Beethoven the Revolutionary

Clayton Stephenson, piano performs BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 30 Op. 109 in E major
This talk will be concerned with Beethoven's late piano music and the development of his piano writing that brought him to that point. To examine this topic we also need to examine two others: the evolution of his piano writing through his career, and the evolution of the pianos he was writing for, both of which matters moved in tandem--first writing for the delicate instruments of his youth, the masterpieces that followed his acquisition of a French Erard, and the far more robust British and Austrian pianos that helped spark his epochal final works the Diabellis, Hammerklavier, and the last sonatas. A continuing theme will be the individuality of each major work for the keyboard. With each piece Beethoven in effect remade the piano, the sonority of each as significant as the notes on the page.
Jan Swafford is a composer and writer. His musical works range from orchestral and chamber to film and theater music, including six pieces for orchestra, Midsummer Variations for piano quintet, They That Mourn for piano trio, They Who Hunger for piano quartet, From the Shadow of the Mountain for string orchestra, and Late Autumn--First Snow for orchestra. His music has been played around the US and abroad by ensembles including the symphonies of St. Louis, Indianapolis, Vermont, Harrisburg, and Chattanooga, the American Composers Orchestra, the Dutch Radio Orchestra, and Orchestra New England. Recordings include the piano quintet Midsummer Variations by the Scott Chamber Players, The Silence at Yuma Point by cellist Rhonda Rider, and Music Like Steel and Like Fire by pianist Adam Golka. Among his honors as a composer are an NEA Composers Grant and two Massachusetts Artists Council Fellowships. Swafford’s biographies of Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms are published internationally and, along with his Charles Ives, are widely considered the leading biographies of the composers. Three were Critic’s Choices in the New York Times. As a musical journalist and scholar, Swafford has written for The Atlantic, Guardian International, Gramophone, Symphony, American Music, Van, and 19th Century Music. His Slate articles won a Deems Taylor Award for online writing in music. He has written numerous program notes for the Boston Symphony and other orchestras, and has been a guest lecturer for the symphonies of Los Angeles and Detroit, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, the Rosendal Music Festival in Norway, and the Ultima Festival in Oslo.
Presented in partnership with Boston Symphony Orchestra

Host or Publisher Goethe-Institut Boston