Beethoven's piano sonatas

Description

"Beethoven's piano sonatas form one of the most important collections of works in the whole history of music. Spanning several decades of his life as a composer, the sonatas soon came to be seen as the first body of substantial serious works for piano suited to performance in large concert halls seating hundreds of people." "In this practical guide for both listener and performer, Charles Rosen places the sonatas in context and provides an understanding of the formal principles involved in interpreting and performing this unique repertoire, covering such aspects as sonata form, phrasing, and tempo, as well as the use of pedal and trills. In the second part of his book, he looks at the sonatas individually, from the earliest works of the 1790s through the sonatas of Beethoven's youthful popularity of the early 1800s, the subsequent years of mastery, the years of stress (1812-1817), and the last three sonatas of the 1820s."--BOOK JACKET

First Sentence

Proust's grandmother was a woman of extremely modest, unpretentious demeanour, who never ventured to contradict anyone's literary judgement: But on matters of which the rules and principles had been taught her by her mother, on the way to cook certain dishes, to play the sonatas of Beethoven, and to receive guests graciously, she was certain of having a just idea of perfection and of discerning whether others approached closely or not.

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Other Editions

• Beethoven`s Piano Sonatas: A Short CompanionHardcoverYale University Press2001-11-01
• Beethoven's piano sonatasYale University Press2002