Beethoven: Sonata No. 24 in F sharp major, Op. 78 | Boris Giltburg | Beethoven 32 project

The darkness which held us in its grip in the Appassionata could not be counteracted more completely than it is by the sound of Sonata No. 24’s opening. Like a hymn rising above the deep octaves in the left hand, these four bars seem to come directly from the heart, devout and almost in awe of being in the presence of something exceedingly pure and beautiful. They lead into the loveliest of first movements, poetic, lyrical and simple in its emotional colour. The key of F sharp major, unique in Beethoven’s output, lends the music a special luminosity, a constant sense of striving upwards, which is reflected by the music’s frequently residing in the upper part of the keyboard. This is not a detached, crystalline weightlessness, though, as the music is suffused with warmth throughout.

The second (and last) movement is an irreverently playful kind of rondo, beginning strikingly on a dissonant chord. The short refrain is built from a series of bouncy phrases, surrounding longer episodes of merriment in which the hands chase and cross each other. The opening dissonant chord re-emerges at the end of each episode, prolonged more and more each time. In is last appearance, Beethoven takes this idea to a smile-raising extreme, stretching it over 16 bars of running semiquavers.

The sonata’s nickname, À Thérèse, is a simple reflection of its dedicatee, the Countess Therese von Brunsvik, Beethoven’s former piano student. Beethoven was much attached to the family: Therese’s brother, Franz, was a close friend and the dedicatee of both the Appassionata and the later Fantasy, Op. 77, while Therese’s younger sister, Josephine, has often been suggested as the addressee of Beethoven’s letters to an ‘Immortal Beloved’. (While this hypothesis remains unproved – and perhaps unprovable, barring a discovery of additional documents – we do know that Beethoven was passionately in love with Josephine, writing her at least 14 love letters between 1804 and 1810, in which he called her ‘angel’, ‘my everything’, and his ‘only love’.)

***

Beethoven 32 – Over the course of 2020, I have learned and filmed all 32 Beethoven sonatas. Subscribe to this channel or visit https://beethoven32.com to follow the project.

Boris Giltburg, piano

Filmed by Stewart French
© 2020 Fly On The Wall, London
@Fazioli Pianoforti

Видео Beethoven: Sonata No. 24 in F sharp major, Op. 78 | Boris Giltburg | Beethoven 32 project канала Boris Giltburg