h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Beethoven certainly wrote many excellent pieces which used the Mozart/Haydn format. In his piano sonatas he also experimented with the form, writing a number of two-movement pieces, as well as three- and four-movement ones. This leads to the view that his works mark the transition from a Classical era (where form was dominant) to the Romantic era, (wherin content and expression become more important).

Hello Sir -

In terms of Beethoven's piano sonatas, you also have bear in mind the improvements that happened to the piano at the time - for instance, his 4th piano concerto is the first concerto in the whole world (I think) that opens with the piano playing softly. Prior to this, the pianist chappie would not have been heard over the orchestra.

And also, there's the vexatious issue of sonatas for 'other' instrument plus piano, or solo 'other' instrument, where the balance between the two players varies significantly. Freaky stuff like Mendelssohn re-writing Bach's (solo) violin partitas and sonatas for violin plus piano. Odd 19th century people.

Agreed, I tend to think of Beethoven as a bit of a tech. freak. He was well into what piano manufacturers were doing, and often gave them his view on their products. If you hear his early stuff played on a fortepiano, it works well (better than on modern piano). Later work makes full use of all the gizmos on the "modern" pianos of the time, Your ref. to Concerto 4 is spot on. Can you imagine the effect on the audience? They'd be expecting the full orch. - a "tutti" to make sure the audience gets its money's worth - then out come these quiet G major and D major chords.

I've been lucky enough to see some autograph manuscripts, and they're very informative. Take a late piano sonata - the Waldstein - most editions mark the opening "senza sordini", which gets interpreted as "leave the dampers off". In the autograph, Beethoven has written a whole paragraph of detailed instructions to the performer (it runs out of room at the top of the page, and works its way down the margins). He's using a piano with four pedals - two of which control felt muting and dampers, and he wanted it played "just right"