Beethoven Critique
On Thursday November 3rd, the McGill Schulich school of music had a piano concert of which I attended. Continuing to uphold the McGill world-class excellence in music, the students played songs that featured many classic and romantic western pieces made by some of the most famous composers in the world such as Bach, Hadyn and Chopin Nonetheless, the piece that intrigued me the most was composed by Ludwig Van Beethoven and titled “Sonata no.27 in E minor, Op. 90”.
Beethoven wrote this song in the summer of 1814, his first piano solo in what appeared to have been four years (Kerman). During those four years, Beethoven was deeply depressed and emotionally perturbed; the Napoleonic wars were ongoing, devaluing the Austrian currency and influencing him financially and idealistically as well as a slow agonizing descent into deafness. However, during this year, he managed to successfully present the German opera Fidelio and received a significant amount of acclaim for it (Kerman). He was also under significant intellectual pressures due to the works other composers at the time, such as Haydn, pushing him to respond stylistically. As such, Beethoven was known to challenge normal musical norms and one such change can …show more content…
Personally, I am not much of a fan of single instrument pieces and many of the following performances were not to my taste but this one stood out simply because I associated Beethoven with darker, dramatic sounding works more than a cheery themed one I heard instead. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the first movement as it sounded much closer to the themes and tonality I have come to expect with the German composer. I find that is song is a good example of Beethoven putting the groundwork for the Romantic era songs that were to come, particularly with the variable tempo or rubato that he employs during the development and emphasis on deeper
Beethoven wrote this song in the summer of 1814, his first piano solo in what appeared to have been four years (Kerman). During those four years, Beethoven was deeply depressed and emotionally perturbed; the Napoleonic wars were ongoing, devaluing the Austrian currency and influencing him financially and idealistically as well as a slow agonizing descent into deafness. However, during this year, he managed to successfully present the German opera Fidelio and received a significant amount of acclaim for it (Kerman). He was also under significant intellectual pressures due to the works other composers at the time, such as Haydn, pushing him to respond stylistically. As such, Beethoven was known to challenge normal musical norms and one such change can …show more content…
Personally, I am not much of a fan of single instrument pieces and many of the following performances were not to my taste but this one stood out simply because I associated Beethoven with darker, dramatic sounding works more than a cheery themed one I heard instead. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the first movement as it sounded much closer to the themes and tonality I have come to expect with the German composer. I find that is song is a good example of Beethoven putting the groundwork for the Romantic era songs that were to come, particularly with the variable tempo or rubato that he employs during the development and emphasis on deeper