Posted on 08/28/2015 6:09:22 PM PDT by Kathy in Alaska
Good evening, Mayor, and thank you for today’s sustenance for body and soul.
Finally, the weekend is here. Hope you get some rest.
Thanks, Publius, for Rachmaninov’s “The Star Spangled Banner”.
Dude...... :)
By the end of 1816, the string quartet that had premiered all of Beethovens quartets broke up as several of its members left town for better jobs. Joseph Linke, the cellist, headed for a job in Hungary, and Lou wrote a pair of cello sonatas for him as a farewell tribute. These would be his last sonatas for piano and cello, and in fact Beethoven was about to finish his last solo piano sonatas.
Beethoven was rethinking the entire concept of the sonata. In his late sonatas, movements link to each other without interruption, and there are recalls of prior material as the piece progresses. In my traversal of Beethovens piano sonatas last year, I showed how the late sonatas bent the entire sonata concept into something new and integrated. This sonata is a part of that transmogrification. Like a lot of Beethovens late works, this sonata is short and compact. Outwardly, it appears to be in four movements, but its actually in two movements where each has a long introduction.
The piece starts with a long introduction in C Major, which is how the sonata received its key designator. But like the Kreutzer Violin Sonata, the real business of the sonata, the actual movement in sonata format, is in A minor. Musical conventions can be funny at times. This introduction is marked andante in 6/8 with a theme for solo cello. The piano continues the cellos thoughts, erasing the line between instruments that defined the sonatas of Haydn and Mozart. But just when you think all is going to be peace, love and happiness, Lou switches to allegro, 2/2 and A minor for the real sonata movement. The second subject is in E minor. The exposition is repeated. Development is in C Major and a few other keys, a short, compact development, and the recap returns to A minor. The second subject appears in the correct key of A minor, and the end is decisive.
There is another long introduction that floats between C Major and A minor in 4/4 time, marked adagio. It even brings back the first movement introduction. But then it tears into a monothematic finale marked allegro vivace in 2/4 and C Major. His middle section is a fugue in A-flat, repeated in D-flat. The end is a playful joke.
Tomorrow night its the last cello sonata.
....and thank you, too, Kathy, for opening the Canteen in Connie’s absence! ((((hugs))))
Howdy, Mr. P! Good wallerin’ tunes tonight? Looks like you’re off to a great start! :)
Good evening, Drumbo, and thanks for spinning tunes for the troops. ((HUGS))
Hope you are feeling a week better.
What’s your theme for tonight? For the rest of the wallerin’ stuff, which I make up on the fly, I like to work on a theme.
Well, I am all random tonight! I couldn’t think of a good one this week. LOL! So let ‘em fly! :)
Ah, the Random Wallerin’ Challenge!
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Random is fun! Tonight is all pops for me...tomorrow will be all jazz. :)
Cellists will happily kill to play the opening of this movement, which is so juicy you can just waller in it to your hearts content. This video features my fellow Ayn Rand admirer, Adam Neiman, on piano. Note that he is using an I-pad rather than sheet music for the score. Youve seen me go on enough about sonata format, so rather than give a play-by-play, just close your eyes and roll with it.
Pops! Hm-m-m-m-m! Let me think about that.
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