Classical Convert

Listening Post

Recently I’ve been listening to Copland and Bocolm, both on a bet that I’d (against my will) enjoy modern American composers. Well that’s not entirely true, since I already enjoy John Adams. Really it was about not liking Copland. Until very recently I stereotyped all of Copland’s music as part of one big circus and/or Western soundtrack. Well it turns out that isn’t true (somewhat expected revelation thanks to this CD). I’m going to write more about this soon, but in the last few days I got sidetracked by accidentally discovering a rather different piece of music:

(That’s Valentina Lisitsa, a “pianist electrifying!” and rising classical superstar, playing the last movement of Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” piano sonata, Op. 106)

There is so much Beethoven I don’t know, or don’t understand. This was a piece I had heard mentioned dozens of times (it’s one of the most famous sonatas, and I think one of the more famous Beethoven pieces), but I never really liked the first two movements enough to listen all the way through. I must’ve always skipped to a different sonata after a couple minutes (I have the Claudio Arrau boxset, and Beethoven wrote 32 sonatas, so it’s way easy to skip to one I know I like better like No. 32, or the Appassionata).

But now I am totally in love with the Hammerklavier. Especially the last movement, with the crazy fugue, which conveniently lasts exactly as long as it takes me to walk into lab!