# Beethoven: Piano Sonata #29 in B-flat, op. 106 "Hammerklavier"



## science

This is one of Beethoven's most loved piano sonatas, and often considered one of the greatest works in the entire repertoire for solo piano. Wikipedia has a fine article about it including a little analysis.

What do you think of this work? What do you love about it? Do you have any reservations?

Do you know of any good analyses of it (texts, such as books or articles and so on, or videos)?

And perhaps most of all, what are your favorite recordings of it?


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## science

As a starting point for discussions of recordings, here are Trout's recommendation from his blog--not necessarily his personal choices, but his recommendations based on his analysis of TC threads!


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## Mandryka

It's a bit like Wagner's Siegfried, the last movement is very different from the previous three. Tom Beghin's done the work on this recently.



> Leaving London in December 1817, the six-octave grand piano
> with the serial number 7362 made it to Vienna sometime toward
> the end of May 1818, following a long and arduous journey
> over sea and by land. After some fine-tuning was done at
> the Streicher workshop, Beethoven put it to use immediately
> in the fourth movement of his "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Opus
> 106. There's fascinating evidence to this effect: the three first
> movements of Opus 106 are written for a six-octave Viennese
> piano range from FF to f4. The fourth movement not only adjusts
> to the highest note c4 of the new Broadwood, but also has the
> bass drop to the lowest note, CC; together these span the typical
> English six-o . . .
> 
> . . . Longtime ignorance of any historical pianos had led to the peculiar
> association of the big "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Opus 106, with
> "the Beethoven Broadwood" as somehow representative of a more
> modern, forward-looking piano-but the irony is that only its last
> movement can be played on it because the first three movements
> include high notes that do not exist on the Broadwood's keyboard.
> That assumption, intriguingly, lasted until only a few years ago.
> As I have established elsewhere, Opus 106 is not some grand sixand-half-octave
> piece, but one that actually combines two ranges-first
> Viennese, then English.3 From the perspective of range,
> then, the Broadwood constituted a step back for Beethoven, and
> we can infer from various accounts that he regretted this aspect
> of the new instrument. (According to Anton Schindler, when Ignaz
> Moscheles asked Beethoven to use his Broadwood for a concert in
> 1823, Beethoven "suspected Moscheles of some kind of financial
> speculation, since the piano had too short a keyboard to be of use
> to him." Almost certainly, Beethoven projected his own frustration
> onto his younger colleague.)4
> In spite of all possible objection


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## Guest

There are many recordings that I have enjoyed, but for me Pollini seems to make them all seem superfluous.


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## KenOC

science said:


> This is one of Beethoven's most loved piano sonatas...


Most loved? Most admired or most respected, perhaps, but I don't find this intense, massive, and forbidding work very lovable! I once read a view that it's kind of like the Mona Lisa -- everybody admires it, but few can say it's their favorite painting.

For "lovable," I'd look to the two sonatas immediately following.

There are several recordings I like, but I'll mention Levit here.

For analysis, you can do a lot worse than Schiff's Wigmore Hall lectures, from the keyboard. He spends two lectures on this sonata, almost an hour and a half, and it's time well spent.

https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/podcasts/andras-schiff-beethoven-lecture-recitals


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## fluteman

science said:


> This is one of Beethoven's most loved piano sonatas, and often considered one of the greatest works in the entire repertoire for solo piano. Wikipedia has a fine article about it including a little analysis.
> 
> What do you think of this work? What do you love about it? Do you have any reservations?
> 
> Do you know of any good analyses of it (texts, such as books or articles and so on, or videos)?
> 
> And perhaps most of all, what are your favorite recordings of it?


My overall favorite recording of this is still probably that of Wilhelm Backhaus on London/Decca from the early 1950s. Backhaus lived and performed long enough to do a stereo Beethoven Sonata cycle in the 1960s, also for London/Decca, except for the Hammerklavier, so we are left with the mono version only. Still well worth a listen, in my opinion.


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## DavidA

Baron Scarpia said:


> There are many recordings that I have enjoyed, but for me Pollini seems to make them all seem superfluous.


