DSM: Yes, there are few movements in Beethoven’s sonatas that are open to such diverse interpretations. As Michael Steinberg remarked: “[the] Italian ‘con amabilita’ and the German ‘sanft’ … are fascinatingly at odds with the tautness of form.” Liner notes, Richard Goode. Beethoven: The Complete Sonatas. (Nonesuch, 1988)
CMT: Tempo and tempo flexibility are major issues for Sonata No. 31. There is a strange tradition of playing this Moderato at an Allegro tempo. Czerny evidently preferred an athletic MM=76, and Artur Schnabel MM=63. Edith Fischer exemplifies those who take a slower, more serene pace, so that this movement runs a bit over 7 minutes, instead of the 6 to 6 and a half minutes in others' recordings. This slower and more maleable pace seems to me more consistent with Beethoven’s ideas, including the intimate recitative beginning in m4 in the first movement.
CMT: The notation is itself the cause of some of the confusion maybe. For example, Beethoven put a fermata only on the trill in m4. What is meant is maybe to take a deliberate tempo from the beginning of the trill until entering m5. But what often happens is that the sense of this little improvisational opportunity is rushed, such that it keeps the subsequent notes from achieving the serenity that they should have.
DSM: The transitional trills in m24-m25 are another one of those instances where the latitude of interpretation is wide-open. Some pianists maintain a ritenuto here. Many currently active artists avoid this and compress the trills, with the consequence that the audience senses that the expression is like—What?—a rumor or a little white lie? It's like a shameless denial of the meaning that the trill nominally expresses. Instead of jerky, fibbing trills it might instead be better to back off on the tempo through the entire m25 and give the trill on each, say, seven notes.
CMT: It’s not just the tempi and ornamentations that offer such a range of interpretation and narrative variety. In the recapitulation at m65, for example, you have this crescendo again. Beethoven gives this satisfying impulse to the despairing variation on the theme. And going into m67 we have the diminuendo before the first beat. Now, there is a risk of over-the-top sentimentality in this flowing and ebbing dynamic. But if you perform this with a sense of detachment—with almost an averted gaze, as though you are preoccupied with other weighty concerns and are not insisting on having the last word or convincing the listener of the validity of your point or argument—the thing soars. It says, ‘Look, I am saying this is true. I do not care whether you, the listener, believe me. I am telling you this story, and you can accept it or not as you wish.’ This detached, indifferent ‘letting-the-chips-fall’ attitude, I think, lends authenticity to the overall statement in m65. That authenticity is damaged if you over-play these little features in the first movement of Op. 110.
DSM: The second movement, the Allegro molto offers even more interpretive choices. Czerny was baffled by it, noting that it is “humoristic but serious.” What the hell do we do with an instruction like that! It’s oxymoronic; we can’t turn that advice into anything specific or actionable.
CMT: Well, recall our earlier conversation about Pressler’s performances of the later Beethoven sonatas—the reflections of a Beethoven experiencing exacerbations and temporary remissions of his illness—the dark and somewhat forced levity of someone in pain, who is trying to divert his/her attention from the suffering that won’t go away. Beethoven’s interjecting the motifs from the vulgar tunes ‘Our cat has had kittens’ or ‘I’m a slob, you’re a slob’ in m17-m20 in this movement of Op. 110—produces in me an ironical, gallows-humor effect. It is an epiphany of our efforts to cope with the human condition, joking in the face of catastrophe and death.
DSM: This whole movement is full of contradictions—riddles that Beethoven presents to us. I tend to agree with Charles Rosen, who asks “Are the strong bars the odd-numbered ones or the even-numbered ones? It is evident that the question is badly put. The strong bars are 1 and 4, and 5 and 8. Beethoven opts for a complex accent system. This implies that there is a contradiction in the rhythm that works itself out later in the Scherzo.” Charles Rosen. Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion. (Yale Univ Press, 2002) p. 2
Here are some of the recordings that make me think these thoughts:
- Vladimir Ashkenazy. Beethoven, Piano Sonatas, Op. 109-111. (Polygram, 1992)
- Alfred Brendel. Beethoven, The Late Piano Sonatas. (Philips, 1993)
- Ethella Chuprik. Beethoven Piano Sonatas. (Naxos)
- Solomon Cutner. Beethoven, Piano Sonatas. (Angel, 1993)
- Christoph Eschenbach. Beethoven, Piano Sonatas Nos. 29-32. (EMI, 2004)
- Vladimir Feltsman. Beethoven, Piano Sonatas Op. 109-111. (Music Masters, 1993)
- Edith Fischer. Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Vol 4. (Olympia, 1993)
- Richard Goode. Beethoven, Complete Sonatas. (Nonesuch, 1993)
- Glenn Gould. Piano in Stockholm, 1958. (Naxos)
- Ian Hobson. Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas. (Zephyr, 1998)
- Jeno Jando. Beethoven, Piano Sonatas. (Naxos, 1994)
- Fred Kempf. Beethoven, Sonatas Nos. 30-32. (Naxos)
- Wilhelm Kempff. Beethoven, Late Sonatas. (Deutsche Grammophon, 1997)
- Stephen Kovacevich. Beethoven, Complete Piano Sonatas. (EMI, 2004)
- Anton Kuerti. Beethoven, Piano Sonatas & Diabelli Variations. (Analekta, 1996)
- Artur Schnabel. Beethoven, Sonatas Nos. 30-32. (Naxos)
- Rudolf Serkin. Beethoven, The Last Three Piano Sonatas. (SBME Import, 2003)
and:
- Steve Moss, ed. The World's Shortest Stories. Running Press, 1998.
- Jerome Stern. Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories. Norton, 1995.
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