Beethoven - Sonata 21「Waldstein」

                      ●★ Lv Beethoven - Sonata in C Op.53 「Waldstein」★●

 

 

                                                                  Allegro conbrio

 

                                            Adagio molto

 

                                    Allegretto moderato-prestissimo

 

 

                                     ((Plays by Friedrich Goulda))

 

 

     ■ Friedrich Gulda(1930~2000) ■

 

 

● Friedrich Gulda (16 May 1930 – 27 January 2000) was an Austrian pianist and composer who worked in both the classical and jazz fields.

 

 

● Biography

Born in Vienna as the son of a teacher, Gulda began learning to play the piano from Felix Pazofsky at the Wiener Volkskonservatorium, aged 7. In 1942, he entered the Vienna Music Academy, where he studied piano and musical theory under Bruno Seidlhofer and Joseph Marx.

He won first prize at the Geneva International Music Competition in 1946. Initially, the jury preferred the Belgian pianist Lode Backx, but when the final vote was taken, Gulda was the winner. one of the jurors, Eileen Joyce, who favoured Backx, stormed out and claimed the other jurors were unfairly influenced by Gulda's supporters.^[1] Gulda began to play concerts worldwide. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1950.^[2] Together with Jörg Demus and Paul Badura-Skoda, Gulda formed what became known as the "Viennese troika".

Although most famous for his Mozart and Beethoven interpretations, Gulda also performed the music of J. S. Bach (often on clavichord), Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Debussy and Ravel.

From the 1950s on he cultivated an interest in jazz, writing several songs and instrumental pieces, and at times combining jazz and classical music in his concerts. In 1956, he performed at Birdland in New York City^[3] and at the Newport Jazz Festival.^[2] He organized the International Competition for Modern Jazz in 1966,^[4] and he established the International Musikforum, a school for students who wanted to learn improvisation, in Ossiach, Austria, in 1968.^[5] He once said:^[6]

There can be no guarantee that I will become a great jazz musician, but at least I shall know that I am doing the right thing. I don't want to fall into the routine of the modern concert pianist's life, nor do I want to ride the cheap triumphs of the Baroque bandwagon.

In jazz, he found "the rhythmic drive, the risk, the absolute contrast to the pale, academic approach I had been taught."^[6] He also took up playing the baritone saxophone.^[4]

Gulda wrote a Prelude and Fugue with a theme suggesting swing. Keith Emerson performed it on Emerson, Lake & Palmer's The Return of the Manticore. In addition, Gulda composed "Variations on The Doors' 'Light My Fire'". Another version can be found on Gulda's album As You Like It (1970), an album with standards such as "'Round Midnight" and "What Is This Thing Called Love?". In 1980, he wrote his Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra, which has been called "as moving as it is lighthearted", in five movements "involving jazz, a minuet, rock, a smidgen of polka, a march and a cadenza with two spots where a star cellist must improvise."^[7]

In 1982, Gulda teamed up with jazz pianist Chick Corea, who was between the breakup of Return to Forever and the formation of his Elektric Band. Issued on The Meeting (Philips, 1984), Gulda and Corea communicate in lengthy improvisations mixing jazz ("Some Day My Prince Will Come" and the lesser known Miles Davis song "Put Your Foot Out") and classical music (Brahms' "Wiegenlied" ["Cradle song"]). In the late 1990s, Gulda organised rave parties, where he performed with the support of several DJs and Go-Go dancers.

These unorthodox practices along with his refusal to follow clothing conventions or announce the program of his concerts in advance earned him the nickname "terrorist pianist".^[2] In 1988, he cancelled a performance after officials of the Salzburg Festival objected to his including jazz musician Joe Zawinul on the program.^[2] When the Vienna Music Academy awarded him its Beethoven Ring in recognition of his performances, he accepted it but then reconsidered and returned it.^[5] To promote a concert in 1999, he announced his own death in a press release so that the concert at the Vienna Konzerthaus could serve as a resurrection party.^[5]

Gulda is widely regarded^{[weasel words]} as one of the most outstanding piano players of the 20th century. His piano students included Martha Argerich, who called Gulda "my most important influence,"^[8] and the conductor Claudio Abbado.^[9]

He expressed a wish to die on the birthday of Mozart,^{[citation needed]} the composer he most adored, and did so. He died of heart failure at the age of 69 on 27 January 2000 at his home in Weissenbach, Austria.^[5] Gulda is buried in the cemetery of Steinbach am Attersee, Austria.

He was married twice, first to Paola Loew and then to Yuko Wakiyama. Two of his three sons, Paul and Rico Gulda, one from each of his marriages, are accomplished pianists.

A documentary film made for television in 2007, So what?! - Friedrich Gulda, tells his life story.^[10]

 

● References

1. ^ Richard Davis, Eileen Joyce: A Portrait, 126-7
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Chris Woodstra, Gerald Brennan, Allen Schrott, eds., All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2005), 538
3. ^ New York Times: "Gulda has Debut as Jazz Pianist," June 22, 1956, accessed September 17, 2011
4. ^ ^{a b} New York Times: "Brooklyn Sax Man Wins the Big one in Vienna," July 17, 1966, accessed September 17, 2011
5. ^ ^{a b c d} New York Times: Allan Kozinn, "Friedrich Gulda, 69, Classical-Music Rebel," January 29, 2000, accessed September 17, 2011
6. ^ ^{a b} New York Times: K. Robert Schwarz , "Gulda Reasserts his Claim to Fame," September 25, 1989, accessed September 17, 2011
7. ^ Seattle Times: Tom Keogh, "Cellist Joshua Roman returns to Seattle Symphony for opening night," September 15, 2011, accessed September 17, 2011
8. ^ New York Times: Anthony Tommasini, "An Enigmatic Pianist Reclaims Her Stardom," March 25, 2000, accessed September 17, 2011
9. ^ Chris Woodstra, Gerald Brennan, Allen Schrott, eds., All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2005), 1
10. ^ Internet Movie Database: "So what?! - Friedrich Gulda (TV 2007)", accessed September 17, 2011; New York Times: "Friedrich Gulda: So What - A Portrait", accessed September 17, 2011