I cannot imagine even Pollini making Richter's account seem superfluous. I remember hearing it live from the ROH and being bowled over by it, especially when he repeated the last movement as an encore


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## Bulldog

KenOC said:


> Most loved? Most admired or most respected, perhaps, but I don't find this intense, massive, and forbidding work very lovable! I once read a view that it's kind of like the Mona Lisa -- everybody admires it, but few can say it's their favorite painting.
> 
> For "lovable," I'd look to the two sonatas immediately following.
> 
> I wouldn't. For decades, the Hammerklavier has been my favorite Beeethoven solo piano work. Forbidding? That's not how I hear it.
> 
> As for recordings, I agree with Baron Scarpia - Pollini's the best.


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## Guest

DavidA said:


> I cannot imagine even Pollini making Richter's account seem superfluous. I remember hearing it live from the ROH and being bowled over by it, especially when he repeated the last movement as an encore


For what its worth, I've never warmed to Richter. I'll admit I've never heard a Hammerklavier from him; I assume there are half a dozen recordings, including bootlegs and various live recordings. Where would one find the one to hear?


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## DavidA

Baron Scarpia said:


> For what its worth, I've never warmed to Richter. I'll admit I've never heard a Hammerklavier from him; I assume there are half a dozen recordings, including bootlegs and various live recordings. Where would one find the one to hear?


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-...=1534366319&sr=8-2&keywords=Beethoven+richter


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## premont

Baron Scarpia said:


> There are many recordings that I have enjoyed, but for me Pollini seems to make them all seem superfluous.


Oh no, no one can make other interpretations superfluous, because there are too many valid interpretative options.
Well, I think that Pollinis "strictness" is displayed to great effect, but other great interpretations are on my list made by Serkin, Arrau, Kempff, A Fischer, Gilels, Solomon - and I could go on and on.


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## Manxfeeder

science said:


> What do you think of this work? What do you love about it? Do you have any reservations?


I was first introduced to this on Peter Schickele's radio show, Schickele Mix. He played the final movement and concluded with just one word: "Wow."

I like all of it. The second movement is funny; it's long enough not to get in the way. The slow movement, to my ears, is sublime. I have many recordings, and as of right now, I prefer Solomon on the slow movement, but I will say that Rufolf Serkin has a unique perspective on it.


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## Mandryka

Baron Scarpia said:


> For what its worth, I've never warmed to Richter. I'll admit I've never heard a Hammerklavier from him; I assume there are half a dozen recordings, including bootlegs and various live recordings. Where would one find the one to hear?


Maybe try this one from Prague






I like Yudina






I heard Pollini play it in Paris. I thought it was thrilling and a bit superficial, ie missed out on the expressive possibilities in the first movement, the possibilities for nuance and contrast.


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## Samehada

A lot of people find it difficult to listen to because it is less a piece to sit back and enjoy than a grand, personal showcase of Beethoven's vastly complex possibilities and ideas. At some point I feel like Beethoven pieces, such as his string quartets, were contrived as windows into his soul rather than the heroic pieces he is best known for. I feel like Beethoven's late piano sonatas tell us a lot more about him than his symphonies do...


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## MarkW

It took me a long time to "get" it -- especially the slow movement -- but the recording I happened to be listening to when it unflolded in all its grandeur and the slow movement opened a window to heaven, was Charles Rosen's on Columbia.


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## KenOC

Listening to the Hammerklavier now, Richter’s on YT. Who else would have even attempted something like this? It’s astonishing, beginning to end. Let’s remember that this work broke a pretty dry spell for Beethoven, a period where he was bound up in the most irritating, mundane, and troublesome details of his private life. And after, when he thought he had won that battle, he had to face the fact that his best intentions, betrayed by his own narrow-mindedness and intemperate behavior, had led to his beloved nephew’s attempted suicide.

A sad end to a man who gave us so much but who was never equipped to live a happy life among us.

It's worth remembering that nephew Karl evidently remembered his cantankerous uncle with some fondness, naming his only son Ludwig rather than the name of his own biological father. That Ludwig van Beethoven emigrated to America and worked for the Michigan Central Railroad Company of Detroit. Ludwig's only son Karl Julius died childless, and the male line of the Beethovens ceased to exist.


