Pianist Xu Pan and violinist Simon Maurer perform Beethoven at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Orwigsburg. PHOTO BY LINDSEY SHUEY
Originally published in the Pottsville Republican-Herald on January 17, 2021.
ORWIGSBURG - A musical journey four years in the making ended Sunday at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. New Ringgold violinist Simon Maurer and Lancaster pianist Xun Pan completed their quest to perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s 10 sonatas for piano and violin. This grand finale to the concert series that began in 2018 was originally scheduled for March 2020, but was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Beethoven sonatas were the perfect showcase for Maurer and Pan’s virtuosic abilities. With an intense look in his eyes and one of his trademark elaborately-patterned Nehru jackets, Maurer resembled a musical mad scientist, and Pan, hunched over his piano with furious dedication, was his assistant. Together, the two produced beautiful and challenging sounds in a lovely little church.
In Maurer and Pan’s hands, Beethoven’s Sonata No. 9, the “Kreutzer,” was unlike anything I ever heard in my life. The sonata is a thriving ecosystem, filled with thoughts and ideas. It is a work of mood swings, from rage to melancholy to confusion to introspection to playful jollity. It is a work as complex as emotions themselves. Meanwhile, poor Maurer and Pan don’t get a break.When the Kreutzer sonata reached its climax, several people in the audience gasped and sighed. I was surprised that smoke wasn’t rising from Maurer’s bowstrings.
Beethoven’s Romance in F. Major is a lullaby in comparison, but still an impressive demonstration of the piano’s ability to evoke an entire orchestra, while not losing intimacy. Pan’s playing was reminiscent of what Maurer called the “pure, chaste” style that Beethoven was known for.
The final piece of the afternoon, the Sonata No. 8, was written during a turning point in Beethoven’s life. He was depressed, had no luck with the ladies and had lost 60 percent of his hearing. As a last resort, Beethoven’s doctor ordered him to spent six months in the relaxing hot springs of Heilingstadt. At first, Beethoven was hopeful that he would be healed, and Sonata No. 8 represents his optimism. However, the rumbling piano and edgy violin still show signs of the “melancholia” that gripped the great composer.
Sadly, Heilingstadt did nothing to prevent Beethoven from going completely deaf.
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