Classical Music | Music for Fortepiano

Recorded on 10/21/1990, uploaded on 03/21/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Beethoven composed the Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, op. 28 in 1801, the same year as the immensely popular “Moonlight” sonata. Through a charming piece in its own right, it has regretfully been fated to live in the shadow of its great predecessor. Like the “Moonlight,” the Sonata No. 15 is also usually referred to by its nickname, the “Pastoral,” given by Beethoven’s publisher, as in many cases, without his consent. Nevertheless, the epithet is quite fitting at least for the outer movements of the work.

The year of the sonata’s composition was a turbulent one for the composer. He was struggling to come to terms with his growing deafness. He confided his malady to his close friends, which were pr already bablyaware of it, and his mood was likely never far removed from the frustration he felt in being unable to adequately hear ongoing conversations and the depression of losing the sense most crucial to his art. With this in mind, the calm and peaceful mood which permeates much of the “Pastoral” Sonata is startling (though the sonata is entirely absent of drama) and gives testament to Beethoven’s immeasurable resolve—a resolve that stayed his hand a year later from taking his own life so as to create some of the most profound music in the history of Western art.

Crafted in four movements, instead of the still more common three-movement plan, the serene and pastoral qualities of the Piano Sonata No. 15 are underpinned by an intricate and masterful craft. Each movement, from its outset, fixates on a rhythm that becomes a dominating, yet background, element of the work and provides a solid foundation for the endless variations the work’s melodies undergo. The opening sonata form movement is permeated by a simple reiterated tonic pedal marking the beats of the movement’s triple meter, like the timpani in an orchestra, over which the lyrical and subdued first theme appears. More dramatic than the serene opening theme, the F-sharp minor second subject nevertheless springs forth from the pervasive rhythm of the movement.

The second movement, in the tonic minor, begins with a lyrical melody sitting atop a persistent bass of staccato sixteenth notes, imparting a stern seriousness to the movement. In the melody’s second phrase, the semiquaver rhythm becomes fixed on a dominant pedal recalling the reiterated drones of the first movement. Of a simple ternary design, the movement’s central episode changes back to the major key with a theme of greater joviality.

A lively scherzo, the third movement opens with bare octaves which seem almost incapable of harboring the energy with which the ensuing sprightly subject abounds in. Like the first movement, the scherzo turns towards a minor key, this time B minor, for its second theme. A simple theme over an accompaniment of octaves and broken chords, the trio possesses the fiery passion for which Beethoven’s music is admired. With effortless ease, the trio flows seamlessly back into the scherzo without need of transition.

Lastly, the finale returns to the pastoral mood of the first movement. A galloping rhythm in 6/8 meter is established in its opening measures accompanied by a return to the drone bass that permeated the opening Allegro. Beethoven explicitly marked the movement Allegro ma non troppo, a somewhat unusual tempo indication for the final movement of a sonata. Consequently, it flows with a rustic ease and a gentle demeanor making it the most serene of the sonata’s four movements and worthy of the pastoral epithet. The movement’s coda is the only true virtuosic passage in the entire sonata. Quickening to a Più Allegro pace, the finale’s drone bass is sounded beneath brilliant figurations in the right hand, concluding in fortissimo chords that mark the sonata’s end.      Joseph DuBose