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## Vahe Sahakian

The recent recording of Hammerklavier by Murray Perahia on DG is one of the better performances of this sonata, give it a try.


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## EdwardBast

Robert Hatten has analyzed/interpreted the slow movement in narrative/semiotic terms. I think the analysis is in his _Musical Meaning in Beethoven._ Definitely worth reading as it is a bold attempt to get at meaning and its relationship to structure.


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## Mandryka

How much critical theory and musical analysis skills do you have to have already under your belt in order to find the book valuable, Edward?


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## insomniclassicac

For my money, it's hard to beat Irish pianist John O'Conor's version; in particular, his rendition of the fugue finale:


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## hpowders

I enjoy Rudolf Serkin and Annie Fischer on modern piano as well as Ronald Brautigam on fortepiano.


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## Guest

I recently read a rave review of Evgeny Kissin playing it in Carnegie Hall in the most recent issue of _American Record Guide_ --I have tickets to hear him play it in San Francisco on October 14th! The reviewer said it was a "once in a lifetime performance." I can hardly wait. Based on his DG recording of Beethoven Sonatas, I hope he records the "Hammerklavier" soon.


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## Doctuses

Personally I love this sonata.


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## Larkenfield

Wonderful sonata. Beethoven at his banging, headbutting best mixed in with moments of tender regret.


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## KenOC

Larkenfield said:


> Wonderful sonata. Beethoven at his banging, headbutting best mixed in with moments of tender regret.


It is very difficult to speak of this sonata.


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## Mandryka

K310/i can sound a bit like that, probably other classical sonatas too. This juxtaposition of tenderness and toughness is what make op 106/i interesting to hear for me, I'm always on the look out for performances which bring it out, in my mind I have a performance which accentuates the contrasts while somehow creating something which coheres.

There's a recording by Backhaus live in Ludwigsburg in 1959 which is interesting.


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## Mandryka

KenOC said:


> he had to face the fact that his best intentions, betrayed by his own narrow-mindedness and intemperate behavior, had led to his beloved nephew's attempted suicide.
> .


I'd never thought of this before and I wonder now if the sonata can be/should be played somehow as a reflection of his state of mind at the time.


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## Mandryka

KenOC said:


> Let's remember that this work broke a pretty dry spell for Beethoven


In Barry Cooper's essay for Steven Osborne's recording we read this



> BEETHOVEN'S THREE PIANO SONATAS Opp 90, 101 and 106 form a bridge between those of the previous decade and the final set of three, Opp 109-111, of the 1820s. They were the only ones that Beethoven wrote during the 1810s, and although they were not initially conceived as a trilogy, this is effectively how they turned out: as in most of his other sets of three works, he placed one of the three in the minor, and used both sharp and flat keys to increase variety. Moreover, if they are listened to in chronological order, the end of Op 90 prepares for the E major chord that opens Op 101, while the latter concludes with massive chords that foreshadow those at the start of Op 106. Rather than forming a balanced group, the three sonatas represent an enormous crescendo in terms of length and difficulty: they consist respectively of two, three and four movements, and their technical demands increase proportionately, from relatively easy (by Beethoven's standards), to 'difficult' (as Beethoven himself acknowledged), to a work that is one of the most taxing in the entire piano repertoire. That said, each sonata works perfectly when heard individually, and it could be argued that each benefits from having its own space.


I remember, or rather, I think I remember, that Richter had a similar idea, and like Osborne, Richter used to programme all three together for that reason.

Paradoxically Osborne puts 106 first, I can't think of any good reason for that.


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## premont

Mandryka said:


> I remember, or rather, I think I remember, that Richter had a similar idea, and like Osborne, Richter used to programme all three together for that reason.
> 
> Paradoxically Osborne puts 106 first, I can't think of any good reason for that.


Whatever Richter meant, I think the Hammerklavier sonata is such a monumental work, that it is best served by standing alone.

It also will tend to dwarf everything else.


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## Mandryka

Well you know, you can put 90 and 101 before the interval. I think that's what Richter did in the Prague concert. 

If anyone has Richter's Praga set, it may be interesting to see what's said in the booklet of the recording with these three sonatas, I have a vague memory that the essay was imaginative.