 

 ■ Piano Sonata No. 21 (Beethoven) ■

 

 

The opening, driving motive

 

The Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53, also known as the Waldstein, is considered to be one of Beethoven's greatest piano sonatas, as well as one of the three particularly notable sonatas of his middle period (the other two being the Appassionata sonata, Op. 57, and Les Adieux, Op. 81a). The sonata was completed in the summer of 1804. The work has a scope that surpasses Beethoven's previous piano sonatas, and is notably one of his most technically challenging compositions. It is a key work early in his 'Heroic' decade (1803-1812) and set the stage for piano compositions in the grand manner both in Beethoven's later work and all future composers.

The Waldstein receives its name from Beethoven's dedication to Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein of Vienna, a patron as well as a close personal friend of Beethoven. Like the Archduke Trio (one of many pieces dedicated to Archduke Rudolph), this one bears Waldstein's name though there are other works dedicated to him. This sonata is also known as 'L'Aurora' (The Dawn) in Italian, for the sonority of the opening chords of the third movement, which conjures an image of daybreak

● Movements

The Waldstein has three movements:

1. Allegro con brio
2. Introduzione: Adagio molto - attacca
3. Rondo. Allegretto moderato - Prestissimo

The two outer movements of the sonata are most substantial, each taking about 11 minutes to perform.

 

● First movement: Allegro con brio

The sonata opens with repeated chords, played pianissimo. This initial straightforward, but anxious rhythm is devoid of melody for two bars. It then swiftly ascends and follows with a three-note descent in the middle register and a four-note descent in the upper. More of this teasing rhythm rumbles forward, until 45 seconds later, when the notes seem to almost stumble over themselves.

The second subject group, marked dolce, is a sweet chordal theme in E major. Though not unprecedented (the first movement of the Op. 31 No. 1 sonata also has a second group in the mediant), this was the first major work in which Beethoven had chosen to modulate elsewhere than the customary fifth up for the second group, an idea to which he would return later (in the Hammerklavier Sonata, for example).

For the recapitulation, Beethoven transposes the second subject into A major, which quickly changes into A minor and then back to C major again. The movement ends in a heavy coda.

 

● Second movement: Introduzione. Adagio molto - attacca

The Introduzione is a short Adagio set in jutting 6/8 time which serves as an introduction to the third movement. At once halting, angular, and tranquil, the music gradually gets more agitated before calming down to segue into the Rondo. This Introduzione replaced an earlier, longer middle movement, which was later published separately as the Andante Favori, WoO 57.

 

● Third movement: Rondo. Allegretto moderato - Prestissimo

Opening bars of final movement

The Rondo begins with a sweet and consoling tune played pianissimo, which soon comes back fortissimo, over daringly fast scales in the left hand and a continuous trill on the dominant in the right. Beethoven then introduces the second theme—a series of broken chords in triplets—but soon interrupts it with a turbulent section in A minor that foreshadows the central episode.

Soon the music returns to C major, and the sweet theme is repeated before being followed by a series of staccato octaves in C minor that mark the start of the central episode, one of the few cases where such melodic change is seen, a theme repeated in larger works like the Emperor Piano Concerto. Soon the octaves are accompanied by swirling triplets in first the left and then right hands; the music grows more tense and eventually cadences in C minor. The next section brings back the opening theme in chord form and further develops it - it is first heard in A-flat major (bars 221 - 224), then in F minor (bars 225 - 228), and then in D-flat major (bars 229 - 232), at which point the theme is fragmented into shorter phrases (233 pickup - 238) and then transitions into a more quiet and almost mysterious section, which returns after much drama to the C major theme, which is then played in a triumphant fortissimo.

The second theme reappears, followed by another long line of beautiful dance-like music, which is perfectly characteristic of Beethoven. Another series of fortissimo chords is struck, ushering in a short, delicate pianissimo section, and the movement seems to die away, but then unexpectedly segues into the Prestissimo coda, a wondrous section that plays with the various themes of the movement and more before ending in a triumphant rush of grandeur.

 

● In popular culture

This piece is played by Jane Fairfax in BBC's "Emma", Episode 2.

Helena Bonham Carter plays excerpts from the 2nd and 3rd movements of this piece in James Ivory's film adaptation of E.M. Forster's "A Room with a View".

The third-season House episode "Half-Wit" opens with Dave Matthews' character Patrick performing the first movement and later has him mimicking playing the third as he gets a CAT scan.

It is used in the soundtrack for SimCopter.

 

● External links

• Analysis of the first movement at teoria.com
• A performance of the work by pianist Michael Hawley
• Lecture with clips of performance by Andras Schiff and why he thinks it is one of the greatest pieces of music there is".
• For a public domain recording of this sonata visit Musopen
• Piano Sonata No. 21: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.

● Piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven     No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1 · No. 2 in A major, Op. 2, No. 2 · No. 3 in C major, Op. 2, No. 3 · No. 4 in E♭ major, Op. 7 (Grand Sonata) · No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10, No. 1 · No. 6 in F major, Op. 10, No. 2 · No. 7 in D major, Op. 10, No. 3 · No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 (Pathétique) · No. 9 in E major, Op. 14, No. 1 · No. 10 in G major, Op. 14, No. 2