11 who and when wrote the moonlight sonata. Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata

In the very late XVIII century, Ludwig van Beethoven was in his prime, he was incredibly popular, led an active social life, he could rightfully be called the idol of the youth of that time. But one circumstance began to overshadow the life of the composer - gradually fading hearing. “I drag out a bitter existence,” Beethoven wrote to his friend. “I am deaf. With my craft, nothing can be more terrible ... Oh, if I got rid of this disease, I would embrace the whole world.
In 1800, Beethoven met the Guicciardi aristocrats who had come from Italy to Vienna. The daughter of a respectable family, sixteen-year-old Juliet, had good musical ability and wished to take piano lessons from the idol of the Viennese aristocracy. Beethoven does not take payment from the young countess, and she in turn gives him a dozen shirts that she sewed herself.
Beethoven was a strict teacher. When he didn’t like Juliet’s playing, he was annoyed and threw notes on the floor, defiantly turned away from the girl, and she silently collected notebooks from the floor.
Juliette was pretty, young, outgoing and flirtatious with her 30-year-old teacher. And Beethoven succumbed to her charm. “Now I am more often in society, and therefore my life has become more cheerful,” he wrote to Franz Wegeler in November 1800. - This change was made in me by my dear, charming girl who loves me and whom I love. I again have bright moments, and I come to the conclusion that marriage can make a person happy. Beethoven thought about marriage despite the fact that the girl belonged to an aristocratic family. But the composer in love consoled himself with the fact that he would give concerts, achieve independence, and then marriage would become possible.
He spent the summer of 1801 in Hungary at the estate of the Hungarian counts of Brunswick, relatives of Juliet's mother, in Korompa. The summer spent with my beloved was happiest time for Beethoven.
At the peak of his feelings, the composer set about creating a new sonata. The pavilion in which, according to legend, Beethoven composed magical music, has survived to this day. In the homeland of the work, in Austria, it is known under the name "Garden House Sonata" or "Sonata - Arbor".
Sonata started in state great love, excitement and hope. Beethoven was sure that Juliet had the most tender feelings for him. Many years later, in 1823, Beethoven, then already deaf and communicating with the help of conversational notebooks, talking with Schindler, wrote: “I was very loved by her and more than ever, was her husband ...”
In the winter of 1801-1802, Beethoven completed the composition of a new work. And in March 1802, Sonata No. 14, which the composer called quasi una Fantasia, that is, "in the spirit of fantasy", was published in Bonn with the dedication "Alla Damigella Contessa Giullietta Guicciardri" ("Dedicated to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi").
The composer was finishing his masterpiece in anger, fury and the strongest resentment: from the first months of 1802, the windy coquette showed a clear preference for the eighteen-year-old Count Robert von Gallenberg, who was also fond of music and composed very mediocre musical opuses. However, Juliet Gallenberg seemed brilliant.
The whole storm of human emotions that was in Beethoven's soul at that time, the composer conveys in his sonata. These are grief, doubts, jealousy, doom, passion, hope, longing, tenderness and, of course, love.
Beethoven and Juliet broke up. And even later, the composer received a letter. It ended with cruel words: “I am leaving a genius who has already won, to a genius who is still fighting for recognition. I want to be his guardian angel." It was a "double blow" - as a man and as a musician. In 1803 Giulietta Guicciardi married Gallenberg and left for Italy.
In turmoil in October 1802, Beethoven left Vienna and went to Heiligenstadt, where he wrote the famous “Heiligenstadt Testament” (October 6, 1802): “Oh you people who think that I am malicious, stubborn, ill-mannered - how unfair to me; you do not know the secret reason for what you think. Since childhood, I have been predisposed in my heart and mind to a tender feeling of kindness, I have always been ready to do great things. But just think that for six years now I have been in an unfortunate state ... I am completely deaf ... "
Fear, the collapse of hopes give rise to thoughts of suicide in the composer. But Beethoven gathered his strength, decided to start new life and in almost absolute deafness created great masterpieces.
In 1821 Juliet returned to Austria and came to live with Beethoven. Crying, she recalled the wonderful time when the composer was her teacher, talked about the poverty and difficulties of her family, asked to forgive her and help with money. Being a kind and noble man, the maestro gave her a significant amount, but asked her to leave and never appear in his house. Beethoven seemed indifferent and indifferent. But who knows what was going on in his heart, torn by numerous disappointments.
“I despised her,” Beethoven recalled much later. “After all, if I wanted to give my life to this love, what would be left for the noble, for the higher?”
In the autumn of 1826, Beethoven fell ill. Exhausting treatment, three the most complex operations could not put the composer on his feet. Throughout the winter, without getting out of bed, he was completely deaf, tormented by the fact that ... he could not continue to work. On March 26, 1827, the great musical genius Ludwig van Beethoven died.
After his death, a letter “To an immortal beloved” was found in a secret drawer of the wardrobe (as Beethoven titled the letter himself): “My angel, my everything, my self ... Why is there deep sadness where necessity reigns? Can our love endure only at the cost of sacrifice by refusing to be full, can't you change the situation in which you are not wholly mine and I am not wholly yours? What a life! Without you! So close! So far! What longing and tears for you - you - you, my life, my everything ... "
Many will then argue about who exactly the message is addressed to. But little fact points precisely to Juliet Guicciardi: next to the letter was a tiny portrait of Beethoven's beloved, made by an unknown master, and the Heiligenstadt Testament.
Be that as it may, it was Juliet who inspired Beethoven to write an immortal masterpiece.
“The monument to love, which he wanted to create with this sonata, very naturally turned into a mausoleum. For such a person as Beethoven, love could not be anything else than the hope of the afterlife and sorrow, spiritual mourning here on earth ”(Alexander Serov, composer and musical critic).
Sonata "in the spirit of fantasy" was at first simply Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, which consisted of three movements - Adagio, Allegro and Finale. In 1832, the German poet Ludwig Relshtab, one of Beethoven's friends, saw in the first part of the work the image of Lake Lucerne on a quiet night, with moonlight reflecting from the surface. He suggested the name "Lunar". Years will pass, and the first measured part of the work: “Adagio sonata N 14 quasi una fantasia”, will become known to the whole world under the name “ Moonlight Sonata».

