Beethoven: 6 Variations on an Original Theme in F Major, Op.34 (Mustonen, Lortie, Korstick)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มี.ค. 2018
- The Op.34 Variations can come across as slight (if very beautiful). In fact, they’re one of the most important sets of variations ever written, as they represent B.’s most successful attempt at large-scale organization in theme and variation form.
A bit of context on this. The major problem of theme and variation form is that - if you think about it - the form has no natural sense of order or finality (contrast this to sonata form). You can, in principle, keep varying on forever, and once the variations get going there is no natural impulse which checks the momentum you’ve built up. One standard way of solving this problem is to use a fugue to end (or almost-end) a set of variations, since a fugue represents the most thorough and internally rigorous way of examining a theme - you put it at the end to say, “And now there’s really nothing more to be said about this theme.” This is what B. does in the Diabelli and Eroica, and what Brahms does in the Haydn/St Antoni. Another method is to imply some large-scale movements within a set of variations: Rachmaninoff was particularly adept at this. And yet another is to end by building into a recapitulative structure - so in the Goldbergs the ending is heralded by the Quodlibet, which breaks the work’s structure by forcefully entering where there should instead be a canon at the 11th, which in turn clues you in to the fact that something special’s going to happen (the return of the aria).
B. uses a little of that last method here, but what is by far and away the most striking aspect of the Op.34 is how B. manages to impose a pattern of almost Schubert-like tonal organization over the set (B. was actually quite proud of this novelty of having every variation in a different key - he told his publisher to ensure that this fact was mentioned in the printed edition). The ingenious thing is not only that this structure exists, but that this structure also acts as a colouristic device: it has one foot in sonata form (structure) and another in variation form (in-the-moment texture). So a set of variations that really is a highly disparate group of character pieces (7 keys, 4 time signatures, various dance forms) sounds coherent and directed in a way no other set of variations B. produced quite manages.
On tonality: the variations move down a chain of 3rds or delayed 5ths (F-D-Bb-G-Eb-Cmin/maj-F) to land on the dominant C, which then sets up the return to the last restatement of the theme (which itself is a pretty clever thing, also serving as final variation and cadenza). It’s striking how sonata-like this scheme is - the end of Var.5 comes right out of a sonata's development section. At the same time, the largely unprepared modulations create some really nice shifts of colour between variations. The entrance of Var.1 in D has an open-ended, expansive feel characteristic of modulation down by minor 3rd (helped also by the higher tessitura), and the move from D to Bb also has a characteristic modulation-down-by-major-3rd feel - something more rounded, closed, warm.
Another structural device that’s first presented as a textural one is the vii diminished 7th over F you hear in bar 6 and which recurs in the 3rd-last bar of the theme. It’s a beautiful expressive device, functioning basically as a rootless dominant 9th floating over the tonic. But it also chains the variations together, because the progression of keys through the piece means that the same diminished 7th harmony (or something very close to it, like a borrowed iv from the parallel minor) is always heard in successive pairs of variations, but each time resolving differently. So in the theme and Var.1, you get E dim.7th (resolving to F and D), in Vars.2-3 you get A dim.7th (resolving to G min/Bb and G), and in Vars.4-5 you get D dim.7th (resolving to Eb and Cmin). There are other decorative devices that also get given structural treatment, such as the F pedal you hear in the first two bars and the dotted rhythm which closes the first phrase of the theme in bar 7: both motifs recur constantly, with the latter opening Vars.2, 4, 5, and 6.
Some other things worth noting: Var.5 anticipates the second movement of the Eroica Symphony, soon to be written after this work. The florid decoration of Var.1 mimics the sort of technique you usually see at the end of a set of variations, rather than the beginning, and Var.6 follows in the footsteps of the Goldbergs in using something festive and celebratory to anticipate the end of the piece. - เพลง
Mustonen:
00:00 - Theme in F, Adagio - Cantabile
01:43 - Var.1 in D
03:07 - Var.2 in Bb, Allegro, ma non troppo
04:03 - Var.3 in G, Allegretto
04:58 - Var.4 in Eb, Tempo di Menuetto
06:22 - Var.5 in Cm, Marcia - Allegretto
08:10 - Var.6 in F, Allegretto
09:37 - Theme/Coda/Cadenza
Lortie:
11:54 - Theme in F, Adagio - Cantabile
13:39 - Var.1 in D
15:12 - Var.2 in Bb, Allegro, ma non troppo
16:18 - Var.3 in G, Allegretto
17:56 - Var.4 in Eb, Tempo di Menuetto
19:21 - Var.5 in Cm, Marcia - Allegretto
21:30 - Var.6 in F, Allegretto
23:24 - Theme/Coda/Cadenza
Korstick:
25:47 - Theme in F, Adagio - Cantabile
27:37 - Var.1 in D
29:14 - Var.2 in Bb, Allegro, ma non troppo
30:11 - Var.3 in G, Allegretto
31:29 - Var.4 in Eb, Tempo di Menuetto
33:17 - Var.5 in Cm, Marcia - Allegretto
35:23 - Var.6 in F, Allegretto
37:03 - Theme/Coda/Cadenza
It’s nice that you can tell from just the way the first two bars of the piece are taken how different each of these interpretations is going to be. Mustonen is arch-classical, full of life: the playful staccato on the rolled F chord, the perfect evenness of every pedal-less scale, arpeggio, and trill (those at 9:57 and 10:47 are superhumanly even), the perky scherzo that is Var.6, the lithe dynamic inflections in Var.3. Lortie is meltingly lyrical and probably the most flat-out beautiful, with broader tempi: Var.6 comes across as more song than dance, Var.3 as almost-lullaby, and Var.1 as an exuberant improvisation. Korstick highlights the rougher edges of this work: in Var.4 all those satisfying dissonances and accents get a really good showing, Var.5 is violent and tragic, with typically biting dynamic contrasts, and Var.6’s folk-dance character is the best captured among all the recordings here.
