Klaviersonate Nr. 32 c-Moll op. 111 – 1. Teil

Beethoven's last piano sonata, op. 111, was written around the turn of the year 1821/1822, while he was living at Landstrasser Hauptstrasse 60. The sonata is made up of just two movements: the Allegro movement with counterpoint in C minor stands in marked contrast to an Adagio variation on an arietta, written in C major. The fact that this distinctive, two-movement sonata also happens to be Beethoven’s last has given rise to a variety of interpretations of the work. Indeed, the question of why Beethoven did not write a third movement for opus 111 gained notability well beyond the world of musicology thanks to the comments attributed to the music teacher Wendell Kretzschmar in Thomas Mann’s novel “Doctor Faustus.”

The critic Joachim Kaiser termed German pianist Wilhelm Backhaus’s (1884–1969) interpretation of the sonata “realistic.” In this section, you can hear the slow, majestic, maestoso of the introduction, with its exciting harmonies, followed by the beginning of the Allegro con brio. Backhaus had an extensive career as a concert pianist, and his performances were recorded from as early as 1907. He was regarded primarily as a Beethoven specialist, and played his complete piano sonatas for the first time in a 1929 concert cycle. Despite his committed support of the Nazi regime, he was allowed to continue his international career after 1945.
(Constanze Köhn)