♫ Of course, this moment of tenderness does not last. This becalmed episode is in D Major, the mediant of B flat major. ♫ As we know, this mediant relationship is a favorite of Beethoven’s, but the two keys involved are not especially close relations. So, while the music remains calm – pious, even – the modulation that gets us back home to b flat major is a quietly spectacular one. ♫ And, we’re back! Or mostly back. The transition back into the “normal”, hell-for-leather part of this fugue is not a sudden one: we have modulated back to B flat major, yes, but things begin quietly, and Beethoven has not simply abandoned the material of the meditative section that just ended. Instead, he cleverly combines it with the six note scales from the fugue’s main subject. ♫ So, the re-entry into the world of the opening is a gentle one – but the gentleness doesn't last. ♫ And now, we are truly back, and to mark our return, we have music that is not just AS complicated as anything in the first section of the fugue, but to my ears anyway, even MORE complicated! Because for the first time in the piece, we get two iterations of the subject, more or less at the same time: while one plays the subject right side up, another one, just one beat later, plays the inversion – a veritable war between the two versions. ♫ The Hammerklavier is, of course, a vintage late period work, in that it builds, and builds, and builds, all the way to the end. This is not simply a matter of the final two movements forming a gigantic unit, or of the fugue being altogether the climax of the work – it also means that the fugue ITSELF builds all the way to its conclusion. Therefore, while it is remarkable that at this late stage of the game, Beethoven is managing to find ways to make the fugue even more complex, it’s also not surprising. It is slightly embarrassing to tell you, in that context, that I am now going to skip ahead. But while the music that comes next is magnificent, intense, and hugely intricate, it doesn’t feature any real additions to the bag of fugal tricks in this movement, and therefore, in the name of all of our sanity, I think we’re going to pass over it, and move directly to the next major event. That event would be a cadence in B flat major – a rarity in this constantly modulating movement – and one that is as abrupt as it is massive. ♫ The effect of this is quite overwhelming, and it’s the silence that really makes it so. The cadence happens so suddenly, and I don’t think we feel that it could possibly be the end of the piece. But because it IS a cadence, in the right key, and one that we’ve been building towards for a long while, it registers very differently from the only other silence we’ve experienced in this eight minute long fugue. ♫ That silence was a point of tension – the kind of silence that is heavy because it is an interruption. Because it comes in the middle of a hugely dramatic thought that is awaiting completion. This silence ♫ is heavy too, but in a different way. Here, the issue is that what preceded the silence was a resolution, but it happens so fast that it’s not quite sufficient – we feel that the cessation of the insanity is too good to be true. Something must be lying in wait – and it is. After that silence, and after an initially shy entreaty, comes perhaps the most furious outburst in the whole Hammerklavier. ♫ That previous cadence meant that we are nearing a conclusion for this sonata – a culmination, a catharsis. The outburst means that we are not all the way there yet – there are still issues to be resolved. The outburst – explosion, really, leads to a remarkable passage where the enormously determined materials of this fugue are, for the first time, transformed so as to be shrouded in doubt. ♫ It’s a funny thing: there’s no cadence here. Far from it. But I think the slowing down of the music – the feeling of the batteries running low – does more to lead this fugue towards resolution than the actual, lightning bolt cadence we heard a moment ago. ♫ The events come so fast in this movement, and the writing is SO thick, I think we need that bit of extra space – the last bars I played are actually marked “Adagio” – to feel that we can reach a proper conclusion. And now we are, after 40 plus minutes, and every imaginable manner of drama, headed towards one. To bring us to this conclusion, Beethoven gives up on the game of the fugue entirely, trading it for unison: the anti-fugue. ♫ After all of that knotty and knottier counterpoint, the unison sounds almost exotic! And Beethoven sticks with it, all the way through the Hammerklavier’s last stand: he dispenses with the second and third components of the subject, instead giving us unison tenth, after tenth, after tenth. But let’s be honest: really, it’s third after third after third. The theme of the entire work, hammered into our brains and souls, as we finally – finally – see the sonata reach its pinnacle. ♫ These last chords, oddly enough, come mostly on the wrong beats. ♫ Two three, one two, three one two three, one. But while the rhythm is off-kilter, it doesn’t even matter. The sense of resolution, of hard-won victory, is overpowering. This music is so craggy, and has had such emotional extremes, coming to the end of it intact – again, as a listener or as a player – is a triumph of and for the spirit. The literal dozens of C major chords that conclude the 5th Symphony cannot compete with the sense of triumph this carries. I honestly don’t know even know how to conclude a lecture – or a pair of lectures – on this sonata. I could revisit the question of its mass, or once again marvel at how a work so enormous is rooted to such an extent in just a couple of ideas. But really, there is nothing I or anyone can say that will come close to conveying the emotional power of the Hammerklavier. One of Beethoven’s greatest qualities – perhaps the one that most makes him unique – is his force of will. Nothing, but nothing, will get in between him and what he needs to say. And there is no greater document of this force of will than the Hammerklavier sonata. It is difficult as can be, certainly to play, but even to embrace as a listener. But it is also one of the greatest of human achievements. I can only stand in awe of it.
