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Music taking shape…Internationally acclaimed concert pianist Lee Jae Phang performing The Piano Sonatas Part V.\u00a0 A Yamaha Music Malaysia event,\u00a0 the pianist’s virtuosity continues to entertain and inspire his audience. The event is part of a series on Beethoven’s legendary sonatas.\u00a0 This part kicked off at Yamaha Music Malaysia in Kelana Jaya on Sept 20, 2025, followed by Luxury Piano Lounge at LS Music, Great Eastern Mall, Jalan\u00a0 Ampang, Kuala Lumpur on Sept 21, 2025, Luxury Piano Lounge @ Digital Music Systems, Prima Tanjung, Penang on sept 28, 2025 and Luxury Piano Lounge @ Impian Emas Music Centre, Paradigm Mall Johor Bahru on Oct 5, 2025.<\/p>\n
By Foong Pek Yee<\/p>\n
foongpekyee@gmail.com<\/p>\n
sept 25, 2025<\/p>\n
Photos:\u00a0 courtesy of Lee Jae Phang<\/p>\n
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His deep love and fascination for Beethoven’s music…Lee Jae has recorded almost all of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas and published on his YouTube channel.<\/strong><\/p>\n He won the 1st Beethoven Performance Award of the BPSE & Beethoven in Altaussee Festival 2016’s prize in Austria.<\/strong><\/p>\n A story behind the music …Lee Jae gave a brief introduction on the piano sonatas at Yamaha Music Malaysia in Kelana Jaya on Sept 20, 2025.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Piano Sonata in G minor, Op.49, No. 1<\/p>\n Piano Sonata in G major, Op. 49, No.2<\/p>\n Piano Sonata in E – flat major, Op. 31, No. 3<\/p>\n Piano Sonata in F major, Op. 54<\/p>\n Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 57<\/p>\n (‘Appassionata”)<\/p>\n The two piano sonatas Op. 49 date from the final years of the 1790s even though they were published several years later. In the opening bars of the first movement, Beethoven\u2019s harmonic daring is evident. Music taking shape…Internationally acclaimed concert pianist Lee Jae Phang performing The Piano Sonatas Part V.\u00a0 A Yamaha Music Malaysia event,\u00a0 the pianist’s virtuosity continues to entertain and inspire his audience. The event is part of a series on Beethoven’s legendary sonatas.\u00a0 This part kicked off at Yamaha Music Malaysia in Kelana Jaya on … Continue reading “How music inspires: no ordinary musician”<\/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":[52,76],"tags":[366,365,370,481,473],"class_list":["post-5363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","category-readers-choice","tag-beethoven","tag-lee-jae-phang","tag-piano-recital","tag-the-piano-sonatas","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\/5363","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=5363"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5398,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5363\/revisions\/5398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevillagemyhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758782772338-1-500x375.jpg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1\")
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\nBeethoven\u2019s brother, Kaspar, deciding the sonatas were worthy of publication,
\npresented them to a publishing house without Beethoven\u2019s knowledge.
\nBoth sonatas are small pieces of two movements.
\nThe first sonata is the more sombre of the two. It opens with a first movement in G minor marked Andante. The second movement (a Rondo marked Allegro) begins in the tonic major. However, the light character of the opening becomes more intense with the second theme, which is cast back in G minor.
\nIn the second sonata, both movements are in G major. With the major key comes musical feelings of confidence, aplomb and a touch of bravura.
\nThe second movement of this sonata (marked \u201cTempo di menuetto\u201d) shares the melodic theme of the Minuet of Beethoven\u2019s Septet for Winds Op. 20.
\nThe Septet was written after the sonata, but it was published first, hence the lower opus number. It became one of Beethoven\u2019s most famous pieces during his lifetime, much to his dismay.
\nLuckily for us, and for many students wanting to take their first steps into
\nBeethoven\u2019s piano sonatas, his brother got to the sonatas before they became lost to posterity. The fact that Beethoven used the Minuet theme in his Septet and left the sonata unpublished suggests that he might have wanted to scrap the piano sonata altogether.