In the vast repertoire of the world musical classics hard to find more famous essay than Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. You don't have to be a musician or even a big fan classical music so that, having heard its first sounds, instantly recognize and easily name both the work and the author Experience shows that in the case of, for example, the Fifth Symphony of the same composer or Mozart's Fortieth Symphony, whose music is no less well known to everyone, making the correct combination of the author's surname, the name "symphony" and its serial number already presents a challenge. And so it is with most works of popular classics.. One clarification, however, is required: for an inexperienced listener, the recognizable music of the Moonlight Sonata is exhausted. In fact, this is not the whole work, but only its first part. As befits a classical sonata Sonata- genre instrumental music(sonare from Italian - “to sound”, “to make a sound with an instrument”). By the era of classicism (second half of the XVIII - early XIX century) the sonata has developed as a work for the piano or for two instruments, one of which is the piano (sonatas for violin and piano, cello and piano, flute and piano, etc.). It consists of three or four parts, contrasting in tempo and character of the music., it also has a second and a third. So, while enjoying the Moonlight Sonata on record, it is worth listening to not one, but three tracks - only then will we know the “end of history” and be able to appreciate the entire composition.

To begin with, let's set ourselves a modest task. Focusing on the well-known first part, let's try to understand what this exciting, returning music is fraught with.