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## ccar

Mandryka said:


> Well you know, you can put 90 and 101 before the interval. I think that's what Richter did in the Prague concert.
> 
> If anyone has Richter's Praga set, it may be interesting to see what's said in the booklet of the recording with these three sonatas, I have a vague memory that the essay was imaginative.


The Prague recital (2 Jun 1975) was all Beethoven but the Hammerklavier was included with 3 Bagatelles (no. 1,4,6) and the Sonata no.3. And this same program was repeated in the 3 other available Richter's Hammerklavier recordings (all from 1975). Apparently, he only included the Hammerklavier in public recitals during the 70's and although it's not easy to get all the programs I suspect he wouldn't choose to play the Hammerklavier close to the other "big" Beethoven sonatas.


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## Mandryka

Yes I see now that the recordings in the big Praga box are taken from different concerts (it has 90, 101 and 106 on the same disc.)

It's maybe worth mentioning in passing that it's not uncommon to have 109-111 together, and I've heard the three op 10s in a concert once (a very bad concert I have to say)


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## ccar

Mandryka said:


> It's maybe worth mentioning in passing that it's not uncommon to have 109-111 together, and I've heard the three op 10s in a concert once (a very bad concert I have to say)


Yes indeed. That's a very common program and S. Richter also played them together in his recitals. But the Hammerklavier may carry a bit more than its weight.


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## EdwardBast

Robert Hatten has analyzed/interpreted the slow movement in narrative/semiotic terms. I think the analysis is in his Musical Meaning in Beethoven. Definitely worth reading as it is a bold attempt to get at meaning and its relationship to structure.




Mandryka said:


> How much critical theory and musical analysis skills do you have to have already under your belt in order to find the book valuable, Edward?


I missed this question last year. Hatten explains the semiotic theory in detail because it's outside the standard curriculum of undergraduate music departments and conservatories. A year of music theory is assumed but the interpretation and narrative analysis is still meaningful without it.


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## Luchesi

Mandryka said:


> In Barry Cooper's essay for Steven Osborne's recording we read this
> 
> I remember, or rather, I think I remember, that Richter had a similar idea, and like Osborne, Richter used to programme all three together for that reason.
> 
> Paradoxically Osborne puts 106 first, I can't think of any good reason for that.


When he was writing Opus 90 he was thinking about 101 and 106? That's an enthusiastic idea to think about when you're listening to and getting to know Opus 90. ...I don't think it will help in playing it or 101. The E minor is so different as a conception, with its long ideas. From our vantage point of looking back, it's as if LvB had to refresh himself with more conventional composing before he ventured out into his Third Period world.

In my thinking about who composed what, with which human approaches, the E minor could've been written by Schubert if he had lived to be a little older.

Interesting to look at what's between op 90 and 101, and then op101 to 106.

Opus 90: Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor (1814)

Opus 91: Wellington's Victory ("Battle Symphony") (1813)
Opus 92: Symphony No. 7 in A major (1812)
Opus 93: Symphony No. 8 in F major (1812)
Opus 94: Song "An die Hoffnung" (1814)
Opus 95: String Quartet No. 11 in F minor ("Serioso") (1810)
Opus 96: Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major (1812)
Opus 97: Piano Trio No. 7 in B♭ major ("Archduke") (1811)
Opus 98: An die ferne Geliebte, song cycle (1816)
Opus 99: Song "Der Mann von Wort" (1816)
Opus 100: Song "Merkenstein" (1814, about the Merkenstein ruins)

Opus 101: Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major (1816)

Opus 102: Two Cello Sonatas (1815)
No. 1: Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major
No. 2: Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major.
Opus 103: Octet in E♭ (1792)
Opus 104: String Quintet (arrangement of Piano Trio No. 3, 1817)
Opus 105: Six sets of variations for Piano and Flute (1819)

Opus 106: Piano Sonata No. 29 in B♭ major ("Hammerklavier") (1818)


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## staxomega

I've had Murray Perahia's recent recording my heavy rotation, my first impression was, yes it's a recording of the Hammerklavier and well played but I wasn't that moved by it. I'm slowly coming around to it and I can see why (I think) Jed Distler and Hank Drake both call it one of the most detailed accounts or something along those lines.

