Beethoven’s epic piano sonata performed at Conservatorium

It was a case of better late than never, when acclaimed concert pianist Daniel Herscovitch announced he was going to perform Beethoven’s epic Hammerklavier Sonata at Central Coast Conservatorium’s Robert Knox Hall on Sunday, September 8. 

More than a year in the making, the Hammerklavier – German for piano – is regarded as the hardest, and by some degree the longest, piano sonata Beethoven ever composed.

Described as gargantuan and Olympian in scale by some and poignant, complicated crazy and monumental by others, it’s not a piece any pianist would take on lightly. 

“I have been fascinated by the Hammerklavier Sonata for most of my life, but it was only this year, when I was asked to perform it that I seriously began to work on it,” Herscovitch, Associate Professor of Piano at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, said.

“Most pianists who play it learned it in their teens or 20s so I am only about half a century late.”

The ‘Everest’ in Beethoven’s sonata output, the Hammerklavier Sonata includes his most expansive and profound slow movement, which is followed by a blistering fugal finale.

Regarded in Beethoven’s day as unplayable, this sonata still posits unique challenges to all who attempt a performance of this masterpiece.

The program also features some of Beethoven’s most unusual works such as his Piano Sonata in E flat major, Op. 81a – known as Les Adieux or The Farewell – which was written between 1809 and 1810 and is one of the composer’s most challenging sonatas due to the mature emotions that must be conveyed as well as the technical difficulties involved.

This will be followed by Five Variations on Rule Britannia, and finally his collection of exquisite miniatures, the 11 Bagatelles, Op.119.

Herscovitch said the program showed the huge range of Beethoven’s musical appeal. 

 “We all think of Beethoven as a supremely dramatic composer which he undoubtedly is but there is also the lyrical Beethoven such as Pastoral Symphony, the humorous Beethoven in the 8th Symphony, and much more besides.

“It is the all-encompassing universality of his music which never ceases to fascinate me,” Herscovitch said.