Performed by: Claudio Arrau

The Moonlight Sonata was written and published in 1801 and is among the works that open in musical art XIX century. Having become popular immediately after its appearance, this work gave rise to many interpretations during the composer's lifetime. The dedication of the sonata to Giulietta Guicciardi, a young aristocrat, a student of Beethoven, whose marriage the enamored musician dreamed in vain just at this period, fixed on the title page, prompted the audience to look for an expression of love experiences in the work. About a quarter of a century later, when European art turned out to be embraced by romantic languor, a contemporary of the composer, writer Ludwig Relshtab, compared the sonata with a painting moonlit night on Lake Firwaldstadt, describing this night landscape in the short story Theodore (1823) “The surface of the lake is illuminated by the shimmering radiance of the moon; the wave hits dully against the dark shore; gloomy mountains covered with forests separate this sacred place from the world; swans, like spirits, swim by with a rustling splash, and mysterious sounds are heard from the side of the ruins aeolian harp, plaintively singing about passionate and unrequited love. Cit. according to L. V. Kirillin. Beethoven. Life and creation. In 2 vols. T. 1. M., 2009.. It is thanks to the Relshtab behind the work, known professional musicians as Sonata No. 14, or more precisely, the Sonata in C-sharp minor, Opus 27, No. 2, the poetic definition “Moonlight” was fixed (Beethoven did not give his work such a name). In the text of Relshtab, which seems to have concentrated all the attributes of a romantic landscape (night, moon, lake, swans, mountains, ruins), the motif of “passionate unrequited love”: swayed by the wind, the strings of the aeolian harp plaintively sing about her, filling the entire space of the mystical night with their mysterious sounds In this interpretation and with its new name, the first movement of the sonata becomes one of the first examples of the piano nocturne, anticipating the flowering of this genre in the work of composers-pianists of the romantic era, primarily Frederic Chopin. Nocturne (nocturne from French - "night") - in music of the 19th century small piano piece lyrical character, "night song", usually based on a combination of a melodious lyrical melody with accompaniment that conveys the atmosphere of a night landscape..

Portrait of an unknown. The miniature, owned by Beethoven, is believed to be Juliet Guicciardi. Around 1810 Beethoven-Haus Bonn

Having mentioned two very well-known variants of interpretation of the content of the sonata, which verbal sources suggest (the author's dedication to Juliet Guicciardi, Relstab's definition of "Lunar"), we now turn to the expressive elements contained in the music itself, we will try to read and interpret the musical text.

Have you ever thought that the sounds by which the whole world recognizes the Moonlight Sonata are not a melody, but an accompaniment While lecturing on music to an unprofessional audience, I sometimes amuse those present with a simple experiment: I ask them to recognize the work by playing not the accompaniment, but the melody of the Moonlight Sonata. Out of 25-30 people without accompaniment, the sonata is sometimes recognized by two or three, sometimes by no one. And - surprise, laughter, the joy of recognition when you combine the melody with the accompaniment.? Melody - it would seem main element musical speech, at least in the classical-romantic tradition ( avant-garde currents music of the 20th century does not count) - does not appear immediately in the Moonlight Sonata: this happens in romances and songs, when the sound of the instrument precedes the singer's entry. But when the melody prepared in this way finally appears, our attention is completely focused on it. And now let's try to remember (maybe even sing) this melody. Surprisingly, we will not find in it proper melodic beauty (various turns, jumps at wide intervals or smooth progressive movement). The melody of the Moonlight Sonata is constrained, squeezed into a narrow range, hardly makes its way, is not sung at all, and only sometimes sighs a little more freely. Its beginning is especially indicative. For some time, the melody cannot break away from the original sound: before even slightly moving from its place, it is repeated six times. But it is precisely this sixfold repetition that reveals the significance of yet another expressive element—rhythm. The first six sounds of the melody reproduce a recognizable rhythmic formula twice - this is the rhythm of the funeral march.

Throughout the sonata, the initial rhythmic formula will return repeatedly, with the persistence of thought that has taken possession of the whole being of the hero. In code coda(soda from Italian - "tail") - the final section of the work. the first part, the original motive will finally be established as the main musical idea, repeating over and over again in a gloomy low register: the validity of associations with the thought of death leaves no doubt.