\nI think that the sonatas are wonderful pieces, and we have Kaspar to thank for his quick thinking.
\nThe next sonata that I will perform is the sonata in E-flat major, Op. 31, No. 3.
\nComposed in 1802, it is the final sonata of this opus number set. Those of you who were present for the recital in Part IV will remember that I performed the first sonata of Op. 31 then.
\nUnlike the first two sonatas of the set, however, this sonata is cast in 4 movements.
\nThroughout the sonata, Beethoven maintains a playful jocularity. In fact, all 4
\nmovements are cast in the major mode, with 3 of them in the tonic key.
\nA distinguishing feature of this sonata is the fact that Beethoven does not write an Adagio slow movement. The slowest movement is the lyrical Minuet third movement.
\nAnother interesting structural feature to note is that instead of replacing the Minuet with a Scherzo (which is something he pioneered in his symphonies and early piano sonatas in the Minuet and Trio movements), Beethoven writes a Scherzo second movement in this sonata and follows it with a Minuet third movement. We are not forced to choose between the two.<\/p>\n
\nHe actually begins the sonata with a pre-dominant ii7b chord.
\nIf I did not reveal the tonality of the sonata, we as listeners will not know that we are in E-flat major until the sixth bar!
\nThe final movement of this sonata is likely the source of this sonata\u2019s nickname \u201cThe Hunt\u201d. It is filled with allusions to horn calls.
\nWe begin the second half of today\u2019s recital with an interesting and often neglected piano sonata \u2013 the piano sonata in F major, Op. 54.
\nPart of the reason that it seldom features on recital programmes is the fact that it is both preceded and followed by two gigantic piano sonatas. The \u201cWaldstein\u201d and \u201cAppassionata\u201d sonatas very effectively eclipse it with their length and prestige. It definitely does not help that this sonata also does not have a nickname.
\nLike the sonata in E minor, Op. 90 from Part IV, the Op. 54 sonata is in 2
\nmovements.
\nThe first movement of this sonata is marked \u201cIn tempo d\u2019un menuetto\u201d. The opening theme could not be simpler in its construction: in the first 4 bars, we are presented with three increasingly higher statements of the same rhythmic motif in F major.
\nJust as we grow accustomed to it, the simplicity and elegance of the music is rudely interrupted by a bombastic canon in octaves in both hands.
\nThe movement proceeds with increasingly ornamented statements of the opening theme, finishing with a Coda.
\nThe second movement is a moto perpetuo, also in F major. There are many
\nadventurous musical twists and turns (modulations to remote keys such as A major at the start of the Development section) and the movement concludes with a coda in a faster tempo. This idea is taken up again, as you will soon hear, in the finale of the next sonata.
\nThe final sonata of today\u2019s recital, the sonata in F minor, Op. 57, nicknamed the \u201cAppassionata\u201d, is one of Beethoven\u2019s most beloved sonatas.
\nI will keep the introduction short as I am sure that the emotional power of the piece speaks for itself.
\nAfter the completion of Op. 54 and 57, Beethoven wrote no further piano sonatas for 4 years, his longest absence from the genre at the time.
\nThe nickname \u201cAppassionata\u201d is apt because it refers to the tempestuous character of this sonata. In fact, this is one of the handful of works by Beethoven that begins and ends in tragedy. Beethoven often follows the pattern of darkness leading into light, but sometimes the darkness triumphs at the end. The other prominent examples of works beginning and ending in a dark mood are the violin sonata in C minor, Op. 30, No. 2 and the \u201cPath\u00e9tique\u201d piano sonata, Op. 13.
\nThe \u201cAppassionata\u201d sonata is written in 3 movements.
\nThe second movement of this sonata is a set of variations on a theme in D-flat major.
\nAt the end of the final variation, Beethoven resolves the dominant chord onto a diminished seventh chord. There\u2019s so much uncertainty in that chord that pretty much anything can follow it, and Beethoven does not disappoint us.
\nWe are launched into the final movement, which is a near perpetual motion
\nmovement, similar to the finale of the Op. 54 sonata. This movement ends with a spiral into the abyss of descending arpeggios in F minor.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"