The Sixty-eighth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,766th Concert

Till Fellner, pianist

February 7, 2010

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Sonata no. 12 in Aflat Major, op. 26 (“Funeral March”), (1800-1801)

Andante con variazoni 

Scherzo: Allegro molto 

Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un eroe

Allegro

Sonata no. ij in E-flat Major, op. 27/1 (“Sonata quasi una fantasia”)

(1800-1801)

Andante

Allegro molto e vivace

Adagio con espressione

Allegro vivace

Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp Minor, op. 27/2 (“Moonlight”) (1800-1801)

Adagio sostenuto

Allegretto

Presto agitato

INTERMISSION

Sonata no. 22 in F Major, op. 54 (1804)

In tempo d’un menuetto

Allegretto

Sonata no. 21 in C Major, op. 53 (“Waldstein”) (1803-1804)

Allegro con brio 

Introduction: Adagio molto 

Rondo: Allegretto moderato

This concert is made possible by a generous grantfrom the

Billy Rose Foundation.
The Musician

Till Fellner was born in Vienna, where he studied with Helene Sedo-Stadler.

Further studies led him to Alfred Brendel, Meira Farkas, Oleg Maisenberg,

and Claus Christian Schuster. His international career was launched in 1993

when he won first prize at the Clara Haskil Competition in Vevey, Switzerland.

Since then Fellner has been in demand as guest soloist with distinguished

orchestras at the major music centers of Europe, Japan, and the United

States, and at numerous important festivals. He has collaborated with many

conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Christoph

von Dohnanyi, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Heinz Holliger, Marek Janowski, Sir

Charles Mackerras, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, JukkaPekka Saraste, Leonard Slatkin, Claudius Traunfellner, Franz Welser-Most,

and Hans Zender. Fellner regularly performs in a trio with violinist Lisa

Batiashvili and cellist Adrian Brendel.

In October 2008 Fellner launched a cycle ofthe complete Beethoven

piano sonatas in a series ofseven recitals. The entire cycle can be heard in

New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Vienna, and Washington, dc, where it is

being presented jointly by the Embassy ofAustria, the Embassy Series,

and the National Gallery ofArt, with major support from the Billy Rose

Foundation. This season, Fellner continues the next four installments of

the Beethoven cycle, which has received high critical and audience praise.

Other concerts include performances with the Siidwestrundfunk Orchestra

and a Canadian tour with the Montreal Symphony and Kent Nagano as well

as joint recitals with Mark Padmore, performing Schubert’s Winterreise.

Fellner’s most recent release is a recording ofJohann Sebastian Bach’s Twoand Three-Part Inventions, on the ecm label.
Program Notes

The custom of playing Beethoven's complete piano sonatas in a consecutive 

series of concerts began with the great German pianist Artur Schnabel, 

who played them on seven successive Sundays in 1927 in Berlin to mark

the centenary of Beethoven's death. Since then, other eminent pianists have

played Beethoven sonata cycles, although none in the concentrated time

span in which Schnabel presented his cycle. Alfred Brendel, for example,

used the 48-week span ofthe 1982-1983 concert season to present his

seven-concert Beethoven cycle. Memorizing and performing these thirty-two

sonatas is the pianistic equivalent of climbing Mount Everest or running a

marathon race. They encompass the entire period of Beethoven's compositional career, and range from sunny youthful works to the intense anguish

ofhis troubled later years. Using the periods of composition that are commonly accepted by musicologists—early (before 1802), middle (1802-1815),

and late (1816-1827)—one finds fifteen sonatas in the first period, twelve in 

the second, and five in the third.

Composed at the end of Beethoven’s “early” period, Sonata no. 12 in

A-flat Major is an excellent example ofhis constant experimentation with the

sonata form. The work unfolds in four movements instead ofthe expected

three. The first movement is not in the conventional sonata-allegro form,

but is a theme and variations. In the second movement, the composer recalls

the Scherzo: Allegro molto from his first symphony, composed one year

before the sonata (1799). The third movement, Marciajunebre sulla morte d’un

eroe (Funeral march on the death of a hero) is the one that gives the sonata

its nickname. Its irregularly palpitating rhythmic figure presages what is

soon to come in the second movement ofthe Symphony no. 3 (“Eroica”). The 

light-hearted Allegro with which the sonata ends provides a satisfying foil

for the seriousness ofthe funeral march.

Beethoven’s Sonata in E-Jlat Major, op. 27, no. 1, represents a radical 

breakthrough for the composer. As suggested by its subtitle, “Sonata quasi

una fantasia” (Sonata in the manner of a fantasy), it consists ofsections that

relate to one another in a fantastical way, rather than according to the

4
established relationships ofsonata movements. The opening movement is a

lyrical andante that calls to mind a slow dance. A free and virtuosic interlude,

marked allegro, interrupts with startling abruptness, but then the composer

reverts to the original andante as ifnothing had happened. A brief, stormy

scherzo, in which the hands play three-note patterns in opposition to each 

other, is contrasted with an eccentric trio that features a syncopated hunting

horn call. The Adagio con espressione, identified as the third movement, is a

moment of quiet contemplation that serves as an introduction to the final 

movement, a rondo with a number of contrapuntal episodes. At the climax

ofthe rondo, the music comes to a sudden halt as the theme from the third

movement returns for a reflective moment, but before long the fantasy 

rushes to its conclusion in a coda, marked presto.