Title page edition of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata "In the Spirit of Fantasy" No. 14 (C-sharp minor, op. 27, No. 2) with a dedication to Juliet Guicciardi. 1802 Beethoven-Haus Bonn

Returning to the beginning of the melody and following its gradual development, we discover another essential element. This is a motif of four closely conjugated, as if crossed sounds, uttered twice as a tense exclamation and emphasized by dissonance in accompaniment. Listeners of the 19th century, and even more so today the melodic turn not as familiar as the rhythm of the mourning march. However, in church music baroque era (in German culture represented primarily by the genius of Bach, whose works Beethoven knew from childhood), he was the most important musical symbol. This is one of the variants of the motif of the Cross - a symbol of the dying sufferings of Jesus.

Those who are familiar with music theory will be interested to learn about one more circumstance confirming that our guesses about the content of the first part of the Moonlight Sonata are correct. For his 14th sonata, Beethoven chose the key of C-sharp minor, which is rarely used in music. There are four sharps in this key. In German, "sharp" (a sign of raising the sound by half a tone) and "cross" are denoted by one word - Kreuz, and in the design of the sharp there is a similarity with the cross - ♯. The fact that there are four sharps here further enhances the passionate symbolism.

Again, let's make a reservation: work with similar meanings was inherent in church music of the Baroque era, and Beethoven's sonata is a secular work and was written at a different time. However, even in the period of classicism, tonality remained tied to a certain range of content, as evidenced by Beethoven's contemporary musical treatises. As a rule, the characteristics given to keys in such treatises fixed the moods inherent in the art of the New Age, but did not break ties with the associations recorded in the previous era. So, one of Beethoven's older contemporaries, composer and theorist Justin Heinrich Knecht, believed that C-sharp minor sounds "with an expression of despair." However, Beethoven, writing the first part of the sonata, as we see, was not satisfied with a generalized idea of ​​the nature of tonality. The composer felt the need to refer directly to the attributes of a long-standing musical tradition(motive of the Cross), which testifies to his focus on an extremely serious topic - the Cross (as a destiny), suffering, death.

Autograph of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata "In the Spirit of Fantasy" No. 14 (C-sharp minor, op. 27, No. 2). 1801 Beethoven-Haus Bonn

Now let's turn to the beginning of the Moonlight Sonata - to the very familiar sounds that grab our attention even before the appearance of the melody. The accompaniment line consists of continuously repeating three-tone figures, resonating with deep organ basses. The original prototype of this sound is the plucking of strings (lyres, harps, lutes, guitars), the birth of music, listening to it. It is easy to feel how the non-stop smooth movement (from the beginning to the end of the first part of the sonata it does not interrupt for a moment) creates a meditative, almost hypnotic state of detachment from everything external, and the slowly descending bass enhances the effect of withdrawing into oneself. Returning to the picture drawn in Relshtab's short story, let us recall once again the image of the aeolian harp: in the sounds made by the strings only due to the breaths of the wind, mystically inclined listeners often tried to catch a secret, prophetic, fateful meaning.

Researchers theater music The 18th-century type of accompaniment, reminiscent of the beginning of the Moonlight Sonata, is also known as ombra (Italian for “shadow”). For many decades, in opera performances, such sounds accompanied the appearance of spirits, ghosts, mysterious messengers. afterlife more broadly, reflections on death. It is authentically known that when creating a sonata, Beethoven was inspired by a very specific opera stage. In the sketchbook, where the first sketches of the future masterpiece are recorded, the composer wrote out a fragment from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. It's short but very important episode- the death of the Commander, wounded during a duel with Don Juan. In addition to the characters mentioned, Don Juan's servant Leporello participates in the scene, so that a tercet is formed. The heroes sing at the same time, but each about his own: the Commander says goodbye to life, Don Juan is full of remorse, shocked Leporello abruptly comments on what is happening. Each of the characters has not only its own text, but also its own melody. Their remarks are united into a single whole by the sound of the orchestra, which not only accompanies the singers, but, stopping the external action, fixes the viewer’s attention at the moment when life balances on the verge of non-existence: measured, “drip” sounds count down the last moments separating the Commander from death. The end of the episode is accompanied by the remarks "[The Commander] is dying" and "The moon is completely hidden behind the clouds." Beethoven will almost literally repeat the sound of the orchestra from this Mozart scene at the beginning of the Moonlight Sonata.

