Sonata #17

[Zhire]

Hello everyone, new member to the forums here.

I have been working on the Tempest Sonata for quite a few months now and just recently I had read Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, which was supposedly the inspiration for this beautiful piece.

I was disappointed with myself, however, because I was unable to put together any sort of bridge between the two. You can, of course, hear the storm in the Sonata but as to its connection to the play... hmm...

Can anyone recommend any reading about this particular topic?

[Peter]

As to further reading you could try Eric Blom's 'Beethoven sonatas discussed'. He quotes Tovey on this sonata: "with all the tragic power of its first movement the D minor Sonata is , like Prospero, almost as far beyond tragedy as it is beyond mere foul weather. It will do you know harm to think of Miranda at bars 31-8 of the slow movement; but few people who want to identify Ariel and Caliban and the castaways, good and villainous, may as well confine their attention to the exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel when the Eroica or the C minor symphony is being played"

However the story that this sonata was inspired by the Tempest comes from the unreliable Schindler - neither Blom nor Tovey would have been aware of just how unreliable and deceitful Schindler was.