Emanuel Ax, Piano
Part of: Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice
Performers
Emanuel Ax, Piano
Program
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13, "Pathétique"
SCHOENBERG Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 2, No. 2
SCHOENBERG Three Piano Pieces (1894)
SCHOENBERG Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57, "Appassionata"
Encores:
CHOPIN Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 1
LISZT Valse oubliée, No. 1
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.This Concert in Context
As Germans sought to recover from the ravages of a lost war and rediscover what it meant to be German, many turned to the figure of Beethoven. Even Berlin, which has become virtually synonymous with the kinds of modernist forms conjured up by the phrase “Weimar culture,” saw the music of Beethoven and other older masters dominate German concert halls. From 1922 to 1925, Beethoven was far and away the most performed composer by the Berliner Philharmoniker; in 1927, the year that marked the centennial of Beethoven’s death, music organizations across the country held festivals dedicated to the composer’s music as figures from across the political spectrum claimed the composer and his legacy for themselves. When Gustav Stresemann—the former chancellor and foreign minister—died in 1929, his state funeral was bookended by the performance of Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture and the funeral march from the Third Symphony. Schoenberg, who greatly admired Beethoven’s music and saw himself as heir to Germany’s lauded musical tradition, believed that his serialist compositions would “ensure the supremacy of German music for the next 100 years.” His breakthrough to atonality predates the First World War and is on full display in both the Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11, and Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19, composed in 1909 and 1911, respectively.
—Brendan Fay, author of Classical Music in Weimar Germany