Wilhelm Kempff plays Beethoven's "Appassionata", mvt. 1

Who: aewanko300 Time: 10 min Rating: 4.90/5 Views: 16065 Rated: 41 Talk: 14

Video Description Wilhelm Kempff plays Beethoven's Piano Sonata, op. 57 no. 23 in F minor. From DG's album: Wilhelm Kempff plays Beethoven. ---------------- Info about Beethoven's "Appassionata": The first movement is a sonata-allegro with no repeats in 12/8 time and is roughly 10 minutes long. The movement moves quickly through startling changes in tone and dynamics, and is characterised by an economic use of themes. The main theme, in octaves, is quiet and ominous. The rhythm of the theme is based on the Scottish folk song On the Banks of Allen Water. (British folk songs were well-known in Vienna at that time, and Beethoven, like Haydn, wrote many arrangements for British publishers). Just after four bars the main theme is repeated in G-flat major, creating a great contrast. There is a short but important recurrent four note motif reminiscent of the main theme in Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. In the recapitulation the fortissimo outbreak is triumphantly shifted to F-major. The second subject is a direct quotation of the first two lines of the folk song, re-hashed to fit the 12/8 time (the folk song is in 3/4). As in Beethoven's Waldstein-sonata the coda is unusually long, containing quasi-improvisational arpeggios which span most of the [early 19th-century] piano's range. The choice of F-minor becomes very clear when one realizes that this movement makes frequent use of the deep, dark tone of the lowest F on the piano, which was the lowest note available to Beethoven at the time. ---------------- Movement 1: Allegro assai

[ Full Screen ] [ See on Youtube ] [ Download ]

Tags: allegro, appassionata, assai, beethoven, classical, kempff, music, piano, sonata, wilhelm