Classical Music | Piano Music

Ludwig van Beethoven

Sonata No. 27 in e minor, Op. 90  Play

Henry Kramer Piano

Recorded on 07/01/2011, uploaded on 08/27/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Composed during the summer of 1814, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor technically falls into his heroic middle period but also looks forward to the contemplative music of his later years. This is particularly evident in the title which he considered giving the sonata: “Contest between the Head and Heart.” Such a struggle certainly reemerged in his later period, for example, in the dichotomous stance of the beautiful and expressive Cavatina of the String Quartet No. 13, which Beethoven is said to have shed fresh tears each time he thought of it, and the work’s original finale: the enigmatic and cerebral Grosse Fuge.

Unlike the typical sonata, the Piano Sonata No. 27 consists of only two movements, a pattern Beethoven used in other sonatas as well. Furthermore, it is also one of the sonatas in which he chose to use German tempo indications instead of the commonplace Italian ones. The first movement, marked “Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck” (“With liveliness and feeling and expression throughout”), is a taut sonata form. It begins emphatically in the key of E minor, restless and agitated, but finds itself in the dominant minor by the first cadence and then in the relative major at the start of the next phrase. The movement’s second theme shifts to the key of B minor. Discovering a fire that the first theme lacked, the second theme is a passionate exclamation but ultimately fades into the austere motif of the opening—thus, Beethoven’s struggle. Initially concerned with the first theme’s motif, the brief development channels the second theme’s energy in approaching the recapitulation. Like the close of the exposition, the movement’s conclusion gently fades away.

The final movement, a rondo with the indication “Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen” (“Not too swiftly and conveyed in a singing manner”), begins with a cantabile melody of folk-like charm. Firmly rooted in the key of E major, the finale establishes a strong contrast with the turbulent and passionate first movement. Gentle and jovial, much of the movement passes by with a feeling of contentment though fleeting shadows return with touches of the minor key. Towards the end, Beethoven’s struggle of the first movement returns in a brief movement of melodic imitation before the final statement of the rondo’s refrain.      Joseph DuBose

courtesy of Steans Institute

 


Steans Music Institute

The Steans Music Institute is the Ravinia Festival's professional studies program for young musicians.