I’ve been pracising Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata over the past weeks and the one thought that pops in my mind every time I play it is: “This piece is perfect. Is Beethoven the greatest composer of all time?”

This a very difficult topic to address, not only because there are other candidates to claim the title, but also because you would have to set up a very long and detailed set of parameters to judge each candidate in the discussion. For me, Beethoven’s merit comes from several reasons. Take for instance his Fifth Symphony: the entire first movement -which lasts about seven minutes-,
is built entirely over just four notes, three of them are repeated. How did he get away with that? Essentially, it’s just one note repeated three times followed by a second note played on sustain, over and over again, and for some reason, the sublimity of its sound transcends everything we know. Needless to say seven of his nine symphonies are masterpieces, with the ninth being the epitome of his genius.

Then you have his chamber music, which is completely on a different direction from his orchestral work. And then of course you have his 32 Piano Sonatas, eight of which are memorable pieces of work: The moonlight, patetique, appassionata, les adieux, tempest, pastoral, waldstein, hammerklavier and the #32.

How can you argue against that?

HR