Beethoven

Early period
Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13, “Pathetique”
http://imslp.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=167137%2Fimslpcomp01%2F3367552
(Accessed 08/01/18)
Glenn Gould interpreting the Pathetique. You can hear even more extraneous noises from Gould than usual, more than just the customary humming! He has that lightness of touch that is more suited to Bach, and does not dramatise the music as other Beethoven exponents might.
The adagio is surely one of the most beautiful pieces of music written for the instrument, placed between the more exuberant outer movements – the drama of the opening movement and the more playful Rondo Allegro. Can’t believe this forms part of Beethoven’s early period as there is already such contrast and drama.

Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21
http://imslp.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=167137%2Fimslpcomp01%2F1662
(Accessed 08/01/18)
First performed in April 1800 at the Imperial Court Theatre in Vienna.
This symphony opens gently with pizzicato strings and a predominance of winds and quiet horns. When I (briefly) looked at the score I remember thinking that it was sort of odd that the symphony kicks off with a dominant seventh chord (C7) that resolves naturally to an F major. He then repeats the trick, moving around key centres. The music finally gets going around 1’20” with motifs bounced between strings and winds. There’s a nice oboe line at one point that comes through the texture.
Fugue like elements in the second movement that moves from major to minor (very briefly) and back again.
Menuet: Lots of crescendo, contrast between soft and loud, syncopated string lines, timpani.
Final movement kicks off with a dramatic horn and flute call, the strings then play dance-like lines with a bassoon that breaks cover with a rising motif that is then bounced around the orchestra briefly. Nice parts in the winds generally.
Very much a Beethoven style symphony but you can hear the classical style still in evidence.

Cello Sonata No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 5, No. 2
http://manchesterlib.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=101977%2Fmancheslibnml11%2F3234018
(Accessed 08/01/18)
Composed 1796.
Part of this piece was featured in a TV documentary on Beethoven and I was intrigued to hear the full version.
Moments of drama and lyricism and lots of imitation, question and answer type phrases between cello and piano. Lots of dynamic contrast.
I find it curious that some recordings break the work up into 3 movements, though Beethoven only specifies 2. My recording is two tracks but with a long pause between the two sections of the first movement, before the second movement ‘proper’, the Rondo Allegro.

Middle Period
Overture to Collin’s Coriolan, Op. 62, “Coriolan Overture”
http://imslp.naxosmusiclibrary.com/stream.asp?s=167137%2Fimslpcomp01%2F271210%5F03
(Accessed 08/01/18)
Not keen on this interpretation / recording particularly.
I discovered this some time ago but did not know where it fitted into Beethoven’s output. Composed in 1807 for the play Coriolan, which deals with the story of the Roman general Coriolanus.
The main opening motif on the strings has all the hallmarks of a driving and dramatic theme. If I had my rock guitarist hat on, I would say that is one hell of riff!!! The driving rhythm of this motif forms a large part of the overture, though it changes harmonically to suit the melody. This is interspersed with some longer legato lines on the strings and winds to give some contrast.

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92
http://manchesterlib.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=101977%2Fmancheslibnml11%2F186800
(Accessed 08/01/18)
Composed between 1811 and 1812. At its première, Beethoven was noted as remarking that it was one of his best works.
There’s a moment in the first movement where the strings and flute exchange a 1 note motif for a while, and you wonder what is going on…until Beethoven stops teasing us and launches into a lively dance-like theme. Brilliant! Some ebullient moments in much of the first movement. Searching cellos and double basses not quite sure where they are going before the end of the movement.
Change to minor. Funereal, tragic sounding opening to the second movement.
Lively and rhythmic third movement.
Final movement, Allegro con Brio. Just like in the first movement there’s an echo of those searching cellos and double basses not quite sure where they are going before the end of the movement. Very lively and triumphant sounding overall.

Late period
Symphony No. 10 in E-Flat Major (realized and completed by B. Cooper)
http://imslp.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=167137%2Fimslpcomp01%2F1110849
(Accessed 08/01/18)
I did a search for Beethoven in NML and one of the results was Beethoven Symphony No.10. I was intrigued enough to give it a play through. The CD also contains an illustrated lecture by Barry Cooper, a name I am familiar with from the ABRSM editions of Beethoven’s Piano music.
The first Andante movement has a flavour of the Adagio from the Pathetique sonata. Lyrical legato strings and woodwinds throughout.
The second movement is far more dramatic with more prominent brass and chugging strings, but this is also broken up by individual instruments that exchange quieter motifs between them with some prominence to the winds. Big gap (silence) halfway though the movement.
Return of the Pathetique Adagio flavour with more variations in the final Andante movement. Slighty more brass possibly, and busier strings, compared to the first movement.
Barry Cooper explains that some of the sketches between 1822-1825 suggest ‘conclusively’ that these were intended for the 10th symphony. ‘The evidence is incontrovertible’. in a letter in 1827 shortly before his death, Beethoven mentions a new symphony already sketched, and Karl Holz claims to have heard Beethoven play the 10th symphony on the piano…

Grosse Fuge in B-Flat Major, Op. 133
http://manchesterlib.naxosmusiclibrary.com/stream.asp?s=101977%2Fmancheslibnml11%2F383814%5F07
Apparently incomprehensible and condemned by the critics at the time, now seen in a rather better light.
Composed originally for the final movement of his Quartet No. 13 in Bb major (Op. 130), written in 1825. ‘But Beethoven’s publisher, who was concerned about the dismal commercial prospects of the piece, urged Beethoven to replace the fugue with a new finale. Beethoven complied, and the Große Fuge was published separately in 1827 as Op. 133’. (Wikipedia entry)
It sounds dramatic and cacophonous in places, but nothing compared to Webern! It’s fairly tame by modern standards of dissonance though there is an overwhelming sense of drama throughout.