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Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major  Play

Michael Mizrahi Piano

Recorded on 02/06/2008, uploaded on 01/20/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Piano Sonata No.  21 in C Major, "Waldstein"  Op. 53             Ludwig van Beethoven

Begun in 1803 and completed in 1804, Beethoven wrote his Waldstein Sonata exactly 100 years before Debussy's Estampes appeared in print for the first time.  Arguably the most brilliant of his 32 piano sonatas, Beethoven dedicated the piece to an old friend, Count Ferdinand Waldstein.  Beethoven had reached a new stage in his compositional evolution in these early years of the 19th century, which saw the creation of the Eroica Symphony, "Triple" Concerto for piano, violin, and cello, Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 59 String Quartets, and the Appassionata Piano Sonata.  The Waldstein Sonata is chronologically the first Piano Sonata from this great Middle Period.

Beginning in an excited pianissimo, the first few measures give a foreshadowing of the type of piece that will unfold over the next 24 minutes: one of extraordinary dynamic range, terse motivic development, and bold harmonic steps.  The latter can be felt almost immediately, as we slide briefly into a chord on B-flat, a very distant harmony from the home key of C Major, within the first few seconds.  A turbulent C-minor seems to open a chasm into the fabric of the music itself before we churn to a complete stop and begin again in C Major.  All of this takes only 15 seconds.  The rest of the first movement unfolds in adherence to the Classical Sonata Form model, but Beethoven firmly and indelibly places his stamp with his heroic material.

A short and mysterious Adagio separates the two fast movements.  Titled Introduzione, it is just that: an introduction, albeit harmonically complex in its own right, to the final Rondo.  The Rondo theme melts out of the Adagio in a haze of pianissimo arpeggios and wide melodic leaps, outlining a childlike melody that finds its confidence through repetition until it is finally clothed in a garland of trills.  Numerous episodes explore different keys and characters, but the overall mood is one of glorious celebration, and the Rondo theme itself is never too far away.  Its final repetition leads to a virtuosic Prestissimo coda, complete with glissandos, the aforementioned trills, and an ending worthy of his greatest symphonies.    Michael Mizrahi

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