Beethoven: Sonata No. 21 for Piano, in C, Op. 53 Waldstein
Ames Town & Gown performers: Mia Chung
April 16, 2000
Notes by Karl E. Gwiasda
Most likely because each of its three movements begins softly and then grows in volume, Beethoven’s Op. 53 sonata was for a while dubbed L’Aurore (“Dawn”), a subtitle still in use among French-speaking people. Its more familiar nickname, Waldstein, derives from Beethoven’s early patron, Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, to whom the work is dedicated. The sonata was composed in December 1803 and January 1804, a bit over a year after Beethoven had passed through the great crisis he recorded in the “Testament” written while he was vacationing in Heiligenstadt—his recognition that his growing deafness was neither temporary nor curable. The sonata, in fact, is the first full expression of his resolve to continue his life as a musician despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of his affliction. It serves, moreover, as the overture to a succession of works that remain the rock-solid core of Beethoven’s most popular compositions: the Eroica symphony (1804); the composer’s only opera, Fidelio (1805); the Appassionata sonata, Violin Concerto, Fourth Piano Concerto, and Rasoumovsky quartets (all from 1806); and on through the Fifth and Sixth symphonies (1807 and 1808), the Emperor concerto (1809), and the music for Goethe’s Egmont (1809). In composing the Waldstein, Sir Donald Tovey has written, “Beethoven crossed the Rubicon.” With this work, “Beethoven’s style grew finally incompatible with that of his ‘first period.’”
Even before the Heiligenstadt Testament, however, Beethoven had declared an intention to “strike out on a new road” in his piano music. He was undoubtedly helped in that ambition by his acquisition of an Erard piano in 1803, an instrument with a more extended range and a greater capability for dynamic contrasts than the ones he had hitherto been using. The creative impulse that produced the sonata may owe as much to technology as to psychology.
The Waldstein sonata is in three movements, though the middle one, marked as an “introduction,” would scarcely qualify as a movement were it not for Beethoven’s calling it one. In the original version of the sonata, the central movement had been a long and leisurely Andante. Beethoven, however, decided to replace it with the 28-bar Introduzione. Published separately as the Andante favori, the discarded movement has enjoyed a great popularity with pianists and audiences. No one, however, has ever suggested that the sonata would be better with the original slow movement restored. Instead, the terse slow movement of the final version is seen to achieve structurally what Beethoven was steadily pushing towards in his music—a shifting of emphasis and weight from the opening to the final movements of his compositions.
The first movement, Allegro con brio (“Fast, with verve”), begins with quick, nervously repeated chords answered by a chirpy phrase in the treble. The opening statement is repeated, but now it leads to a songlike section that offers a calming contrast to the initial restlessness. The music then alternates between propulsive and relaxed sections, but the more agitated mood grows dominant. The rapid chords of the opening return, this time to take the movement through a highly charged development to its emphatic close.
For all its brevity, the Adagio molto (“Very slow”) that follows is intensely expressive—profound, meditative, and strangely comforting. It leads directly into the rondo that concludes the sonata. This final movement, marked Allegro moderato (“Moderately fast”), begins quietly with a pretty theme that, from the evidence of Beethoven’s notebooks, cost the composer a good deal of trial and effort before he got it right. In its first appearance, the theme seems simple and unassuming. Soon, however, Beethoven employs various embellishments to exhibit the depth and grandeur that lie within. Finally, the tempo shifts to Prestissimo (“Very fast”), and the movement races to its exciting close.