Review Summary: Appassionata exudes both virtuosity - untouched by most of us, and commonly understood meaning.
1804 - the year
Piano Sonata in F Minor was composed found Beethoven amidst dynamic changes occurring in his musical world and in himself. Composing during a transitional period, Beethoven waded through Classical and Romantic sensibilities, battling convention imposed by tonal harmony and proper compositional form. Intensifying compositional dilemmas were his own personal struggles, specifically his ear situation - by 1800, his ears had so far diminished that his 1800s pieces sound distinctly different from his eighteenth century repertory.
Piano Sonata in F Minor voices Beethoven's out-of-control, tumultuous experiences that defined his post-1700s career, and bled into his songwriting. He began expressing man's ability to surmount the earth's powerful, natural forces. Instead of resigning himself to his sad condition, Beethoven pushed forward with new personality, and created possibly his most emotional and challenging composition in
Piano Sonata in F Minor.
Clocking in at just over 20 minutes,
Piano Sonata in F Minor is rightfully known as
Appassionata. Following 3-movement form - Allegro Assai, Andante con moto, and Allegro ma non troppo,
Appassionata advances with fast-slow-fast pacing, first emerging with synchronous ominous heaviness and delicacy. Opening with trills and arpeggios in F Minor, sequences of notes then progress with urgent definition, traversing from the keyboard's deep underbelly to the light, flighty upper-register. Accompanying the foreboding, almost harsh first motif, Beethoven built a second, similar lyrical path that soothes built intensity from the prior trajectory with warmth. This warmth conserves sanity, as sudden switches from pianissimo to fortissimo seem unexceptional in Allegro Assai's latter half.
A calm, easy return to tradition, Andante liberates itself from agitation present in the Allegro. Although seeming a smidgen underwhelming at times, this movement provides an essential break to absorb a tempestuous third movement, which succeeds in crushing tonality at one moment, calling upon another motif at another, and at last reasserting tonality with powerful certainty. Allegro ma non troppo's where Beethoven conquered his mounting troubles.
As much a story as a vast display of notes,
Piano Sonata in F Minor exudes both virtuosity - untouched by most of us, as well as commonly understood lyrical meaning.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdg-DT8rTUQ
