Beethoven

(recorded in concert in 1980)

Piano, Christine Hartley-Troskie

Violin, Jean-Claude Féret

Beethoven : Sonata n° 1

1) Allegro con brio

2) Andante con moto

3) Rondo Allegro

Beethoven : Sonata n° 2

1) Allegro vivace

2) Andante piu tosto allegretto

3) Allegretto piacevole

Beethoven : Sonata n°3

1) Allegro con spirito

2) Adagio con molt'espressione

3) Rondo (Allegro molto)

Beethoven : Sonata n°4

1) Presto

2) Andante scherzoso , piu allegretto

3) Allegro molto

The critics of the time, when hearing for the fist time the first 3 sonatas of Beethoven for piano & violin, even if they admitted the greatness of the works, said however that they had the fealing of running at the peril of their life through a path filled up with pits and embushes … and true, if one tries to forget the modern tradition of playing that one is used to, and that has the tendancy to flatten all roughness, would it be Mozart or Beethoven, the things could then appear under quite a different light!…

Retrieving the true speeds indicated By Beethoven, doing without any concession every dynamic mark as written, not obscuring the melody with a modern vibrato, trying to apply simply and as much as possible everything in the way it was done around 1800, and foremost trying to comply with what one can know of Beethoven's way of doing it, all, suddenly takes a new appearence, the answers between the piano and the violin, the brutal interventions, the syncopes, become suddenly more present, clearer, the contrasts become more seizing, well in connexion with these sudden changes of moods, these abrupt angers, characterizing Beethoven, and also, in total contradiction, his enormous laughter and his overflowing carism.

The music then becomes something else than just a magnificent work, I mean, added to that, it becomes a real slice of life, with its battles, its wins, its despairs, its loves.

To support all that, the compilation of a multitude of theoretical texts and musical parts from that period, including practicing studies from that period in following the teaching advices accompanying it, and including also studying data from Beethoven himself of course, parts (also from others) where more indications where written, not only the usual Allegro con brio, or Andante, or Largo, and so on, but also, next to it, the metronomic indication… that metronom just invented by Maelzel and that Beethoven was so found of that he even published afterwith in musical revues, all metronomic marks for his first symphonies published before the invention.

It follows, (all composers mixed) and with a remarkable logic, a certain width of speeds corresponding to each term (I did published in my theory a table with quite many pages of them)

Other sources were also helpful to refine that search, non only for tempo, but for the style in general, the particular ways used by Beethoven to express himself in his music, in such or such phrase or run, or type of melody…

That was the description, meticulously precise, note by note, and also gesture by gesture, from the way Beethoven interpreted two of his sonatas for piano, his changes in speed (very dramatic some times, and not written !), his suspensions, his retards, the notes that he hold longer, his way of making the piano "speak", etc… all written by the hand of a professional musician, close friend of him, a violinist called Schindler.

Of course, such constatations and researches could well stay without any musical interest, be only pure archeology, the main thing being after all to see if it can contribute something in playing at a concert.

For my part, I think that YES, absolutely!… and I must acknowledge that, when trying to apply it for the first time in rehearsal, I had (we had) that creepy feeling to be suddenly facing a huge personnality, that of an great being named Beethoven.

To create no surprise nor undue interrogations, I owe you one more explanation, and to say that at the last concert (comprising the last three sonates and so starting with number eight), I let my self follow the impulse of the moment, and in doing it, not only the general custom of the time, but very particularily Kreutzers habits, so, tuning my instrument, I directly continued with a sort of short improvisation in passed centuries called a prelude, and that was supposed to be in the same key and to fit with the character of the following piece... of course, being already in the next piece by thought, what would get into my fingers but the first theme of it!...

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