# Beethoven's Hammerklavier and Opus 109



## Guest (Jun 19, 2012)

I just adore these late, great piano works by LvB. These are the pinnacle of western art music, IMO. I'm wondering what others think of these works and if they could explain their reasons for liking or disliking. I never think "like" is adequate for this supreme works. All hail Ludwig!! He's the King.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

They are wonderful compositions. Unfortunately for your wondering, I have (slowly, over a lengthy time) come to the understanding that Beethoven's late sonatas need to be contemplated as an 'evolution of the spirit', or even as a prolonged epiphany, beginning with Opus 90 and progressing through Opus 111. That's the way I prefer to hear them; two per day, on successive days, with no other music in the mix.

[Some of us geezers are stranger than others. I use the same 'discipline' with the late string quartets when I can, though the requirement seems less critical.]


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Extreme passion with a tinge of madness. I like that.


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

I agree strongly with Hilltroll's 'Evolution of the Spirit' and 'prolonged epiphany' remarks regarding Beethoven's personal journey in this world and these late works you mention. He hung on until the very end, wringing out as many of his 'direct to the heart of matter' intuitions as he had strength to put to paper. Perhaps his most heroic period.


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## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

Why do the late quartets and sonatas strike so many people as so profound -me included?
I'm always struck, each time I listen anew, by how modern they still seem to be, how uncompromising they are. Beethoven really did inhabit a world of his own, not only inhabit, but he was supremely in command of it. The audacity, the originality, the sheer musical imagination and depth which leads the listener to places that only Beethoven could go.

You could say I am a fan!

PS. add The Diabelli Variations to the this.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Petwhac said:


> Why do the late quartets and sonatas strike so many people as so profound -me included?
> I'm always struck, each time I listen anew, by how modern they still seem to be, how uncompromising they are. Beethoven really did inhabit a world of his own, not only inhabit, but he was supremely in command of it. The audacity, the originality, the sheer musical imagination and depth which leads the listener to places that only Beethoven could go.
> 
> You could say I am a fan!
> ...


I don't regard the Diabelli's as profound, so much as 'fiendish'. He took that simple waltz and 'turned it every which way but loose'. I know of no other set of variations that approaches it in variety and breadth.

Depth, not so much, but I am confident that he intended depth in only one variation, as part of the _variety_.


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