Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) was a German
composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most
admired composers in the history of Western music; his
works rank among the most performed of the classical
music repertoire and span the transition from the
Classical period to the Romantic era in classical
music. His career has conventionally been divided into
early, middle, and late periods. His early period,
during which he forged his craft, is typically
considered to have lasted until 1...(+)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) was a German
composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most
admired composers in the history of Western music; his
works rank among the most performed of the classical
music repertoire and span the transition from the
Classical period to the Romantic era in classical
music. His career has conventionally been divided into
early, middle, and late periods. His early period,
during which he forged his craft, is typically
considered to have lasted until 1802. From 1802 to
around 1812, his middle period showed an individual
development from the styles of Joseph Haydn and
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and is sometimes characterized
as heroic. During this time, he began to grow
increasingly deaf. In his late period, from 1812 to
1827, he extended his innovations in musical form and
expression.
Beethoven was born in Bonn. His musical talent was
obvious at an early age. He was initially harshly and
intensively taught by his father, Johann van Beethoven.
Beethoven was later taught by the composer and
conductor Christian Gottlob Neefe, under whose tutelage
he published his first work, a set of keyboard
variations, in 1783. He found relief from a
dysfunctional home life with the family of Helene von
Breuning, whose children he loved, befriended, and
taught piano. At age 21, he moved to Vienna, which
subsequently became his base, and studied composition
with Haydn. Beethoven then gained a reputation as a
virtuoso pianist, and was soon patronised by Karl
Alois, Prince Lichnowsky for compositions, which
resulted in his three Opus 1 piano trios (the earliest
works to which he accorded an opus number) in 1795.
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90 was
written in the summer of 1814 – Beethoven's late
Middle period – and dedicated to Prince Moritz von
Lichnowsky, a friend and benefactor who was also the
dedicatee of the Eroica Variations. His previous piano
sonata, popularly known as Les Adieux, was composed
almost five years before Op. 90. Beethoven's autograph
survives and is dated August 16. The sonata was
published almost a year later, in June 1815, by S. A.
Steiner, after Beethoven made a few corrections. His
friend and biographer Anton Schindler reported that the
sonata's two movements were to be titled Kampf zwischen
Kopf und Herz ("A Contest Between Head and Heart") and
Conversation mit der Geliebten ("Conversation with the
Beloved"), respectively, and that the sonata as a whole
referred to Moritz's romance with a woman he was
thinking of marrying. Schindler's explanation first
appeared in his 1842 book Beethoven in Paris and has
been repeated in several other books. Later studies
showed that the story was almost certainly invented by
Schindler, at least in part, and that he went so far as
to forge an entry in one of Beethoven's conversation
books to validate the anecdote.
According to Wilfrid Mellers, "Opus 90 belongs neither
to Beethoven’s middle nor to his late phase. Denis
Matthews sees the work as having "more claim to kinship
with the great sonatas of the last period than to the
previous ones." Hans von Bulow declared that this is
the work "with which the series of pianoforte works of
the Master’s so-called ‘last period’ begins."
Schiff has drawn attention to the apparent connection
between the ending of this sonata, which closes in the
key of E.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_No._27_(Bee
thoven)).
Although originally written for Solo Piano, I created
this Interpretation of the Piano Sonata II in E Major
(Op. 90 No. 27) for Flute & Piano.
PARTITION