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[MUSIC]
Everything we've discussed so far serves to
illustrate one thing. That Beethoven
came of age at a unique and transitional
moment in history.
He was the first composer who had models
to follow, which could lead him towards
a more independent, more self-directed
compositional life.
And this was an enormous bit of good
fortune for him.
For while Mozart may have detested his
employers, musically at
least he had all the tools to thrive
within the system.
He composed at an unbelievable pace--over
600 works in a 30 year period
including 22 operas and 41 symphonies--without ever sacrificing quality, ever.
Beethoven, perhaps because he was so
fixated on
innovation and because he first sketched
and then
revised his music so much more extensively
than
Mozart did, wrote at a much more
deliberate pace.
He was also notably bad at taking orders.
When asked to include a Russian folk theme
in each of three quartets commissioned by
the Count Razumovsky, he obliged only in
the first two cases and was paid
accordingly.
When asked to provide one variation on a
theme by Diabelli, to be published
alongside those of 30 other composers, he
instead wrote 33 of his own.
Beethoven marched to the beat of his own
drummer and therefore,
he would have made a terrible court
composer.
But this is actually a chicken and egg
question,
for the reality was, Beethoven never was a
court composer.
Whether due to his temperament or to his
good fortune to be
born at the right time, he was able to
make decisions about
his future and his music of his own free
will in a
way that Haydn and Mozart never could,
particularly not in their youth.
Beethoven initially came
to Vienna for a prescribed period of study
sponsored by the Elector.
A different personality, or at least one
born a generation earlier

would have then either looked for

employment or returned home to Bonn.
Instead, Beethoven simply found a way to
stay, knowing
that it was the place for him to be,
and to stay independent knowing that that
was the right situation for him to be in.
Beethoven did have patrons
of course--first the Princes Lobkowitz and
Lichnowsky,
later the Archduke Rudolph. But as you can
see from their correspondence, they were
friends, not employers.
There were few expectations placed on
Beethoven and they
sponsored him simply out of belief in his
talent.
This was about more than just survival.
It also meant that Beethoven could develop
at a less frenzied rate and his,
he only published his first works at the
age of 25.
By contrast at that age Haydn already had
his first music directorship in remote
Weinzierl, hardly where he would have
chosen to be if he didn't need to be.
At 25, Mozart had already written half of
his published works and ended his Salzburg
employment.
And when Beethoven did publish Opus
One, which incidentally comprises three
magnificent,
entirely mature piano trios,
it earned him enough money to live for a
year.
This is astonishing, and the clearest
evidence yet that
independence is an unambiguously positive
resource for a composer.
For the rest of his life he earned
enough money through composition, to not
be entirely-or even primarily, really--reliant on the
patrons,
which is lucky because they weren't
particularly reliable.
And he didn't perform publicly after 1811
at all, which
is to say the last 16 years of his life.
And yet, without a performing schedule or
the
support of an affiliated institution, he
became internationally renowned.
He received very late commissions from as
far away
as England, that's the Ninth Symphony, and
unlike Haydn, he
never set foot there, and Russia, which,
you know, is
where the three of the last quartets were

commissioned from.
He really was the first professional
composer.
Now this class is on the Beethoven
sonatas.
Having talked about the professional
circumstances of Haydn and Mozart
versus those of Beethoven, I would now
like to talk
about the meaning of the sonatas versus,
say, quartets or
symphonies, the only other genres which
produced Beethoven's truly important work.
The question I've been asked most often
when I've said
I would be giving this course is if I
would talk about the performance history
of the works.
The fact is, there is none.
[LAUGH]
Whereas even the very first symphony and
concerto were played
in a proper concert, in a proper concert
hall in 1800-that's Hoftheater nchst der Burg in
Vienna-only one of the 32 piano
sonatas was performed publicly in
Beethoven's lifetime.
Interestingly, this is the sonata Opus
101, a late work, which is
in some ways among his most forward
looking, and difficult to comprehend.
By the way,
this holds for the quartets, as well.
The professional string quartet didn't
exist until
the unbelievable difficulty of Beethoven's
music demanded it.
Ignaz Schuppanzigh founded the Razumovsky
Quartet in 1808.
The earliest evidence of a dedicated
string quartet.
So those works too were played mostly in
private homes.
Often in four-hand piano reductions.
Anyway, really the piano recital
did not even exist until Liszt started
playing them in the 1830s.
He famous, famously described this new
phenomenon with the phrase
"Le concert, c'est moi"-"I am the concert"--setting a standard
for pianistic hubris that few have matched
since.
In Beethoven's day, solo works were
sometimes played on mixed programs,
but one did not go to concerts to hear new
piano works.
So the sonatas and quartets were home

music and not concert music.

Which unlike in Bach's era did exist by
that time.
This means several things.
Number one, Beethoven did not really need
to think about the
limitations of players or the lack
of rehearsal time, inadequate conditions,
etc.
Sure, it would be nice for the amateur
musicians to find the pieces manageable.
But it was only their problem.
It's not as if Beethoven's reputation
would be
jeopardized by home musicians struggling
through the sonatas,
the way it would if his symphonies were
massacred in performance.
The removal of this impediment
meant that Beethoven's imagination could
be fully engaged in
a way that it probably couldn't with the
symphonic music.
Number two, audience comprehension was
also a much lower concern.
It's cliche to say it but absolutely true
that Beethoven's music broke a huge amount
of ground.
But Beethoven was practical-minded enough
that he was probably at
least slightly cautious about writing
music for an audience that is so
far ahead of its time that it would stand
no chance of being understood.
If the music is for playing at home,
however, it becomes
a kind of a private experimentation
between Beethoven and the player.
It cannot be a coincidence that as
revolutionary
as the Ninth Symphony is, the last sonatas
and
quartets, both of which are nearly
contemporaneous to
the ninth, are far more ahead of their
time.
And number three, there is simply
an inherent difference between playing
alone and playing with a large group.
Quartets already have a degree of intimacy
infinitely greater than symphonies.
And when it's a solo sonata, there is
an almost religious sense of communing
privately with music.
And this sense was even stronger then than
now,
because again, it wasn't all being aimed
toward public performance.
You put all these factors together and you
can see that

the piano sonata became the most

extraordinary laboratory for new ideas.
And for Beethoven's most private thoughts.
Haydn and Mozart understood this as well.
But as marvelous as their piano sonatas
are, they are
clearly more modest in ambition and scale
than their string quartets.
Or in the case of Mozart, the
string quintets, which are truly symphonic
in scope.
Beethoven is the first-ever composer to
write piano
sonatas of the same proportions as his
largest chamber works.
Time and time again Beethoven wrote piano
sonatas of immense scale and
ambition, sacrificing nothing in the way
of individuality, innovation, and even
often intimacy.
This remarkable confluence is why the
sonatas make such an indelible impression.
Let's take a short break for a review
question.