Am I missing something?

[danielo]

I just don't 'get' the Hammerklavier........I can appreciate its difficulty but does anyone actually enjoy listening to it?
*preparing myself here for a deluge of criticism, but what the hell.......this is an open forum..... *

[briansaddleback]

Really good question glad you asked. I cannot really answer as well bc I am sort of in the same position as you on this, but let me say I was like that w the majority of Beethoven sonatas while back. They are an acquired taste. And what I mean by it is not just keep trying sushi and you'll like it , but I had to extensively study many works by czerny and Chopin to bring me to look into Beethoven to get a better sense of what czerny or Chopin was trying to convey. And that looking into brought me to listen to a few sonatas daily on my drive to work everyday where I repeatedly listened to these (not all) sonatas over and over again to the point where I am intimate w the performance of the music and now I have a sort of understanding and see the layered beauty behind his work.  I haven't gotten to this point w hammer yet but look forward to doing the same on the next cd I have in my set.

[huaidongxi]

of LvB's late piano sonatas [for this discussion, op.90 and after, as there was a transition in the composer's life and a hiatus from sonata writing between op.81 and 90], my appreciation of op.106 came last, and can't really be separated from simply growing up and maturing as a sentient being.  I suspect it also presents great challenges to its interpreters, and for me the performances have among the greatest variability artist to artist , among the Beethoven sonata apostles.  there are also tremendous shifts between the movements.

have you compared how different artist played each of the movements -- you might find a particular version you prefer.  right now, listening to a tremendous third movement, Adagio sostenuto, Appasionato e con molto sentimento, from Claudio Arrau in the early 1960s.  my other preferred interpretations are richter or gillels.

[danielo]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will say at this point that I absolutely love Op 109, just staggers me, I am trying to play the  last movement with the beautiful variations, needless to say this is going to be a serious undertaking all by itself. I have also heard and like Op 110....A flat major one I think.....can appreciate it even if I don't love it as much as the 109.
I do feel like I must be missing something with the Hammerklavier. I know it is pretty atonal to say the least, the fugue at the end is almost unlistenable, I know it must take a monumental effort to play this piece, but it's not even something I aspire to play. I will listen to Claudi Arrau's version as you suggest.....

[virtuoso80]

I just don't 'get' the Hammerklavier........I can appreciate its difficulty but does anyone actually enjoy listening to it?
*preparing myself here for a deluge of criticism, but what the hell.......this is an open forum..... *

Yes, I adore it, as I adore much of Beethoven's late-period madness. The second movement is nutty and downright hilarious, the third movement is heartbreaking, and the fourth movement is the piano fugue to end all piano fugues. I also really find it interesting how he found his way back into more archaic forms and polyphony in his later years, as if it expressed something deeper and more profound than the forms of his early years.

To me it always kind of intuitively makes emotional sense why he chose to do what he did. Even as a teen, when I found Mozart incredibly boring, late Beethoven always put an immediate smile on my face. He was feeling how I was feeling.

[outin]

Well, you simply have better taste than most people, since almost everything by Mr. B actually sucks 

[bachopiev]

To be sure, the Hammerklavier Sonata has been (and, presumably always shall be) my absolute and undisputed favorite. The reasons for this are as follows.

In movement 1, Beethoven's employment of the triple-themed exposition is arguably more effective than in any other sonata (though some may argue it was used better in Schubert's Sonata in Bb -- I however disagree on this matter), and the whole movement is a momentous tour de force. From the heralding opening chords, to the wandering and highly original development [which somehow ends up in B major (!)] to the thundering chords that conclude the movement, this movement declares the beginning of a new Beethoven -- a Beethoven that has reemerged after a little while of abstaining from composing.

In movement 2, Beethoven's Scherzo is a rare example of humor -- the only other comparable example of such raw humor is in Sonata No. 31 -- Mov. 2.

The movement 3 is a piece of pure anguish, beautiful modal harmonies, motivic development, etherealness, and unusual length. The transfiguration of 2 measures into an elaborate 30 second passage (from exposition to recapitulation) is truly remarkable. Rather than try to describe this movement in my own words, I find it better to quote the following passage from Bekker, Paul (1925). Beethoven. J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd. p. 134, and simply leave my thoughts on the movement to be summarized by this moving quote.

"the apotheosis of pain, of that deep sorrow for which there is no remedy, and which finds expression not in passionate outpourings, but in the immeasurable stillness of utter woe".

The movement 4 is arguably the best contrapuntal work for piano ever written. Let it be known that Bach is my favorite composer, and my favorite "fugist" -- however -- I consider this fugue by Beethoven to be better than Bach's fugues. This statement alone is absolute heresy, and I am shocked that I myself am saying it. However, it is indubitably the truth, and this fugue of gargantuan proportions "con alcune licenze" is the best contrapuntal piece ever written, in my opinion.

Among some truly remarkable features of the fugue are the following:

1) that it makes extensive use of tenth leaps and trills, e.g. when the fugue begins
2) descending chromatic motif, this being the source of much of this tension and dissonance
3) the treatment of a fugue as such a raging, furious, and emotional entity, rather than treating it as an intellectual and academic endeavor, like Bach did. Examples: "augmentation of the fugue theme and countersubject in a sforzando marcato at bars 96-117, the massive stretto of the tenth leap and trill which follows, a contemplative episode beginning at bar 152 featuring the subject in retrograde, leading to an exploration of the theme in inversion at bar 209." [Willi Apel, "Retrograde," Harvard Dictionary of Music (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1969), p. 728.]
4) the "cantus firmus first heard at m. 250, and eventually appearing against the subject, countersubject, and respective inversions in the second-to-last episode" [this is original research found on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_No._29_(Beethoven)].

For these reasons, and simply for the gargantuan conception of the sonata as whole -- with a triple-themed exposition, third movement of incredible length, and fourth movement of gargantuan proportions -- this piece, along with the Ballade No. 4 and Goldberg Variations, are my favorite pieces for solo piano ever written.

I hope I have been of assistance.

[danielo]

Thanks bachopiev....you clearly have a knowledge of musical structure and composition that is way beyond mine. I'm sure it's no accident that the HK is considered by so many to be the 'greatest' piano work ever written, but just a piece of music, to listen to, it's not something that I can connect with on an emotional level. Very interesting to hear your thoughts though, I will find a decent recording of it and see if something clicks!

[expressman70]

Like many of his sonatas I appreciate it intellectually, and aim to feel what he felt at the moment. For instance I read his letter to his brother, during an AP Comprehension test, which is very weird, but I understood that he never gave up as a person, and endured, boldly into the rest of his life, amid his deafness, his rejection, his life problems. All of these things give a new meaning to his music in particular, and that is the same approach I use when listening to this sonata. I find the 3rd movement a little weary, but overall, Id say its definitely not the hardest to appreciate, at least for me.

[danielo]

I just listened to Daniel Barenboim's version of it....and for the first time, something clicked. The slow movement particularly, heartbreaking. The last? Still struggling with it, but can appreciate the feeling of impotent fury, the raging against the universe.
I love his interpretations of all the Sonatas!