First page of Ludwig van Beethoven's letter to the brothers Karl and Johann. October 6, 1802 Wikimedia Commons

There are more than enough analogies. But is it possible to understand why the composer, who had barely crossed the threshold of his 30th birthday in 1801, was so deeply, so truly worried about the theme of death? The answer to this question is contained in a document whose text is no less penetrating than the music of the Moonlight Sonata. This is the so-called "Heiligenstadt Testament". It was found after Beethoven's death in 1827, but was written in October 1802, about a year after the composition of the Moonlight Sonata.
In fact, the "Heiligenstadt Testament" is an extended suicide letter. Beethoven addressed it to two of his brothers, indeed devoting a few lines to instructions on the inheritance of property. Everything else is an extremely sincere story about the suffering experienced, addressed to all contemporaries, and possibly descendants, in which the composer several times mentions the desire to die, expressing at the same time the determination to overcome these moods.

At the time of the creation of the will, Beethoven was in the Heiligenstadt suburb of Vienna, undergoing treatment for an illness that had tormented him for about six years. Not everyone knows that the first signs of hearing loss appeared in Beethoven not in mature years and in the prime of his youth, at the age of 27. By that time, the composer's musical genius had already been appreciated, he was accepted into best houses Vienna, he was patronized by patrons, he won the hearts of the ladies. The illness was perceived by Beethoven as the collapse of all hopes. Almost more painfully experienced was the fear of opening up to people, so natural for a young, conceited, proud person. The fear of discovering professional failure, fear of ridicule or, conversely, manifestations of pity, forced Beethoven to limit communication and lead a lonely life. But reproaches of unsociableness hurt him painfully with their injustice.

All this complex gamut of experiences was reflected in the "Heiligenstadt Testament", which recorded crucial moment in the mood of the composer. After several years of fighting the disease, Beethoven realizes that hopes for a cure are futile, and he is torn between despair and a stoic acceptance of his fate. However, in suffering he gains wisdom early. Reflecting on providence, deity, art ("only it ... it kept me"), the composer comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to die without fully realizing his talent. In his mature years, Beethoven will come to the idea that the best of people through suffering find joy. The Moonlight Sonata was written at a time when this milestone had not yet been passed. But in the history of art, she became one of the best examples how beauty can be born out of suffering:

Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata No. 14 (C-sharp minor, op. 27, No. 2, or Lunar), first movement Performed by: Claudio Arrau

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata is a work that has been striking the senses of mankind for more than two hundred years. What is the secret of popularity, unfading interest in this musical composition? Perhaps in the mood, in the feelings that a genius puts into his offspring. And which even through the notes touch the soul of every listener.

The story of the creation of the "Moonlight Sonata" is tragic, full of emotions and drama.

The appearance of "Moonlight Sonata"

The most famous composition appeared to the world in 1801. On the one hand, for the composer, these times are the time for a creative dawn: his musical creations are gaining more and more popularity, Beethoven's talent is appreciated by the public, he is a desired guest of famous aristocrats. But looking cheerful happy person tormented by deep feelings. The composer begins to lose his hearing. For a person who previously had amazingly thin and accurate hearing, this was a huge shock. No medicine could cure musical genius from unbearable noises in the ears. Ludwig van Beethoven tries not to upset his loved ones, hides his problem from them, and avoids social events.

But in this hard times the life of a composer will fill bright colors young student Juliet Guicciardi. Being in love with music, the girl played the piano beautifully. Beethoven could not resist the charm of the young beauty, her good nature - his heart was filled with love. And along with this wonderful feeling, the taste of life returned. The composer again goes out into the world and again feels the beauty and joy of the world around him. Inspired by love, Beethoven begins work on an amazing sonata called “Sonata in the Spirit of Fantasy”.

