Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Beethoven2_2

"...The Sonata, op.111 consists of two movements. The first betrays a violent effort to produce something in the shape of a novelty. In it are visible some of those dissonances the harshness of which may have escaped the observation of the composer. The second movement is an Arietta, and extends to the extraordinary length of thirteen pages. The greater portion of it is written in 9/16, but a part is in 6/16, and about a page in 12/32. All this is really laborious trifling, ought to be by every means discouraged by the sensible part of the musical profession...We have devoted a full hour to this enigma and cannot solve it."
The Harmonicon, London, August 1823, quoted in Lexicon of Musical Invective, Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven's Time, by Nicolas Slonimsky

Despite the grotesqueries expressed above, pianist Richard Goode will play Beethoven's Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Opus 111 at NEC's Jordan Hall on December 4. The rest of his all-Beethoven program is as follows:



Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Opus 13, “Pathétique”
Sonata No. 6 in F Major, Opus 10, No. 2
Sonata No. 26 in E-flat Major, Opus 81a, “Les adieux”
Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp Major, Opus 78



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