BEETHOVEN VOL. I: THREE SONATAS OP. 2 (LIMEN MUSIC, MILANO, 2013)
Video of the Sonata op. 2 n. 3
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In the first
volume, dedicated to the triptych of the Sonatas
op. 2, the video lecture treats the relation between Kant and Beethoven, and
the influence of the ethic and scientific thought of the philosopher from
Königsberg on the creative world of the composer.
The booklet
emphasizes through the compositional analysis the unitariness of the
inspiration: one great body collects three Sonatas, structures in dialectic
opposition but strictly connected thanks to the tonal and motivic nets. The Weltanschauung (world vision) and the
music philosophy that emerge from these three different declinations of the
Sonata archetype are deep-rooted in the humanistic context, but also projected
into the modernity, in virtue of the metalinguistic reflection effected by Beethoven
already in his first piano works.
Sonata in f minor op. 2 n. 1
A Negative-Sonata
Also called
“little Appassionata” , for anticipating the terrifying nihilistic intuition of
the op. 57, the first Sonata in the «fatal» tonality of f minor is a masterwork of constructive sobriety,
announcing in embryo all characters of the Beethovenian style.
The compositional
analysis shows a sort of involution that removes substance from the material,
causing its consumption and implosion.
This regressive processo
represents an element of affinity between the Sonata and Goethes' Werther,
both archetype works, from which srpings the entire poetic world of their
authors. As Werther is a novel of
de-formation, a negative Bildungsroman,
generator of the complex architectures of the subsequent novels, so the Sonata
op. 2 n. 1, with its form aiming to the self-deletion, can be considered a sort
of Negative-Sonata, whose ashes will give rise to all extraordinary formal
experimentations, unceasingly pursued by Beethoven until his last years of
life.
Sonata in A major op. 2 n. 2
Bildungstrieb:
Nature and freedom
The limpd
tonality of A major, a major third over the dark f minor, throws transparent,
almost Mozartian light on this Sonata , the second of the triptyh, trait
d’union between the first and the last one, vibrating of spontaneity and
expression of Spirit (Geist)
freedom, so similar to the flowering of
theNatur.
After the spare
fatal vortexes of the conclusion of the op. 2 n. 1, the life and the Kantian vis activa rise again like by
enchantment, in an irrepressible élan that looks into all tones of the joy.
from humour to contemplation, from the gentle traces of the Schillerian grace
to the strong surges of a creator ego, tirelessly aiming to the self-shaping
and to give form to the Nature.
Sonata in C major op. 2 n. 3
Spieltrieb: the play of the faculties in
the aesthetic man
Vertex of the
triptych, in the bright tonality of C major
(dominant of f minor and one more time a third above the previous
Sonata), the op. 2 n.3, defined by Fischer «the little Waldstein» , seals a
unitary route, which from the solipsistic nihilism of the op. 2 n. 1, through
the liberating immersion in the Nature of the op. 2 n. 2, reaches the Spieltrieb, the play impulse theorized by Schiller in the Letters about the aesthetic education as
expression of a total man (Ganzmensch),
polyparadigmatic, harmoniously inserted in the context of his action, because
his sensitive and rational impulses, strenghtened at the maximum level, «play»
among them, exalting the full humanity of the aesthetically educated Mensch.
The atmosphere of
this work is similar to that of Mozart's theatre, with a contagious
enthusiastic liveliness that animates characters, situations, series of coups
de théâtre with perfect dramaturgic rhythm.
One more time the
Adagio in E major, with dramatic passages in e-minor, so close to the
antiphonal character of the second movement of the Fourth Piano Concerto op.
58, is the expressive apex and the barycentre of the entire formal
architecture, whose two last movements are enlivened by a joyful piano
virtuosity, that reveals the influence of Clementi.
Letizia Michielon
(The texts are drawn
from the booklet of Limen CD-DVD)
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