Beethoven: Op. 109 Variations

[iumonito]

From a recital at Highlands Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio, on March 13, 2010.

[prongated]

I skim-listened to it (is there such a thing?) and the one thing that doesn't work well for me is how much time you are taking, everywhere! It is to the extent that when you did a big ritard in the last variation before the RH broke out in arpeggio flourishes, the point is long lost! It's become pedantic and predictable by that point, instead of expressive and perhaps sentimental! I'd consider more carefully where time is taken. It also affects the "wholeness" of the performance.

Otherwise, nice playing it seems! Oh, and in the 2nd variation, the chords shouldn't be that detached, dry, and short should they?

[iumonito]

Prongated!

Even if it is to confirm your understanding of what Beethoven put in there and nothing else, by all means take the 15 minutes it takes and listen to the variations rather than skimming through them.

I appreciate you taking the time to write a few comments and would love to hear more.  Your point about the time is of course well-taken.  I do not think this music lends itself well to a performance well-clad on a regular and forward-moving tempo - on the contrary, I think one of the beauties of this and the Op. 111 variations is precisely the loss of a sense of time-progress, as if the passing of time became illusory in a reality that is timeless and simultaneously constant.

I think the chords you refer to are sixteen-notes separated by sixteen-note rests.  I used to pedal through them, but Beethoven certainly knew how to write the texture otherwise if he wanted them to be mushed together.  These days I like the contrast in texture with the canonic sub-variation material that immediately precedes it and the reference to the beginning contour (but not really texture) of the beginning of the sonata that follows it.

About the arpeggios at the end, you may of course, be right.  These days I am seeking a connection between that spot and the 10th measure at the beginning, where the diminished chord is first introduced as one of the two polar extremes that propel the work.  Sentimental is definitely not what I am aiming for, although predictable would be perfectly fine for me, as it does seem to be a necessary consequence of what has come before.  If there is a "point" for that material, I think it does not come until the very last arpeggiated chord in the next-to-last measure of the sonata.

I hope it does not come across as pedantic (at least in the sense of self-centered or pretentious - I can't imagine you meant it in the pedagogical sense of the word).  I certainly don't mean it that way.  It is an important structural point, although certainly there must be better ways to make it be a point to leap from into a different plane of existence.  We shall keep exploring how Beethoven meant it to be.

Looking forward to more comments!  Thanks!!!

 

[pianowolfi]

Isn't that 4th variation divine?
To me it is always a very special moment when I arrive at this point in a performance. It's as if time ceased to exist.
I like how much cantabile you play the sforzandi! In the repeat they suddenly appear somewhere else, which seems a bit strange. It might have been an experiment, which doesn't convince me fully, but of course it's your decision
Just a suggestion: I play the repeats in this variation even softer than the first time, like very much "inwards" before I start the final buildups. It seems to me like a turning point.

Regarding the detached chords in the 2nd: I think they come in a bit heavy, considering the "leggiermente" character. Other than that, I don't see any reason to play them more legato, or drowning in pedal, as sometimes heard.

All in all a touching performance, which I wouldn't mind to have attended!

[prongated]

Even if it is to confirm your understanding of what Beethoven put in there and nothing else, by all means take the 15 minutes it takes and listen to the variations rather than skimming through them.

Ah yes, my bad I could only skim-listen to it last time...there's only so much music you can listen to in a day without going nuts

I appreciate you taking the time to write a few comments and would love to hear more.  Your point about the time is of course well-taken.  I do not think this music lends itself well to a performance well-clad on a regular and forward-moving tempo - on the contrary, I think one of the beauties of this and the Op. 111 variations is precisely the loss of a sense of time-progress, as if the passing of time became illusory in a reality that is timeless and simultaneously constant.

...yeah, I absolutely agree regarding what you said about the loss of a sense of time, especially in the slower variations. The execution, however, is presently not fully reflective of that, if that is what you aim for. I think there is too much pushing and pulling of the rhythm in the slow variations. It's verging towards a Chopinesque way of playing, although not too much.

I'd play the rhythm straighter than that and worry more about beautiful sound and careful voicing balance - the opening theme can be better balanced, and there is SO much B on your RH in the opening of the last variation! That is not to say you can't take time - where you did a big one in the last variation is fine, for example - but you want to do them where you want something to be strongly emphasised, not just when you feel it'd be nice and appropriate.

A couple other things...those detached chords in the 2nd: the touch is somewhat heavy indeed (actually I feel the same way in variation 5 and not so much in variation 3 - the technique can be better I think, although maybe with more practise it'll get better too). But I think it also tends to suffer from this tendency to rush forward.

Don't get me wrong - I think you have a very good energy and passion, and this is a good performance of one of the trickiest works to pull off in performance. These things are what I'd consider when reviewing the performance.

By the way, what edition did you use? I recalled that in the 4th variation in the Schnabel and Konemann Urtext editions, the sforzandos in the B section is on where melody notes are, not the chords, but the Lamond one from IMSLP has it as you played it...

[iumonito]

Ahhh, stimulating conversation!  Thanks!!!

On the Bs for the last variation.  These days I think the most important aspect of the variation is an enormous emphasis of a dominant that finally will resolve into the tonic.  Hence the B would be most prominent through the variation until it finally resolves to E, the few times that it does.

Talking about the Sfs in Variation 4, second half, I think you can validly read them on the upper notes (cantabile, like the first repetition here) or on the chord (structural, emphasizing the thickness of the inner parts, which if to be emphasized certainly would need a special marking, like sf; I play it the second time that way).

The first edition is somewhat ambiguous.  Henle has them squarely on the chords, which is how I first learned them.  Then for several years I swore by Schenker's edition, which also has them on the upper notes.  If you ask me what I think Beethoven meant, it seems to me that the accent on the chords more forceful and interesting, and emotionally and structurally fits better with the diminished chord element, so if being truthful to Beethoven's score was the goal, I would recommend the accent on the chords both times.

By doing one repeat one way and one the other, I think there is more development of the material, something Beethoven did many a time elsewhere, modifying the phrasing and accentuation of material as part of his exploration and development of the themes over the course of the emotional journey that going through a Beethoven sonata structure is.

On Variations 3 and 5, and the section with the arpeggios and scales before the final recapitulation of the theme in Variation 6, a wise teacher once told me that if I did not miss a bunch of notes there I was likely not playing it with enough freedom.  I still think there must be a way in which the emotional explosion of those three spots can still find the right notes at the right time, but I am still not one with it.