What are the difficulties of the first 15 beethoven sonatas?

[chopinawesome]

Thanks for your replies.

[perfect_pitch]

What are the difficulties of the first 15 beethoven sonatas?

Playing them well...   

[joshjackson]

Thanks for your replies.

Not sure what you mean. If you mean like grading the sonatas in term of level of difficulty, Henle has "graded" them. It can be pretty subjective but I guess no harm using it as a guide.  https://www.henle.de/en/detail/index.html?Title=Piano+Sonatas%2C+Volume+I_32

[chopinawesome]

Thanks for your replies.

I meant what parts are hard in each sonata.BTW,Henle has a bad ranking for the Beethoven Sonatas.

[chopinlover01]

Surely if you could assert that Henle, a long established and highly respected company, has a terrible standard, you would have the knowledge of each sonata enough to not need this question?

[preludetr]

Unless you can find someone who has played all 15 of those sonatas and is willing to go over each one and explain what parts are harder than others, I don't think you will get an answer. Your best bet is to try playing them and see for yourself.

Another thing you can do is listen to Andras Schiff's lectures on the sonatas, which are available on Youtube. He doesn't necessarily talk about which parts are the hardest to play, but he does explain each sonata in detail which might help you understand them well enough to make good judgements about them.

[chopinawesome]

Surely if you could assert that Henle, a long established and highly respected company, has a terrible standard, you would have the knowledge of each sonata enough to not need this question?

What I mean is that they rank Op.79 as difficulty of Op.26 and Op.2 no.3. Also, Pathetique is ranked as hard as the Tempest and Op.7 harder than Op.27 no.2 and Pastorale. I use his rankings for Bach,Brahms, and Scriabin.

[chopinawesome]

 I created this forum because i just bought a book on the first 15 Beethoven sonatas.

[virtuoso80]

I don't have enough experience with all 15 to say. But...Beethoven is hard in general. The first one is often the first learned, so try your luck there. You can try playing the slow movement from the Pathetique and a few others. Try the Moonlight - everyone and their mother learns the 1st movement of course. Practiced carefully, the 3rd movement is a good study even if you can't get it all the way yet.

[adodd81802]

Here

I watched this masterclass on Beethoven Sonatas, one is included with Lang Lang as a student

It is definitely true that some of these pieces are technically demanding, strong arpeggios, ornaments and phrasing for sure.

But I think voicing seems to be a really big thing here. One of the things I hear in the master class a lot is either not voicing certain parts correctly, or not giving different parts a VOICE or probably contrasting two voices or bringing out the underlying melody.

It seems that Beethoven composed some or even many of these Sonatas as if a whole orchestra was all having a say but all through the voice of the piano and you need to give each part a different voice.

I'm currently going through OP 14 no 2, now and despite some parts being reasonably easy to play (if we're just talking about hitting notes) I find myself struggling to really get it to sound as it should.

[symphonicdance]

The two easiest sonatas (or rather sonatinas) could probably be found in the 2nd book (not sure which edition/publisher you purchased).

[chopinawesome]

Here

I watched this masterclass on Beethoven Sonatas, one is included with Lang Lang as a student

It is definitely true that some of these pieces are technically demanding, strong arpeggios, ornaments and phrasing for sure.

But I think voicing seems to be a really big thing here. One of the things I hear in the master class a lot is either not voicing certain parts correctly, or not giving different parts a VOICE or probably contrasting two voices or bringing out the underlying melody.

It seems that Beethoven composed some or even many of these Sonatas as if a whole orchestra was all having a say but all through the voice of the piano and you need to give each part a different voice.

I'm currently going through OP 14 no 2, now and despite some parts being reasonably easy to play (if we're just talking about hitting notes) I find myself struggling to really get it to sound as it should.

Really? I am playing that piece too.

[briansaddleback]

I created this forum because i just bought a book on the first 15 Beethoven sonatas.

I have the same book as you , Vol 1 of Beethoven sonatas Henle in slate blue paperback. It is one I will slowly slowly go through in my life. I don' think I will ever accomplish learning all of them, let alone, performing all of them.

However, your question is better answered if you pick one or two movements specifically and ask us what the difficulties are. Because the difficulties are of a wide variety throughout the volume.

The main thing about Beethoven and particularly his sonatas, is that you really need to study the piece, while on other lesser pieces, 'studying' usually means just learning the notes, working out the technical difficulties , and memorizing and performing.

Beethoven has so many parts where musically they are meant to represent an oboe, or a flute. or a violin. Or a something in the orchestra. They are very symphonic and to interpret and study them you will need to know his intentions. You will need some experience, maturity in playing classical piano. I have heard many a student, who tackles a beethoven sonata movement (mainly some popular one ) and play it in a mushy way that sounds like he or she doesn't know where the music is going, or understand what is going on musically. etc

[huaidongxi]

will second the suggestion by preludetr to listen to the Schiff lectures (for the lay public, not conservatory students) he gave in London on the sonatas.  you should be able to get enough details about the works to begin to form an opinion.
would also suggest you read the new biography by Jan Swafford, "Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph".  the entire work is fairly lengthy, but he's a composer/musicologist who goes into some analysis of key works through LvB's career, and you could simply skim it up to the period you're focusing on, the first fifteen sonatas.
'difficulties' can mean a few things, and differ for each individual depending on the strengths and deficiencies of their abilities.  the matter of voicing that briansaddleback raises, with good reason, in itself has at least a couple of aspects, control of each finger in touch and articulation, and recreating what your memory, your internal recording indicates how you want those voices to sound.
do you have a clear impression in your memory how you wish each piece or movement to sound ?  you might find the less difficult movements for you are those that you have the clearest memory and concept of how they should sound, and the technical aspects fall into place more fluidly following your conceptual clarity.

[adodd81802]

Really? I am playing that piece too.

How are you getting on with it.

One of the things I didn't think I would struggle with is the pedalling, despite me originally playing without pedal at all (no indication in the score either) the sound is very dry.

My piano teacher has advised some pedal suggestions and now I have seen a few performances where pedal is very frequent also, it opened up a lot of room for information for me in how else to use sustain, although I struggle to find the balance between good sound with pedal, or just being lazy with legato.