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Beethoven: Works
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Just ninety years after the death of Beethoven the Russian Tsar was himself overthrown by the working class. The October Revolution was to play a role similar to that of the French Revolution. It inspired generations of men and women with a vision of a new and better world. True, the Russian Revolution degenerated, under conditions of frightful backwardness, into a monstrous caricature that Trotsky, using an historical analogy with the French Revolution, characterised as proletarian Bonapartism. And just as Napoleon’s dictatorship undermined the French Revolution and led to the restoration of the Bourbons, so the Stalinist bureaucratic dictatorship in Russia has led to the restoration of capitalism.
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To attempt to characterize any truly significant aspects of Beethoven's last works in a few words would be beyond effrontery. The order of their composition is essentially the order of publication and ... of their opus numbers; and the great peaks of the last years are hedged in and about with a few smaller works tossed off to make money or to maintain the interest of avaricious publishers.
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A general growth in the proportions and rhetorical power of Beethoven's works in the period 1798-1802 culminates in the highly dramatic compositions that mark the beginning of the middle period in 1803. The earliest of these--the Third Symphony (Eroica, 1803), the opera Fidelio (1803-05), and the Waldstein (1804) and Appassionata (1804) sonatas--have a heroic cast that seems to respond to the initial fears provoked by Beethoven's deafness. In the works composed from about 1806 until 1812, this heroic character alternates with an Olympian serenity. The characteristic symphonic and chamber works from this period are the Fourth (1806), Fifth (1805-07), and Sixth (1807-08) Symphonies; the Fourth (1805-06) and Fifth (Emperor, 1809) Piano Concertos; the Violin Concerto (1806); the Rasumovsky Quartets (1806); the piano trios, op. 70 (1808) and op. 97 (Archduke, 1811); the Coriolanus Overture (1807); and the incidental music for Goethe's drama Egmont (1810).
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Beethoven's Late period began around 1815. Works from this period are characterized by their intellectual depth, their formal innovations, and their intense, highly personal expression. For example, the String Quartet, Op. 131 has seven linked movements, and the Ninth Symphony adds choral forces to the orchestra in the last movement.[27] Other compositions from this period include the "Missa Solemnis", the last five string quartets (including the massive "Grosse Fuge") and the last five piano sonatas, of which the "Hammerklavier" Sonata is the best known.
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Beginning about 1802, Beethoven's work took on new dimensions. The premiere of the Third Symphony, known as the Eroica (1803-4) was a landmark in cultural history. It signaled a break with the past and the birth of a new era รข€“ to celebrate human freedom and nobility.
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Beethoven's 32 numbered piano sonatas make full use of the developing form of piano, with its wider range and possibilities of dynamic contrast. There are ... interesting sets of variations, including a set based on God save the King and another on Rule, Britannia, variations on a theme from the Eroica Symphony and a major work based on a theme by the publisher Diabelli. The best known of the sonatas are those that have earned themselves affectionate nicknames, the Pathétique, Op. 13, Moonlight, Op. 27/2, Waldstein, Op. 53, Appassionata, Op. 57, Les Adieux, Op. 81a, and the Hammerklavier, Op. 106. Less substantial piano pieces include three sets of Bagatelles, and the all too well known FŸr Elise, with the Rondo a capriccio, known in English as Rage over a Lost Penny.
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