{"id":5208,"date":"2025-06-02T11:13:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T11:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/?p=5208"},"modified":"2025-11-05T06:43:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T06:43:43","slug":"beethoven-the-piano-sonatas-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/beethoven-the-piano-sonatas-continue\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, Beethoven"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Building on his deep love and fascination for Ludwig van Beethoven’s music … Malaysian concert pianist Lee Jae Phang has performed 16 sonatas in public from memory!\u00a0 He marked another milestone on May 24, 2025 with his recital Beethoven The Piano Sonatas Part IV that won him a standing ovation at Yamaha Music Malaysia in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, followed by another recital at the\u00a0 \u00a0LS Music Yamaha, Kuala Lumpur the next day.<\/p>\n

By Foong Pek Yee<\/p>\n

foongpekyee@gmail.com<\/p>\n

June 2, 2025.<\/p>\n

Photos: Courtesy of Lee Jae Phang.<\/p>\n

Program for the 91-minute- long recital Beethoven The Piano Sonatas Part lV :<\/p>\n

Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 7 (32 mins)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sonata in G major, Op. 31, No. 1 (26 mins)<\/strong><\/p>\n

intermission<\/p>\n

Sonata in E minor, Op. 90 (14 mins)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sonata in C minor, Op. 13 \u2018Path\u00e9tique\u2019 (19 mins)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lee Jae’s profound interpretation of Beethoven’s music and deep connection with the composer led him record almost all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas totaling more than 11 hours of music, and the masterpieces are available on his YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

The international award- winning pianist has performed across Europe and Asia, and he won, among others, the Audience Prize and the 1st Beethoven Performance Award of the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe & Beethoven in Altaussee\u00a0 Festival 2016 prize in Austria.<\/p>\n

Lee Jae began studying seriously for a career in music when he was awarded a full scholarship to study as a specialist pianist at the Wells Cathedral School (WCS) in Somerset, England, UK.<\/p>\n

He continued his musical education at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester in September 2012 and five years later graduated with a Master of Music in Performance with Distinction.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Lee Jae was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Schools of Music with Distinction.<\/p>\n

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A concert pianist, teacher and writer…Lee Jae performed Beethoven The Piano Sonatas Part IV on a Yamaha S6 Grand Piano at Yamaha Music Malaysia in Petaling Jaya on May 24, 2025.<\/p>\n

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A topic of interest … How to practice piano was raised at the end of the recital.<\/p>\n

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On Beethoven’s music … Lee Jae gave a brief introduction of the sonatas at the start of the recital.<\/p>\n

An in-depth analysis of the sonatas by Lee Jae.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 7<\/strong>
\nThis sonata was published in 1796 as \u2018Grande Sonate\u2019. The title is appropriate because it is indeed the longest of Beethoven\u2019s early piano sonatas.<\/p>\n

It was also called \u2018Grande Sonate\u2019 because it was published alone, and not as part of a set. Sonatas Nos. 1 to 3 form the Op. 2 set while Sonatas Nos. 5 to 7 form the Op. 10 set.<\/p>\n

The Op. 7 sonata was composed during Beethoven\u2019s visit to the Keglevich palace in November 1796 and it is dedicated to his piano student Countess Babette of Keglevich.<\/p>\n

The first movement is grand and features extremely contrasting characters and intriguing modulations. It was probably inspired by Haydn\u2019s final piano sonata in the same key, written only 2 years earlier.<\/p>\n

The second movement starts off with a somewhat fragmented opening. The silences in the opening bars give the music a sense of space, contemplation, and most importantly, deep expression.<\/p>\n

The middle section of this movement features the same pizzicato accompaniment above a chorale-like melody which we heard in the Largo movement of the A major sonata, Op. 2, No. 2.<\/p>\n

The third movement fools us with the simplicity of its opening theme.<\/p>\n

In the middle \u201cMinore\u201d section, Beethoven paints a stormy and threatening landscape in the tonic minor of Eb minor.<\/p>\n

The fourth and final movement is a Rondo movement with a lyrical theme.<\/p>\n

Listen out for the unexpected modulation to E major near the end.<\/p>\n

This is perhaps another nod to Haydn, his former composition teacher who cast the second movement of this final sonata in the same key.<\/p>\n

Sonata in G major, Op. 31, No. 1<\/strong>
\nUnlike Op. 7, this sonata is part of a set of three sonatas, which were published together in 1803.<\/p>\n

The G major sonata itself was composed between 1801 and 1802.<\/p>\n

The important thing to note about this sonata is that it is very un-Beethovenian.<\/p>\n

This is one of Beethoven\u2019s truly funny creations.<\/p>\n

In the first few bars of the opening movement, the listener is made to believe that the pianist cannot play chords neatly together.<\/p>\n

Beethoven achieves this by repeatedly instructing the pianist\u2019s RH to anticipate the LH a semiquaver early.<\/p>\n

In the second movement, Beethoven parodies Italian lyric opera. Beethoven\u2019s usual concentration and economical writing takes a back seat in this movement: there are ornaments everywhere and even two show-off cadenzas.<\/p>\n

In the final movement, also a rondo, Beethoven continues the light mood of the first two movements.<\/p>\n

