Beethoven Cello Sonata no 1, opus 5, no 1
by richibi
__________
through the good graces of a friend
of mine, a musicologist, who writes
the programmes for the chamber
music presentations put on by our
city’s recital society, pithy, pungent
pieces to prepare the patrons for
their palpitating performances, I had
the not only unfettered privilege but
also the undiluted glee, yes, glee, of
seeing, hearing, two internationally
acclaimed artists deliver works for
piano and cello of Beethoven, one
of them one of my very favourite
compositions, the opus 5, no 1
unable to find anything by these two
of anything of Beethoven’s, I struck
upon, instead, these two others,
titans in their field, the very two who
defined for me this exuberant sonata
in the eighties, wherein Beethoven
was finding, to my mind, his chops,
nothing before this, of his nevertheless
extraordinary output, had inspired me,
the early piano sonatas still sound to
my ear didactic, like someone putting
together academic theory, where here
Beethoven lets his spirit fly, let’s the
music running through him deliver,
carry unimpeded the fire, the charge
is electric
eccentricities abound, there are only
two movements, the first sports two
tempi, an introductory, hesitant,
segment giving way to the second
unfettered one, the contrast a move
in the direction of drama, I think,
highlighting context, narrative, an
aesthetic inspired, I’m sure, by
opera, and its combative
peregrinations
Beethoven wrote one opera, not at all
the equal of his other productions,
words were to get in the way of his
instrumental, it appears, music, his
more direct, ultimately,
communication
though you’ll not want to miss, from
“Fidelio“, his “Mir ist so wunderbar“,
a vocal quartet of the very highest
order
mir ist, you’ll say, so wunderbar,
indeed
Richard
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Richibi's Weblog 
The emotional texture of Beethoven’s music is just phenomenal. It’s easy to categorize him as the initiator of Romanticism in music but I think that actually does him an injustice. For me at least, he marks the point where Western music breaks out of centuries of self imposed order, a limitation in vocabulary if you will, and finally becomes responsive to and expressive of, the whole range of human emotional experience again.
the vocabulary was there, I think, phalanxednoise, Mozart and Haydn had given us the musical grammar, which is to say, Classical structure, the mathematics, if you will, Beethoven turned the whole thing into very language, narrative, philosophy, poetry, beyond the realm even of mere Romanticism
historically this happened at the birth of human rights, the French Revolution, the world was ready to hear its new masters
thanks for being here, phalanxednoise