KONSTANTIN LIFSCHITZ | BEETHOVEN VIII – Towards New Shores

ABOUT THE CONCERT

The triptych of Beethoven´s last sonatas stands out as a lasting monument of piano literature. Much about them can be learned from the composer´s sketchbooks. We thus know that Beethoven worked on them simultaneously, while also composing his last string quartets and the Missa Solemnis. Numerous corrections and deletions in the score attest to his protracted grappling with material. The fact that he assigned a distinct opus number to each of the sonatas speaks of the importance he attached to them. Here indeed are three highly individual works written for an instrument rather than the voice – for Beethoven did not need text to awaken in the listener an unmistakeably religious feeling. This is not music by an atheist. These are compositions by an ageing, ailing man turning to the archetypes of music and humanity. There are explicit quotes here from Bach´s St John Passion, more than a few motifs relating to Beethoven´s own Missa Solemnis, as well as references to lamentations and chiming bells. After the sequence of emotional tempests exemplified by the sonatas of his “heroic period”, we may now be surprised by the simplicity to which the deaf composer had evolved in his final sonata, drawing inspiration from a folk song.

PROGRAM

Sonata for Piano No. 30 in E major, Op. 109

I. Vivace, ma non troppo – Adagio espressivo
II. Prestissimo
III. Andante. Molto cantabile ed espressivo Gesang mit innigster Empfindung

Sonata for Piano No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110

I. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo
II. Molto Allegro
III. Adagio ma non troppo – Arioso dolente – Fuga. Allegro ma non troppo – L’istesso tempo di Arioso Perdendo le forze, dolente – L’istesso tempo della Fuga poi a poi di nuovo vivente

interval

Sonata for Piano No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111

I. Maestoso – Allegro con brio ed appassionato
II. Arietta. Adagio molto semplice e cantabile

PERFORMERS

Konstantin Lifschitz – piano