Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Piano Sonata
More than a year in the making, the “Hammerklavier” was the most ambitious—and by some degree the longest—piano sonata Beethoven had ever composed. Unlike such works as the “Moonlight” and “Appassionata” sonatas, the conventional subtitle offers no clue as to the music’s distinctive character. In what seems to have been a burst of patriotic feeling, Beethoven insisted that the publisher advertise the B-flat–Major Sonata as written for the “Hammerklavier,” the German word for “pianoforte.” In all but name, however, the composer’s 29th sonata was radically unconventional. A notice in the Viennese press accurately described it as inaugurating “a new period in Beethoven’s keyboard works.” Uncertain of how his creation would be received in the marketplace, he encouraged his British publisher to issue the score in two separate volumes, with the freestanding finale retitled “Introduction and Fugue.”
Beethoven signals his intention of working on an outsized scale at the outset. No sooner have a pair of mighty chordal thunderclaps fixed the listener’s attention than he switches abruptly to a lighter, more transparently lyrical mode. Sharp dynamic contrasts, sudden shifts of register and texture, and bold juxtapositions of keys are the very essence of the opening Allegro. Listen for the playful mini-fugue in the development section that reflects Beethoven’s abiding interest in the contrapuntal techniques of Bach. The short Scherzo—with its springy, tautly wound theme and ominously roiling midsection—reinforces the sense of dynamic instability that pervades the sonata. The heart of the work is the richly introspective Adagio sostenuto, whose transcendent spirituality points the way toward Beethoven’s last piano sonatas and string quartets. After a strange, improvisatory-sounding interlude, the finale proper begins with a series of sustained trills that launch an energetic three-voice fugue. Midway through the movement, Beethoven pauses to introduce a placid second subject in quarter notes, which he proceeds to interweave with the first subject in a dazzling double fugue.
Carnegie Hall Premiere
Composed from 1817 to 1818, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier,” received its Carnegie Hall premiere in the Recital Hall (now Zankel Hall) on April 17, 1891, with Arthur Friedheim. The piece has been a favorite selection for performers, having been performed at the Hall 72 times.
Photography: Beethoven by Christian Horneman, 1803, Wikimedia Commons