@LukeMossman]

The first movement of this sonata absolutely kicks my ass. I have a really hard time synching up the melody in the right hand with the fast tremolos in the left. I honestly think it's more challenging than the finale of the Moonlight Sonata, it's all about keeping up your stamina.

[@luke9947]

I agree, the first movement is a challenging piece to play well from start to end without messing up in the faster parts.

[@hanshartmann8205]

Dear Ryan, I like your excurstions on this platform. But I object to the ranking "2nd most famous sonata". You might be right, because it is a sonata which can be played withrestricted skills and so many young students are brought to practice it. (I have my other favourites that all from the third phase of the sonata compositions, and it is difficult to rank opus 110 or opus 101. Personally I have not played 106 yet, which is also "very famous". - Sometimes I have been asked to play Beethoven opus 13, and is difficult to refuse. so I played it once in Belgrade upon request. Here is the second movement: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5nGeXl9oNCNqMU . I am not happy with my rendering it. It would sound better on my 275 Bösendorfer at home than on this 200 Yamaha. Nevertheless I want to congratulate you on your presentations and making music understandable.

[@ryanabshier]

@@hanshartmann8205 Good morning, thanks for checking it out and the detailed comment. I know words like famous/popular are difficult to determine in classical music. I am by no means calling it my 2nd favorite sonata (when I learned it it was, but that was many years ago). I would put it probably in the 10-15 range, Beethoven is my top composer so that's no shame. The reason I said it was 2nd most popular was because a video I did where I ranked Beethoven's most viewed pieces. Not surprisingly Moonlight and Für Elise were the run-away winners. But Pathetique was a very strong 3rd and it really fell off after that. Also really interesting, just yesterday I had a statistician friend who told me she ranked the sonatas by their appearance in movies/film (only sonatas). Moonlight was nearly half the performances, then Pathetique 2nd. So I hope I didn't come across as belittling the other sonatas. I too love the late sonatas a ton. I try to make videos about pieces though and not spend too much time talking about pieces I like more. Just have a few minutes to celebrate this great piece. Thanks again for checking it out and sharing the link.

[@hanshartmann8205]

@@ryanabshier Dear Ryan, your answer does not surprise me. About the other "famous piece": "An Elise" I never wanter to play it, because of some bad experiences with people who played it in a terrible way. Then #1 I let myself be moved to play it in Belgrade as an add-on. The people were excited, eight beautiful women came to me and would have done "everything". My age was around 65 at that time. #2: I found information about some modifications that Beethoven did himself three years before he passed away. Obviously he saw possibilities for improvement. In case you don't know this version I add my version, still unpracticed but also with great success in my home where I do some recitals, (basically all Beethonven sonatas and some additional song accompaniments (Wagner, Schunann, Schubert, Rachmaninov etc.) kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJO4eYaVmNBgqqc I just like to play :)

[@anthonymorris2276]

You draw an analogy with the French “overture” as an inspiration for Beethoven’s slow introduction to the Pathetique. I have always thought that the structure was inspired by the late symphonies of his old teacher, Josef Haydn, which almost invariably began with a slow introduction, running anywhere from 2 or 4 bars to 12 or even 16. A good comparison would be the “Drum Roll” symphony (“Mit dem Paukenwirbel“), No. 103, written in London in 1795, just three years before the Pathetique Sonata, in which the slow introduction is “reprised” in the coda. This would make sense, if the youthful Beethoven was emulating the latest initiatives from the world’s greatest living composer (Mozart, by this time, was already deceased), and possibly saw his own sonata as a work of importance comparable with a symphony.

[@angreagach]

Actually, there is some doubt as to whether the repeat was or was not intended to include the Grave. Rudolf Serkin and Andras Schiff do include it, for example.

[@JerryEboy69]

Zimerman too

[@davidberlant5096]

Could you do an analysis of Brahms Sonata #2? It's one of my favorites.

[@MooreMusic12]

I agree ❤😊😊😊

[@DMajor402]

very interesting video.I'd love to see analysis of tempest or waldstein sonata,and i also wanted to ask are you gonna post a masertclass video soon?

[@ryanabshier]

I'm planning on doing something with Waldstein chords soon. Also, yeah, I just shot you an email. I'm planning on using your clip and had a couple of questions.

[@DMajor402]

​@@ryanabshierhey,I sent you an email

[@ericwarncke]

The moment when Beethoven stopped fucking around and taking shit.

[@revo1336]

And freed music all together.

[@belindadrake5487]

BEETHOVEN IS GOD!🎹👊🏾😈✨

[@johnnyp6202]

Fantastic composer obviously but the vast majority of his piano music just doesn't connect with me. Just don't like this piece at all if I am being honest. The first movement of Moonlight is one of the greatest things ever written even if we play it nothing like intended, but I find the famous third dull despite the pyrotechnics. Not saying anyone is wrong liking him at all, just not at all for me. Good video though. Oh and Fur Elise is one of my least favorite pieces every. I actually like the B part a little but the main part is just awful. Flame away

[@danielperkins6023]

I like his more melodic and pretty sonatas like sonata no. 12, no. 24, no. 31 etc. i don't care much for the 'passionate' or loud, 'deep' ones lol...they feel too try-hard. Maybe that is what you feel also.

[@dedikandrej]

I remember feeling exactly the same way about B - especially most of His sonatas just didnt click with me. But at some point it was as if i was yearning for sonorities i know only within Beethoven And Yeah i love most of His works now

[@luke9947]

To not like the Pathetique at all is crazy. I kinda agree about Fur elise though.

[@andredelacerdasantos4439]

@jhonny06202 It's OK, man, millions of people have brain lesions too all over the world. lol JK, I guess it's like we say in Brazil: "opinions are like butts, everyone has one". In all seriousness, though, Beethoven is highly and widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time and his influence on western and eastern music (especially japanese video game music and movie soundtracks) can't be overstated, the man really got into every nook and cranny of modern culture. His music can be profound in a way very few composers' music has ever reached after him. I do understand how his more "banging" or "provincial" music like this sonata and Für Elise respectively can feel "try hardy" or "mundane", though, as several of his contemporaries felt the same way when these revolutionary pieces (not Für Elise, though, but pieces like the Apassionata) came out, which sounded completely different from anything heard before. Beethoven had an overly eccentric personality and was constantly breaking social and musical conventions. In the court, people thought of the group as everyone and then there's Beethoven. He was known to be prone to bursts of outrage and to completely disregard rules of etiquette and behavioral norms. In a way, he was trying very hard to be seen as special and different, but don't get me wrong, he was indeed special and different, but I guess his music can't appeal to everyone and even other highly regarded composers like Chopin had a somewhat negative opinion of his music and thought it was overrated.