Mitsuko Uchida, Piano
Performers
Mitsuko Uchida, Piano
Program
ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAMPiano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109
Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110
Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately 95 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission. Please note that there will be no late seating before intermission.Listen to Selected Works
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At a Glance
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109
Beethoven’s first piano sonatas followed hard on the heels of his Op. 1 piano trios, in which the composer declared his artistic independence. By the time he wrote the last few of his 32 sonatas in the early 1820s, he was no longer a young lion but a battle-scarred warrior whose indomitable spirit shines through in the incandescent slow movement of the E-Major Sonata.
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110
One of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas, the A-flat–Major Sonata is full of strong and unpredictable contrasts. Throughout the work, one often has the sense that the composer is feeling his way from one idea to the next, the notes forming themselves soundlessly under his fingers, detached from their auditory moorings.
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111
In the radiant ending to his final piano sonata, Beethoven gives free rein to his poetic imagination. The music teacher in Thomas Mann’s novel Doctor Faustus describes the closing passage as “the most moving, consolatory, pathetically reconciling thing in the world. It is like having one’s hair or cheek stroked, lovingly, understandingly, like a deep and silent farewell look.”