Mallorca and "Appassionata"

Today, I´m briefly back in Mallorca (my favorite Spanish island) to perform a concert on piano and bandoneon. Among the works I will perform is my favorite Beethoven sonata, the “Appassionata.”

Years ago, I asked about a particular doubt concerning the last two pages of the sonata to my former piano teacher, the late Aquiles Delle Vigne, by e-mail. He was a great master whose teachings I treasure to this day.

His reply was, unsurprisingly, incredibly inspiring. I thought I´d share it with you today.

Please excuse the technicalities (which you might not understand if you´re not a professional musician), but read it through since it´s worth it:

“I believe that of all Beethoven's works, the Appassionata is the only one in which Beethoven consents to end in catastrophe. This naturally involves strange concepts in an artist in whom Hope and Nobility were decisive.

At the same time, as in Op. 22, the allusion to Prometheus is always valid. The scale of the theme of the Hammerklavier Fugue, of Op. 22 or of the interruption of the Appassionata or of Op. 111 are close. Perhaps those eighth notes in the chords of the Coda are a terrible dance of Prometheus, like Hope that knowledge will eventually come to ALL.

In any case, the circle of modulations remains narrow, since the second theme in the first movement is in A flat, the development begins in D flat (which announces the second movement), and, in turn, the interruption of violent chords of the variations "resolves" in two chords of the Coda at the end in parallel form.

Are these signs of parallelism, or as Huxley says, is it all a figment of my imagination? Is Beethoven proving me right or am I losing my mind?

It is nevertheless pretentious to try to elucidate the thought of the greats since they confuse us at every turn. The Appassionata, as the greatest existing Piano Sonata, remains a mystery. Like the Liszt Sonata. We incorporated Goethe's characters into poor Franz without knowing if he agreed, and from there we made all the possible conjectures about the work.

By this I mean that it is difficult to consider these geniuses cousins, geniuses who enlighten us and make us live as, since they are the reason for our life.

The job of an artist is very hard. Playing the piano, or the violin, or the cello is a « job », a « job », like a « mechanic » or a « dentist ». Playing like Rubinstein is the Art, not the job, despite all the work that there is there. That should be our aspiration.

A big hug, and I'm sorry I can't help more.”

I hope you found this inspiring.

Here´s a video of Rubinstein, playing the third movement of the Appassionata, at age 89 (!!!). Click here.

Enjoy, and have a great day.

Claudio.