Masterpieces Unboxed: Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata
About the event
In Masterpieces Unboxed, we dissect masterpieces of chamber music. Tonight, Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata. Gijs Kramers, together with pianist Amiri Harewood, dives into Beethoven's monumental piano work. The Waldstein Sonata is grand, technically challenging, visionary, and radiant. Listen along! The language of the performance is English. Masterpieces Unboxed
How is the music structured, what is it about, what story does the composer want to tell, and who or what served as sources of inspiration? In Masterpieces Unboxed, we dissect masterpieces of chamber music. Presenter Gijs Kramers, together with pianist Amiri Harewood, dives into Beethoven's unparalleled Waldstein Sonata. They take you through hidden details and surprising twists, with live excerpts that cast the work in a new light. After the 'unboxing,' the entire sonata is performed.
Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata
'If you keep working hard, you will receive Mozart's spirit from the hands of Haydn.' When Beethoven moved from Bonn to Vienna in 1792, Count Ferdinand von Waldstein wrote these prophetic words. The count became one of Beethoven's patrons, and Beethoven dedicated his Piano Sonata No. 21 to him. With its technical demands, the broad scope, and the incredible tension of the middle movement, the Waldstein Sonata is no less impressive than the masterpieces of Beethoven's late period—indeed: without this beautiful but radical piece, the door to the later mysteries would never have been opened.