But the composer's dreams of marriage, family life have crashed. Frivolous young Juliet turns on love relationship with Count Robert Gallenberg. The sonata, inspired by happiness, was completed by Beethoven in a state of deep melancholy, sadness and anger. The life of a genius after the betrayal of his beloved lost all taste, his heart was completely broken.

But despite this, feelings of love, sorrow, longing from parting and despair from unbearable physical suffering associated with the disease, gave rise to an unforgettable work of art.

Why Moonlight Sonata?

The name "Moonlight Sonata" this famous musical composition acquired thanks to a friend of the composer Ludwig Relshtab. The melody of the sonata inspired him with a picture of a lake with a quiet surface and a boat sailing under the languid light of the moon.

Beethoven's famous Moonlight Sonata appeared in 1801. In those years, the composer experienced not best time In my life. On the one hand, he was successful and popular, his works became more and more popular, he was invited to famous aristocratic houses. The thirty-year-old composer gave the impression of a cheerful, happy person, independent and despising fashion, proud and contented. But Ludwig's soul was tormented by deep feelings - he began to lose his hearing. This was a terrible disaster for the composer, because before his illness, Beethoven's hearing was distinguished by amazing subtlety and accuracy, he was able to notice the slightest wrong shade or note, almost visually imagined all the subtleties of rich orchestral colors.

The causes of the illness remain unknown. Perhaps it was an excessive strain of hearing, or a cold and inflammation of the ear nerve. Be that as it may, unbearable tinnitus tormented Beethoven day and night, and the whole community of medical professionals could not help him. Already by 1800, the composer had to stand very close to the stage in order to hear the high sounds of the orchestra playing, he could hardly distinguish the words of the people who spoke to him. He hid his deafness from friends and relatives and tried to be less social. At this time, the young Juliet Guicciardi appeared in his life. She was sixteen, she loved music, played the piano beautifully and became a student of the great composer. And Beethoven fell in love, immediately and irrevocably. He always saw only the best in people, and Juliet seemed to him perfection, an innocent angel who came down to him to quench his anxieties and sorrows. He was captivated by the cheerfulness, good nature and sociability of the young student. Beethoven and Juliet began a relationship, and he got a taste for life. He began to go out more often, he learned to rejoice simple things- music, sun, sweetheart's smile. Beethoven dreamed that someday he would call Juliet his wife. Filled with happiness, he began work on a sonata, which he called "Sonata in the Spirit of Fantasy."

But his dreams did not come true. The windy and frivolous coquette started an affair with the aristocratic Count Robert Gallenberg. She became uninterested in a deaf, unsecured composer from a simple family. Very soon Juliet became the Countess of Gallenberg. The sonata, which Beethoven began to write in a state of real happiness, delight and trembling hope, was completed in anger and fury. Its first part is slow and gentle, and the finale sounds like a hurricane sweeping away everything in its path. After Beethoven's death, a letter was found in his desk drawer, which Ludwig addressed to the carefree Juliet. In it, he wrote about how much she meant to him, and what longing came over him after Juliet's betrayal. The composer's world collapsed, and life lost its meaning. One of Beethoven's best friends, the poet Ludwig Relshtab, called the "Moonlight" sonata after his death. At the sounds of the sonata, he imagined the quiet expanse of the lake and the lonely boat floating on it under the unsteady light of the moon.

Part one: Adagio sostenuto

Movement two: Allegretto

Part Three: Presto agitato

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, op. 27, No. 2 (Quasi fantasia, better known as "Lunar") - musical composition, written by the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven in -1801. The first part of the sonata (Adagio sostenuto) was called "lunar" by the music critic Ludwig Relshtab in 1832, after the death of the author - he compared this work with "moonlight over Lake Firwaldstet".

