Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Woo 47, 'kurfurstensonaten'

Jeno Jan

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Cat No: 8550255

Release Date: 12 January 2000

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 4891030502550

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: BEETHOVEN

Description
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)Posthumous Sonatas & SonatinasPastoral Sonata Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn in December, 1770, theson of Johann van Beethoven, in singer in the service of the Archbishop of Cologne, and,more important, the grandson of Ludwig van Beethoven, Kapellmeister to the same patron. Itwas the very distinction and strength of character of the head of the family that lay atthe root of Johann van Beethoven's inadequacy as a father and final professionalincompetence. The elder Ludwig died in 1773, but was to remain for his grandson a powerfulposthumous influence, while Johann slid further into habits of dissipation, with Ludwig,his eldest surviving son, assuming in 1789 the role of head of the family, withresponsibility for his two younger brothers.In Bonn Beethoven received erratic musical training at home,followed by a much more thorough course of study with Christoph Gottlob Neefe, who wasappointed court organist in 1781. In 1784 he entered the paid service of the Archbishop asdeputy court orgainist, employed as a viola-player or as cembalist in the court orchestra,and turning his hand increasingly to composition. A visit to Vienna in 1778 for thepurpose of study with Mozart led to nothing, cut short by the illness and subsequent deathof his mother, but in 1792 he was to return to the imperial capital, again with hispatron's encouragement, to take lessons with Haydn.Beethoven came to Vienna with the highest recommendations andwas quick to establish himself as a pianist and composer. From Haydn he claimed to havelearned nothing, but he was to undertake further study with Johann Georg Albrechtsbergerin counterpoint and with the court Kapellmeister Antonio Salieri in vocal and dramaticsetting. More important he was to attach himself to a service of noble patrons who were tocouple generosity with forbearance throughout his life, the latter quality often muchneeded.As a younger composer in Bonn Beethoven had followed the trendsof his time. In Vienna he was increasingly to develop his own unmistakable and originalmusical idiom, sometimes strange and uncouth by the standards of the older generation, butsuggesting completely new worlds to others. It was an apparent stroke of fate that playedan essential part in this process. By the turn of the century Beethoven had begun toexperience bouts of deafness. It was this inability to hear that inevitably directed hisattention to composition rather than performance, as the latter activity becameincreasingly impossible. Deafness was to isolate him from society and to accentuate stillfurther his personal eccentricities of behaviour, shown in his suspicious ingratitude tothose who helped him and his treatment of his nephew Karl and his unfortunatesister-in-law.In Vienna Beethoven lived through turbulent times. The armiesof Napoleon, once admired by Beethoven as an enlightened republican, until he had himselfcrowned as emperor, were to occupy the imperial capital, and war brought vario
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