Nice!
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I never realized just how significant this variation set was until I read your analysis. I knew it existed but I never really listened to it really intensely. But now I’d say it’s one of Beethoven’s most significant works actually. His treatment of key signature in this set is deeply innovative. This is one of Beethoven’s works where he really opened the door of the 19th century - the other two being op.26 and the Eroica.
Thank you for giving such a detailed analysis. I have only known this piece through listening, and never thought it was anything special. You really opened a whole new door to a world of enjoyment.
I didn't know this piece as a Beethoven fanatic! Thank you for sharing.
Wow, I don't know this piece at all. Thanks for putting this up, it's lovely.
I think I'll go buy some Lortie recordings now.
Wow great upload. I enjoy your description section and am grateful for the scrolling video. Bravo!
wonderful treat! i don't believe i was aware of this work but looking forward to absorbing myself in it before morpheus absorbs me :)
thankyou so much AXK
Great music! And thank you for the additional information!
Beautiful!
excellent!
BEAUTIFUL
The many changes of keys were unusual. Beethoven did in this way only once, in this work.
Please, could you publish Beethoven's piano concerto no 5?
Very Schubertian. I love it.
I find it to be rather similar to the first movement of Mozart's last violin sonata also in F major (the theme at least).
Beethoven lived before Schubert:)
Very Mozabethoschubertian 😅
Next video: Eroica Variations (just guessing)
If someone begins playing piano and decides to study diligently, how long until they can play this?
Wonder why he plays F instead of G at 7:31
That's obviously a mishit that was overlooked by the recording engineer/supervisor during editing. It happens more than you'd expect, even with commercial recordings. Sometimes a flaw like that can't be corrected due to the fact that there aren't enough alternative takes and there isn't time or budget left for another recording session.
Very Schubertian. I love it.but these variation were written before Schubert was born HAHA that's Beethoven ahead of his time even in his earliest works
They were written in 1802, when Schubert was five years old.
Che que lindas variationes, tremendas, locura total !!!! Este beto era un loco eh?
🌼
Omg Ashish why did your recording of all the chopin nocturnes from Moravec get deleated?:(( i watched it so often it was so nice to hear all nocturnes nicely played and to watch the score in the background. why is it deleted ://
th-cam.com/video/kHXxWfSAxik/w-d-xo.html
9:06 is a must listen. damn
Doesn’t it sound like Mozart’s clarinet concerto?
Thomas Pantea : No.
Normanson2 I was talking about the third movement of the mozart clarinet concerto
Yes , especially the 2nd variation
Who is this mustonen guy and why have I never heard of him!!????
The canon in place of the Quodlibet in the Goldbergs should be at the 10th (30/3) ;)
Yes, the other thing is that it's the Haendel Variations that Brahms ends with a fugue, not the Haydn's.
Where do you have the score from?
Probably IMSLP. They host scores for free for works in the public domain.
7:02 :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) wrong note
My one little pet peeve on this work: I SO wish Beethoven had used a sharp key for the 5th variation. Until that variation, it’s really fun, the key changes oscillating between the flat keys and sharp keys.
מצחיק וחמוד עם מוסיקה חייזרית ומרושע בהמשך וסיום שחרזי רציני ואחרי זה דנטלי ב2. כי זה רק וריאציה.
Every time I listen to this piece, I feel the original theme is so slow-rather beautiful, though: I think the theme by itself could’ve well been an independent miniature piece, surviving on its own as is, or perhaps more developed into something like Andante Favori, the other under appreciated slow F major masterpiece, IMHO-anyway, so the theme alone feels ultimately so LONG-especially compared the compact tunes with such impacts that Mozart I swear must’ve had a special ear to pick out to be just the right themes for his variations. Having said that, I really do adore this variation: I cannot think of any other set of variations with such deliberate key changes. I really think the effects are wonderful. And that also begs the question: why it isn’t done more often. The key changes in variations, I mean. (Obviously except for the major/minor keys virtually every variation.)