Beethoven For All

This collection was recorded live across eight concerts at the Staatsoper unter den Linden, Berlin in June and July 2005.
Beethovens 32 piano sonatas have been at the heart of Daniel Barenboims musical life since childhood and through his remarkable career, Barenboim has gained a unique understanding of Beethoven s music. Having performed much of the composers solo, chamber, orchestral and operatic repertoire, Barenboims performances of these varied and complex works give a fascinating perspective into one of musics greatest geniuses from one of the most gifted and complete musicians of our time. Having first performed a complete cycle of Beethovens piano sonatas in Tel Aviv in 1960, Barenboim has repeated the feat many times around the world, most recently at the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, in 2002, at the Vienna Musikverein in 2004 (when he also conducted the Palestine Youth Orchestra in its inaugural concert and played a Beethoven sonatas concert in Ramallah), at the Berlin Staatsoper in 2005, and at both La Scala, Milan, and Londons Royal Festival Hall in 2008.
Barenboim says of the Beethoven piano sonatas: This music encompasses everything that a great human being is capable of in thought, in feeling, in intuition, in temperament, in character. All the different attributes of the human condition are contained in this music.

Understand and enjoy classical music at your own pace. A music history course, including a music theory introduction.

Valuable instruction on the left hand, bow arm, sight-reading, and memorization. This book is cerain to improve your practice quality. Illustrated.

Why is Beethoven one of the most revered composers in the history of Western music? Professor Robert Greenberg answers: "Beethoven possessed a unique gift for communication. He radiated an absolute directness that makes his music totally accessible. The sheer emotional power of his music is readily understood. His revolutionary compositional ideas are easily appreciated. And his nine symphonies are among the greatest achievements of the human spirit." Enjoy one of the best courses of Teaching Co.

The ‘Hammerklavier’ sonata is by far Beethoven’s longest piano sonata, and in his view it was also his finest. It was begun in or just before December 1817, after a fallow period of over a year in which he had composed next to nothing, hindered by the after-effects of an infection in October the previous year, according to his own account. He seems to have intended from the outset to dedicate the sonata to Archduke Rudolph of Austria (1788-1831), who had been his pupil, friend, patron and chief supporter for nearly ten years. Its nickname derives from Beethoven’s search for a German word for the piano. The word used today, ‘Klavier’, could in those days mean either piano or harpsichord, and so after asking for advice he decided on ‘Hammerklavier’ for the instrument. He then used this term in his preceding sonata (Op 101 in A major), the present one, and the one after (Op 109 in E major). These other two sonatas, however, begin gently, whereas the hammer-like blows at the start of Op 106 suggest ‘Hammerklavier’ as an appropriate nickname. It was issued as a ‘grand sonata’, a term reserved by Beethoven for large-scale sonatas written and published separately.

The ‘Hammerklavier’ sonata is by far Beethoven’s longest piano sonata, and in his view it was also his finest. It was begun in or just before December 1817, after a fallow period of over a year in which he had composed next to nothing, hindered by the after-effects of an infection in October the previous year, according to his own account. He seems to have intended from the outset to dedicate the sonata to Archduke Rudolph of Austria (1788-1831), who had been his pupil, friend, patron and chief supporter for nearly ten years. Its nickname derives from Beethoven’s search for a German word for the piano. The word used today, ‘Klavier’, could in those days mean either piano or harpsichord, and so after asking for advice he decided on ‘Hammerklavier’ for the instrument. He then used this term in his preceding sonata (Op 101 in A major), the present one, and the one after (Op 109 in E major). These other two sonatas, however, begin gently, whereas the hammer-like blows at the start of Op 106 suggest ‘Hammerklavier’ as an appropriate nickname. It was issued as a ‘grand sonata’, a term reserved by Beethoven for large-scale sonatas written and published separately.