András Schiff - Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57 'Appassionata' - Beethoven Lecture-Recitals

András Schiff - Beethoven Lecture-Recitals
Wigmore Hall (London, UK), 2004–06

András Schiff last performed the complete Beethoven piano sonatas at Wigmore Hall from 2004–06 to overwhelming critical acclaim, with the editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, describing one particular performance as ‘a riveting mixture of erudition, analysis, passion, wit and memory’.

On the day before each of the eight recitals in the series, the world-renowned pianist, pedagogue and lecturer gave a lecture-recital in which he explored the works to be performed. Deeply engaging and insightful, these thought-provoking lecture-recitals, recorded live at the Hall, are available below as eight audio lecture-recitals.

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Full playlist:

View the MP3 files on the Internet Archive:

Originally available at:

[SpontaneityJD]

Throughout the first movement, it is very apparent that Schiff was nervous during the lecture (voice seemed rushed and breathless at times, and many uncharacteristic mistakes were made)... He also admitted that his heart was pounding beforehand. Never seen this before from him. This just shows the the tremendous respect he has for this piece. What a legend.

[tinkerchel]

LECTURE NOTES:

movt:
1. There's only one Beethoven piano sonata that starts fortissimo, the "Hammerklavier".
Many starts forte.
But the majority start pianissimo and mysterioso
2. @6:18 starts in unison with 2 octaves in between for a feeling of danger
3. @6:44 dry leaves being blown by the wind🍃
4. @8:49 bar 14. The fate motif
6. @9:17 the Neapolitan harmony: semi-tone up, the Neapolitan 6th chord which is characteristic in this sonata
7. @11:19 a syncopated way of writing 12/8
8. @13:07 the second subject is closely related to the first, almost an inversion in the relative major
9. @14:18 not a free cadenza, must always feel the pulse. Goosepimple passage~🥺
10. @16:04 start of development, inharmonic modulation: A flat becomes G sharp
11. @19:08 from D flat major we start to climb. Important to follow the baseline.
12. @20:21 we hear the second subject, but the base climbs 2 whole octaves
13. @21:59 the fate motif we heard in pianissimo reappears as an apocalypse
14. @26:48 @27:09 Beethoven plays all the F notes at his disposal.

movt: theme &
15. @28:26 in the first 8 bars for the melody, Beethoven only uses 2 notes
16. @29:36 dark sonorities, lower registers of the keyboard, so we hear celli, double basses or trombones
17. a theme & 3 variations + coda. Two tendencies: one from going from darkness into light.
Start with larger note values, which decreases by each variation.
theme: crochets
1st variation: quavers
2nd variation: semiquavers
3rd variation: hemi demisemiquavers
18. @33:11 after the apotheosis comes an epilogue where he is just using fragments of the theme, putting them in different registers. With Beethoven the piano almost never sounds like a piano. We must always imagine other sonorities.
19. @34:15 end of the movement: brass, woodwinds, celli, woodwinds,
20. @35:14 last note, arpeggio with a fermata. Back to danger.

movt:
21. @38:42 the Neapolitan transposition in the 1st movement appears again
22. @39:04 we have a seemingly continuous semiquaver motion, but under that we have a sighing sospirando
23. @39:38 as in the 1st movement, the lack of repeats is important. The exposition is not repeated, which is almost unheard of before. 1st movement has no repeat, in this movement the exposition is not repeated.
24. @41:46 a new motif, exactly the same part of the first movement also introduces a new theme. Like a 2-part invention of Bach. Then Beethoven has had enough of this imitation and breaks out in a unison.
25. @42:34 this mirrors the goosepimple passage in the 1st movement.
26. @44:09 he writes 3 sforzando on the Neapolitan

[matttondr]

The crazy thing is that you could have 5 more lectures of this length, all presenting completely new information about this sonata. There’s always more to analyze, more hidden wonders and connections to find.

[srothbardt]

Brilliant, as always. He’s a great teacher as well as pianist, and both come out of one another.

[chlidera]

thanks for uploading this fantastic lecture, and Schiff plays it so well it's divine

[kkeoekkoli]

어떤 분이 베토벤소나타는 '음악의 신약성서이다' 라고 하였다. 오늘 이 강의를 통하여 그것을 깨달을수 있었다. 너무 감사드린다.

[stefanufer]

Couldn’t agree more with his opening comments about this sonata

[Edgard]

Please upload all of them! They great!

[vittoriomarano]

One thing I really love in the general concept of his Sonatas is that there's for nearly each tonality one 'little' Sonata and one large and magnificent Sonata.
Es: no. 1 and no. 23; no. 2 and no. 28; no. 9 and no. 30 etc...

[RobertOrgRobert]

Great talk. The Appassionata could well have been a concerto !

[weixiong.]

I live my life according to Beethoven's music. It's a constant wrestling match between Jacob and God. Should we ever come into contact with an alien intelligent species with the aural sense, I'd argue that it may be necessary and perhaps sufficient to pick a few of Beethoven's pieces to tell them what our human experience is like. My guess is that these pieces transcend time, and they should transcend space as well.

[militaryandemergencyservic]

Glen Gould cannot fathom why this sonata is so popular. The great pianist doesn't like it. This one does.

[Robert...Schrey]

this sonata consists only of black notes.