The sonata is dedicated to the 18-year-old Juliette Guicciardi, to whom Beethoven gave music lessons in 1801. The composer was in love with the young countess and wanted to marry her.

The change that has taken place in me now is caused by a sweet wonderful girl who loves me and is loved by me.

In March 1802, Sonata No. 14 - with a dedication to Juliet - was published in Bonn, although from the first months of 1802 Juliet showed a clear preference for the composer Wenzel Galenberg and eventually married him. Six months after writing the sonata, on October 6, 1802, Beethoven writes in desperation "Heiligenstadt testament". Some Beethoven scholars believe that it was Countess Guicciardi who the composer addressed the letter, known as the letter "to the immortal beloved." It was discovered after Beethoven's death in a secret drawer of his wardrobe. Beethoven kept a miniature portrait of Juliet along with this letter and the Heiligenstadt Testament. The anguish of unrequited love, the agony of hearing loss - all this was expressed by the composer in the "Moonlight" sonata.

The illusion did not last long, and already in the sonata one can see more suffering and anger than love.

The monument of love that he wanted to create with this sonata very naturally turned into a mausoleum. For a man like Beethoven, love could not be anything else than hope beyond the grave and sorrow, spiritual mourning here on earth.

Analysis

Both sonatas of opus 27 (Nos. and 14) are subtitled “in the spirit of fantasy” (Italian quasi una fantasia): Beethoven wanted to emphasize that the form of the sonatas differs from the composition of the classical sonata cycle adopted at the time of the creation of this sonata.

The sonata is in three movements:

1. Adagio | Adagio sostenuto. The sonata begins with what is usually the middle part of the sonata cycle in the classical sonata cycle - slow, gloomy, rather mournful music. The well-known music critic Alexander Serov finds in the first part of the sonata the expression of "mortal despondency". In his methodological analysis and the edition of the sonata, Professor A. B. Goldenweiser identified three key elements that are important for the analysis and performing interpretation of the movement:

• The general choral texture plan, determined by the movement of bass octaves, also includes:
• The harmonic triplet figuration, covering almost the entire movement, is a comparatively rare example in Beethoven of a monotonous rhythmic movement sustained throughout the entire composition, more characteristic of the preludes of J.S. Bach
• Mournful sedentary melodic voice, rhythmically almost coinciding with the bass line.

In sum, these three elements form a harmonious whole, but at the same time they function separately, forming a continuous live declamatory line, and not “playing along” only their part to the leading voice.

2. Allegretto - the second part of the sonata.

The "consoling" mood of the second part of the insufficiently sensitive students easily turns into an amusing scherzando, which fundamentally contradicts the meaning of the work. I have heard dozens if not hundreds of times this interpretation. In such cases, I usually remind the student of Liszt's winged phrase about this allegretto: "This is a flower between two abysses," and I try to prove to him that this allegory is not accidental, that it conveys not only the spirit, but also the form of the work with amazing accuracy, for the first bars melodies reminiscent of an involuntarily opening cup of a flower, and subsequent ones - leaves hanging on the stem. Please remember that I never "illustrate" music, that is, in this case I do not say that this music is a flower - I say that it can cause a spiritual, visual impression of a flower, symbolize it, suggest to the imagination the image of a flower.

I forget to say that there is also a scherzo in this sonata. It is impossible not to be surprised how this scherzo got mixed up here, which has nothing to do with either the previous one or the next one. "It's a flower between two abysses," Liszt said. Perhaps! But such a place, I believe, is not very impressive for a flower, so that from this side Mr. List's metaphor may not be without fidelity.

Alexander Serov

3. Presto agitato - the third part of the sonata.

Sudden adagio...piano... The man, driven to the extreme, falls silent, his breath stopped. And when, in a minute, the breath comes to life and the person rises, futile efforts, sobs, and riots are over. Everything is said, the soul is devastated. In the last bars, only the majestic force remains, conquering, taming, accepting the flow.

Romain Rolland

Some interpretations

• Wilhelm Kempf, YouTube video ;