This a tough sonata to really impress me with some titanic recordings like Pollini, some very good live accounts from Richter and a great live date from Backhaus.

These days it's Andrea Lucchesini's live recording that leaves my jaw wide open (I need to revisit his studio EMI recording, it's been at least 10 or more years since I've heard it). Particularly in the Adagio, more than any other performance I've ever heard it really gets to that pit of disappear while climbing out of it in the most radiant way in the final movement. It's all up on Youtube.


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## Allegro Con Brio

The “Hammerklavier” (what an odd and unnecessary nickname BTW) is definitely my favorite Beethoven sonata though it is not my favorite thing he wrote for the piano - that would be the Diabelli Variations; and the last three sonatas taken as a whole (as they ought to be) probably surpass my love for No. 29. I love the epic sonata form of the first movement, it really feels like Beethoven is testing the limits of what the instrument in his day could do. The scherzo is absolutely one of the most hilarious pieces of music I know, and then the slow movement, which is really the main reason why I love this sonata. Some people think it’s boring and overlong, but I find it simply transcendental, foreshadowing all Romantic piano music to come. I don’t quite understand the finale, but I don’t think anyone does! It can get a little exasperating on the ear and thus I sometimes prefer to just listen to the slow movement alone A good performer will not aim for simple virtuosity but extract the infinite depths of profundity in the Adagio. I like the famous Pollini for the muscle he puts into it even though I don’t think it’s the sine qua non like some do. Richter (though he’s oddly slow in the first movement), Schnabel (he kinda goes crazy but that’s part of the charm, and he has the greatest slow movement) and Solomon are probably my other favorites.


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## Luchesi

Allegro Con Brio said:


> The "Hammerklavier" (what an odd and unnecessary nickname BTW) is definitely my favorite Beethoven sonata though it is not my favorite thing he wrote for the piano - that would be the Diabelli Variations; and the last three sonatas taken as a whole (as they ought to be) probably surpass my love for No. 29. I love the epic sonata form of the first movement, it really feels like Beethoven is testing the limits of what the instrument in his day could do. The scherzo is absolutely one of the most hilarious pieces of music I know, and then the slow movement, which is really the main reason why I love this sonata. Some people think it's boring and overlong, but I find it simply transcendental, foreshadowing all Romantic piano music to come. I don't quite understand the finale, but I don't think anyone does! It can get a little exasperating on the ear and thus I sometimes prefer to just listen to the slow movement alone A good performer will not aim for simple virtuosity but extract the infinite depths of profundity in the Adagio. I like the famous Pollini for the muscle he puts into it even though I don't think it's the sine qua non like some do. Richter (though he's oddly slow in the first movement), Schnabel (he kinda goes crazy but that's part of the charm, and he has the greatest slow movement) and Solomon are probably my other favorites.


I want to hear this interpreted in every conceptualization any and all the artists decide upon. There's so much leeway available.

Even including this half-speed scholarship (which really doesn't work);


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## Gray Bean

If I had to choose just one: Annie Fischer on Hungariton label...part of her complete cycle of the Sonatas.


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## The3Bs

I still remember a live performance of Perahia (soon after he started playing again after an hiatus) in the nineties at the Sheldonian Theater in Oxford... It shook me to the bones...... 

I have not heard his CD recording of it... I have several Richter recordings of it (and Pollini and Brendel) and I am pretty satisfied with those so far.

I will add out of curiosity the Andrea Lucchesini to my listen queue at some point though...


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## Enthusiast

I'm all for Richter, Pollini, Annie Fischer among others in this great sonata. But then there is Brautigam's recording which I like as much as any of them. If you don't believe me, try it. 

I do also often listen to Kempff's more classically inclined take on the work. Kempff is talking with God when he plays Beethoven. And Schnabel is, of course, exhilarating.


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## MarkW

Coincidentally, a few days ago a CM friend clued me in to a Youtube performance by Frederic Rzewski, which is well worth a listen -- not least because he inserts improvised cadenzas, which I didn't think Beethoven had left open the possibility for.

