Who loves the "Hammerklavier" sonata?

[Chris]

In his lecture series on Beethoven's piano sonatas, Andras Schiff remarked that many people respect and admire the "Hammerklavier", but very few people love it. I don't know if that's exactly true, but I know what he means. It seems that the work is respected more than it is really enjoyed. Do you love it?

I have to say that I do. It is a great work, of course, but more than that I simply love to listen to it and play it (I can't really play it, of course - I just bring it out and play bits of it for fun once in a while). It is certainly the sonata I listen to the most, and maybe even the piece of music I listen to the most. I can just never get enough it.

[Horowitz17]

I would say that it is Number Two on my list of favorite Beethoven Sonatas

[Peter]

I would say that it is Number Two on my list of favorite Beethoven Sonatas

Welcome Horowitz17! Which is your no.1 favourite? A hard question I know and I don't think I could choose myself as each is wonderful in its own way - though my least favourite sonata is Op.10/1.

[Peter]

In his lecture series on Beethoven's piano sonatas, Andras Schiff remarked that many people respect and admire the "Hammerklavier", but very few people love it. I don't know if that's exactly true, but I know what he means. It seems that the work is respected more than it is really enjoyed. Do you love it?

I have to say that I do. It is a great work, of course, but more than that I simply love to listen to it and play it (I can't really play it, of course - I just bring it out and play bits of it for fun once in a while). It is certainly the sonata I listen to the most, and maybe even the piece of music I listen to the most. I can just never get enough it.

If I'm entirely honest it is the first movement that I love the most, whilst as you say respecting the others - perhaps it's frustration at not being able to play that last movement! The slow movement is so profound that I have to be in a very special mood to listen to it, which unfortunately is all too rare these days.

[Chris]

I used to feel that way about the last movement, but in recent months, I have come around to truly loving it. Perhaps I am free to love it knowing that I will probably never bother even trying to play it...

[PDG]

Welcome Horowitz17! Which is your no.1 favourite? A hard question I know and I don't think I could choose myself as each is wonderful in its own way - though my least favourite sonata is Op.10/1.

Ah, Peter, so this must be the one that lost you that Piano Competition appearance?!

[PDG]

I used to feel that way about the last movement, but in recent months, I have come around to truly loving it. Perhaps I am free to love it knowing that I will probably never bother even trying to play it...

Chris, loving without being hands-on is just as special as being present at the birth!

[Chris]

Chris, loving without being hands-on is just as special as being present at the birth!

Well, it is easy to understand how frustration with playing a piece can kill your love for it. Some of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin in my case...

[Michael]

I am still struggling with the last movement after nearly thirty years - in a listener's sense, of course. It is one of those works that makes me wish I had learned to read music because there is so much going on at the one time. I think that and the Diabelli variations are the two most difficult works B ever composed.
I hate that old cliche about the hairs rising on the back of the neck, but the slow movement of the Hammerklavier does that for me every time. My two favourite versions are by Kempff and Rudolf Serkin and I have about four other versions which I hardly ever play because, as Peter said, it's not a work you can listen to casually and when I feel the "raptus" coming on, I reach for the versions I prefer. Lazy, I know but "ars longa, vita brevis".

[Peter]

I hate that old cliche about the hairs rising on the back of the neck, but the slow movement of the Hammerklavier does that for me every time. My two favourite versions are by Kempff and Rudolf Serkin and I have about four other versions which I hardly ever play because, as Peter said, it's not a work you can listen to casually and when I feel the "raptus" coming on, I reach for the versions I prefer. Lazy, I know but "ars longa, vita brevis".

Then you would have loved to have been present at Wahnfried on Sept 1st 1876 when Liszt played this very movement to an enraptured Wagner who came running down the stairs in his nightdress sobbing with emotion and flung his arms around Liszt - the power of Beethoven!

[Sorrano]

Welcome Horowitz17! Which is your no.1 favourite? A hard question I know and I don't think I could choose myself as each is wonderful in its own way - though my least favourite sonata is Op.10/1.

I agree it's hard to pick a favorite. For me, my favorite is always whichever one I am playing or listening to. Perhaps the second sonata is the one least familiar to me, but not my least favorite. I can't say that I have a least favorite, that is equally difficult to choose!

[PDG]

Sorrano, do you write speeches for politicians?! We are none the wiser...

[ruudp]

I myself have loved the hammerklavier ever since I first heard it about 1.5 years ago in the version of Emil gilels. I was prepared to face a very difficult and hard to follow work as most of the posters on this board said. But as much as I expected it to be stravinsky like or so I was actually pleasantly surprised. The power of the first movement, the wit of the second movement, the profoundness of the 3th movement and the sheer pleasure of locating the different voices and how they interweave in the last movement. It's a monumental work to which I listen with great love frequently

[Horowitz17]

I would say that the "Apassionata" is my favorite.

[DavidO]

In his lecture series on Beethoven's piano sonatas, Andras Schiff remarked that many people respect and admire the "Hammerklavier", but very few people love it. I don't know if that's exactly true, but I know what he means. It seems that the work is respected more than it is really enjoyed. Do you love it?

I love it, too. I know what Schiff means. I admire & enjoy the Seventh Symphony, but I don't love it the way I love the Missa Solemnis or the Op. 53 Piano Sonata. I become obsessed with those Beethoven compositions I love & their multitude of themes & motives elicit instantaneous emotions in me. The Hammerklavier does this, as well. My favorite part of Op. 106 may be somewhat of a surprise, however. It's the Scherzo, particularly the main theme. Who knows why I fell in love with this particular theme so long ago? No rational reason that I can tell for my response. It is what it is.