Beethoven subtitled both ofthe sonatas ofhis op. 27 as “Sonata quasi

una fantasia,” perhaps an indication that he was moving into a new and

more flexible approach to composition—an approach that eventually came

to be the hallmark ofthe romantic era. The Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp Minor,

op. 27, no. 2, (“Moonlight”) attained great popularity almost immediately

upon its publication in 1801, and its first movement lives on with the opening

motifofhis Fifth Symphony and the rondo of his bagatelle Fur Elise as the

most widely and instantly recognizable music Beethoven ever wrote. The 

familiar appellation “Moonlight” originated with German poet and music

critic Ludwig Rellstab (1799-1860), who compared the first movement's rippling texture to the moonlight shimmering on Lake Lucerne. This texture is

provided by the triplet figure with which the first movement begins, which, 

when it is played at a moderate tempo, takes equal place with the melody 

as an item ofinterest for the listener, and induces a trancelike atmosphere.

This is not an emotionless trance, however; from time to time the triplet

figure rises and falls in a sublime sigh, followed by a mysterious echo in the

lower register.

The second movement (Allegretto) is a delicate syncopated minuet that

plays with the light and dark effects ofthe treble and bass ranges ofthe

piano. The third movement (Presto agitato) presents a frantic upward

arpeggio that is quintessential “Sturm and Drang”—the “storm and stress”

5
that characterizes much of early romantic music. This movement adheres to

sonata-allegro form, though Beethoven breaks with the tradition of presenting a contrasting second theme by making all the themes equally agitated.

This finale provides an unexpected and effective contrast to the sonata’s

intimate first and second movements.

The Sonata in F Major, op. 54, completed in 1804, may have provided 

the composer a briefrespite from the massive effort represented by his 

“Waldstein” and “Appassionata” sonatas and his “Eroica” symphony. All were 

finished between 1803 and 1805, and presumably preoccupied Beethoven

throughout the winter of 1803-1804. Playable on a five-octave keyboard, this

two-movement sonata appears at first glance easy to play, and has a reputation for surprising amateurs who approach it as a short and easy sonata, 

only to become entangled in its technical complications. The opening measures ofthe first movement are reassuring, with a measured, deliberate

tempo and a simple theme. However, just when the sight-reading pianist

least expects it, a storm breaks out in the form oftriplets in octaves and

sixths in both hands. (In many editions, this section appears directly at the

first page turn!) This ill-mannered interruption repeats itselfin a higher key,

then gives way to the quiet opening theme, only to interrupt once again to

finish the movement, with the addition ofsome dissonant chords.

The second movement, an allegretto, is a perpetual-motion rondo. Unlike

traditional rondos—which introduce contrasting sections and return to the

rondo exactly as it was heard the first time—this piece keeps up the flood of

sixteenth notes throughout and the feeling ofperpetual motion overwhelms 

any other aspects ofthe form. The pace and intensity increase throughout

the movement, leading to a strenuous coda in which the two hands race

each other to the final bar.

In 1803 Beethoven was able to purchase a new Erard fortepiano, which

featured a more precise action and a louder tone than the pianos he had

previously owned. It inspired him to make new demands on the instrument

(and on the player as well) as he composed the Sonata no. 21 in C Major, op. 53,

which he dedicated to his patron and friend Count Ferdinand von Waldstein 

(1762-1823).

6
The first movement, marked Allegro con brio, begins with a rapid, highly 

energetic reiteration of chords in the lower register and an impassioned cry

ofresponse in the right hand, several octaves higher. As additional ideas are 

developed, the second subject is introduced, and each element strives to

dominate the composition’s discourse. The development section begins with

a presentation ofthe main theme in a dark, subdued mood, and then goes

offin a new direction, propelled by two ofthe briefmotifs from the theme.

In the recapitulation, Beethoven ingeniously avoids a mere restatement by

expanding on the phrase at the end ofthe main theme.

The second movement (Adagio molto), is short, serious, and introspective, drawing dramatic power from its initial three-note utterance spanning

the interval of a sixth. Originally, Beethoven wrote what is now known as a

separate piano piece—the Andantefavori—as the second movement for 

this sonata, but he decided not to include it, as he found the complete sonata

too long. Instead, he positioned the Adagio molto as an introduction to the

finale (Rondo: Allegretto moderato). In the latter movement, the seven-note 

rondo theme has a pastoral quality as it is first introduced. Beethoven

proceeds to transform this tranquil mood into one of ecstatic celebration, 

enhanced by colorful sprays ofnotes that reach the uppermost octave ofthe

Erard piano.

Program notes by Stephen Ackert
Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

Karin Paludan, soprano

Danielle DeSwert Hahn, pianist

Music by Gershwin

Presented in honor of

From Impressionism to Modernism:

The Chester Dale Collection

February 10, 2010

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

For the convenience of concertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:00 pm.

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones,

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Please note that late entry or reentry of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

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