After completing his Opus 28 Piano Sonata No. 15 (Day 141), Beethoven reputedly said “I am only a little satisfied with my previous works. From today on I will take a new path [neuen Weg].” This according to Carl Czerny.
Carl Czerny believed that when Beethoven spoke of a “new path,” he was referring to the direction taken with his three Opus 31 piano sonatas, but that assumption might be due to Czerny’s piano orientation. The “new path” could apply as well to the three Opus 30 violin sonatas.
Perhaps Beethoven’s assertion of a “new path” might be related to the statement he later made to his music publisher when he said that his Opus 34 and 35 piano variations were written in “quite a new manner” [neue Manier]. New path? New manner? New style? What’s the difference?
To Paul Bekker, Beethoven’s “new path” really begins with the third of the Opus 31 piano sonatas — Piano Sonata No. 18 — and encompasses the Opus 34 and 35 piano variations, and the Piano Sonatas 21 and 23 a couple years later. (Beethoven, 1932 English ed.)
To Carl Dahlhaus, Beethoven’s “new path” relates to his ambiguous treatment of what constitutes a musical theme. It begins with the second of his Opus 31 piano sonatas (No. 17) and encompasses the Opus 35 piano variations, the 3rd Symphony, and the String Quartet No. 9.
Perhaps the whole concept of a dramatic “new path” for Beethoven’s music is fallacious. Seen in its totality, Beethoven’s lifelong path takes many turns, goes up and down, with big steps and small. It’s the overall journey that is revolutionary, not any deviation along the way.
Beethoven composed his Opus 31 trio (Piano Sonatas Nos. 16, 17, and 18) during the summer of 1802 while he was in Heiligenstadt. Like the Opus 30 violin sonatas, the three works have a major-minor-major progression of keys that seems to form an emotional and dramatic arc.
In analyzing Beethoven’s three Opus 31 piano sonatas, Charles Rosen perceives not an arc but contrasts. They are “strikingly set off from each other, particularly by their opening movements by which they are largely identified: comic, tragic, and lyric.”
#Beethoven250 Day 155
Piano Sonata No. 16 in G Major (Opus 31, No. 1), 1802
Taiwanese pianist Anny Chen performs the first of the Opus 31 piano sonatas at a venue in Taipei.
Beethoven’s “comic” Piano Sonata No. 16 begins with a joke: The right hand enters a little before the left as if the two hands can’t get synchronized despite repeated attempts, and yet once the music gets more difficult, the two hands manage to play together just fine. Fooled ya!
In the long Adagio grazioso movement of the Piano Sonata No. 16, Beethoven writes a scene from a Italian rom-com opera: Towards the end, two sopranos sing a lovely duet about the men they love, completely unaware that it’s the same guy, and that he’s actually a woman in disguise.
The final movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 16 is a rondo that varies the main theme with more ornamentation every time it returns. By the end, the pianist is entirely tuckered out and slows down to a crawl several times before regaining strength for the final Presto coda.
#Beethoven250 Day 155
Piano Sonata No. 16 in G Major (Opus 31, No. 1), 1802
As a cat strolls on his porch in Longmont Colorado, David Korevaar makes one of his many Beethoven quarantine videos. See davidkorevaar.com for more.
In the liner notes to her Hyperion recording of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 16, Angela Hewitt writes:
I remember in my teens looking at the Sonata in G major, Op 31 No 1, and thinking to myself “What on earth is this?” It seemed to comprise a first movement in which the two hands can’t play together and, when they do, run around in octave unisons, with a banal-sounding second theme that didn’t help matters; a second movement which had so many notes on the page and looked either drastically simple or too flowery, and how were you supposed to play that left hand anyway; and a fast movement that had a nice theme but looked overly long and, to make things worse, ended softly. So I didn’t go near it.
Later, she reconsidered.