The performance that finally opened up the slow movement for me was Charles Rosen's early '70s recording on Columbia.


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## Scriamedtmaninov

Favorite recordings of mine are ones that are lively and exciting: Francois-Frederic Guy (Harmonia Mundi) and Robert Taub (Vox). Both take the first movement at a very fast tempo - anything over 10 and 1/2 minutes seems slow to me so I cannot stand when so many pianists clock in at around 12 minutes! - with Guy at about 10 minutes and Taub close to 9. Guy is more measured in the slow movement but does speed up during the appropriate passages, whereas Taub is quite quick throughout but in a revelatory performance!


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## DavidA

Luchesi said:


> When he was writing Opus 90 he was thinking about 101 and 106? That's an enthusiastic idea to think about when you're listening to and getting to know Opus 90. ...*I don't think it will help in playing it or 101. )*


*
*

My dear sir, giving my technical limitations, nothing will help me in playing it or op 101. I remember a Brendel masterclass. I was just there for the entertainment factor! :lol:


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## Bigbang

Allegro Con Brio said:


> The "Hammerklavier" (what an odd and unnecessary nickname BTW) is definitely my favorite Beethoven sonata though it is not my favorite thing he wrote for the piano - that would be the Diabelli Variations; and the last three sonatas taken as a whole (as they ought to be) probably surpass my love for No. 29. I love the epic sonata form of the first movement, it really feels like Beethoven is testing the limits of what the instrument in his day could do. The scherzo is absolutely one of the most hilarious pieces of music I know, and then the slow movement, which is really the main reason why I love this sonata. Some people think it's boring and overlong, but I find it simply transcendental, foreshadowing all Romantic piano music to come. I don't quite understand the finale, but I don't think anyone does! It can get a little exasperating on the ear and thus I sometimes prefer to just listen to the slow movement alone A good performer will not aim for simple virtuosity but extract the infinite depths of profundity in the Adagio. I like the famous Pollini for the muscle he puts into it even though I don't think it's the sine qua non like some do. Richter (though he's oddly slow in the first movement), Schnabel (he kinda goes crazy but that's part of the charm, and he has the greatest slow movement) and Solomon are probably my other favorites.


The nickname Hammerklavier is not really a nickname. Beethoven used the German name for piano of the time and requested the type of piano to be played on at the time. People still used all available instruments of the day such a harpsichord, and Beethoven was moving away from the usage of early pianos.


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## Allegro Con Brio

Bigbang said:


> The nickname Hammerklavier is not really a nickname. Beethoven used the German name for piano of the time and requested the type of piano to be played on at the time. People still used all available instruments of the day such a harpsichord, and Beethoven was moving away from the usage of early pianos.


Yes, I'm just confused why No. 29 alone has acquired that moniker when Beethoven actually specified the hammered piano for Nos. 30-32 as well.


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## MarkW

No accounting for the vagaries of fate.


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## Luchesi

DavidA said:


> [/B]
> 
> My dear sir, giving my technical limitations, nothing will help me in playing it or op 101. I remember a Brendel masterclass. I was just there for the entertainment factor! :lol:


If you feel it deeply, you can play it (at least haltingly). Wouldn't that be nice if it was true? I had a teacher who said that (and I guess he believed it).


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## hammeredklavier

Allegro Con Brio said:


> Yes, I'm just confused why No. 29 alone has acquired that moniker when Beethoven actually specified the hammered piano for Nos. 30-32 as well.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_No._29_(Beethoven)
"The sonata's name comes from Beethoven's later practice of using German rather than Italian words for musical terminology. (Hammerklavier literally means "hammer-keyboard", and is still today the German name for the fortepiano, the predecessor of the modern piano.) It comes from the title page of the work, "Große Sonate für das Hammerklavier", which means "Grand sonata for the fortepiano". The more sedate Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101 has the same description, but the epithet has come to apply to the Sonata No. 29 only. "Hammerklavier" was part of the title to specify that the work was not to be played on the harpsichord, an instrument that was still very much in evidence in the early 1800s. The work also makes extensive use of the una corda pedal, with Beethoven giving for his time unusually detailed instructions when to use it."


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