The theme of the movement could be said to be a Gassenhauer tune.<\/p>\n

Gassenhauer was the name given to tunes that are so simple that everybody could sing them on the streets, or in the \u201cGassen\u201d, which is German for lanes or alleys.<\/p>\n

My favourite anecdote about this sonata comes from its publication.<\/p>\n

Beethoven had sent this sonata to the Swiss publisher N\u00e4geli in Zurich to be printed.<\/p>\n

Due to the sonata\u2019s unusual nature, the publisher probably thought that Beethoven had made a mistake and added 4 bars to the start of the coda in the first movement.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, it seems that the proofs of the first edition were not sent to Beethoven, and N\u00e4geli published the sonata without giving Beethoven a chance to offer corrections.<\/p>\n

When the obligatory copy arrived at Beethoven\u2019s home, he was in the midst of composing.<\/p>\n

Ferdinand Ries, a friend and pupil of Beethoven\u2019s, relates that Beethoven asked him to play the sonata through while Beethoven himself remained seated at his desk.<\/p>\n

There was an unusual number of errors which already made Beethoven impatient.<\/p>\n

When Ries got to those four extra bars, and I quote Ries now,
\n\u2018Beethoven jumped up in a rage, came running to me, half pushed me away from the pianoforte, shouting, \u201cwhere the devil do you find that?\u201d<\/p>\n

One can scarcely imagine his amazement and rage when he saw the printed notes.<\/p>\n

I received the commission to make a record of all the errors and at once sent the sonatas to Simrock in Bonn, who was to make a reprint and call it \u201cEdition tr\u00e9s correcte\u201d (\u201cVery correct edition\u201d).<\/p>\n

Sonata in E minor, Op. 90.<\/strong>
\nThis sonata was written in the summer of 1814 and published in June the following year.<\/p>\n

With this sonata, we skip ahead to the very end of Beethoven\u2019s middle compositional period and the start of his late compositional period.<\/p>\n

The late period works feature among other things a greater concern with lyricism that is now combined with a newfound intimacy and delicacy.<\/p>\n

There is also a greater interest in counterpoint. In the Op. 101 sonata which I performed in the previous recital for example, the whole middle section of the final movement was a fugue.<\/p>\n

In this sonata Op. 90, he does not write a fugue, but I would like to invite you to listen out for traces of Bach\u2019s influence here.<\/p>\n

Like the G major sonata I performed earlier, there\u2019s a nice story that accompanies this sonata.<\/p>\n

Beethoven dedicated the sonata to Prince Moritz von Lichnowsky, who was a friend and benefactor. Beethoven also dedicated the \u201cEroica\u201d piano variations to him.<\/p>\n

Anyway, another gentleman named Anton Schindler, who was a friend and biographer of Beethoven\u2019s, reported in his 1842 book titled \u201cBeethoven in Paris\u201d that the sonata\u2019s two movements were originally to be titled \u201cKampf zwischen Kopf und Herz\u201d (\u201cA Contest between Head and Heart\u201d) and \u201cConversation mit der Geliebten\u201d (\u201cConversation with the Beloved\u201d).<\/p>\n

Schindler wrote that the titles refer to Moritz\u2019s romance with a woman he was thinking of marrying.<\/p>\n

This lady eventually became his second wife.<\/p>\n

Later studies by scholars showed that the story was almost certainly invented by Schindler, at least in part, and that he went so far as to forge an entry in one of the conversation books to validate the anecdote.<\/p>\n

Sonata in C minor, Op. 13 \u2018Path\u00e9tique\u2019<\/strong>
\nIt was composed in 1798, published the year after, and dedicated to Moritz\u2019s older brother: Prince Karl von Lichnowsky.<\/p>\n

The publisher was impressed by the sonata\u2019s tragic sonorities that he named it \u201cGrande sonate path\u00e9tique\u201d.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cpath\u00e9tique\u201d comes from the French and means \u201ccreating sad and strong emotions\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also comes from the Greek word \u201cpathetikos\u201d, which means \u201ccapable of emotion, impassioned, sensitive\u201d.<\/p>\n

This sonata was an important success for Beethoven as it sold well and helped develop his reputation as a composer and not just as an extraordinary pianist.<\/p>\n

Musicologists have over the years speculated on whether this sonata may have been inspired by Mozart\u2019s C minor piano sonata, K. 457.<\/p>\n

The theme from Beethoven\u2019s second movement is remarkably like one of the themes in Mozart\u2019s second movement.<\/p>\n

Bach\u2019s Partita No. 2 may also have inspired Beethoven.<\/p>\n

The opening fanfare of the Partita is also marked \u201cGrave\u201d and the \u201cAndante\u201d which follows begins with the same four notes that feature in important points in Beethoven\u2019s sonata.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Building on his deep love and fascination for Ludwig van Beethoven’s music … Malaysian concert pianist Lee Jae Phang has performed 16 sonatas in public from memory!\u00a0 He marked another milestone on May 24, 2025 with his recital Beethoven The Piano Sonatas Part IV that won him a standing ovation at Yamaha Music Malaysia … Continue reading “Yes, Beethoven”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[474,454,365,473],"class_list":["post-5208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","tag-beethoven-the-piano-sonatas-part-iv","tag-concert-pianist","tag-lee-jae-phang","tag-yamaha-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5208"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5242,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5208\/revisions\/5242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}