Pianist Xun Pan (left) and violinist Simon Maurer. PHOTO COURTESY OF SIMON MAURER
Originally published in the Pottsville Republican-Herald on January 14, 2022.
In 2018, violinist Simon Maurer and pianist Xun Pan began an arduous project. The two would perform all 10 of Ludwig van Beethoven’s violin and piano sonatas live, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 2020. The final concert of the sonata cycle was scheduled for March 29, 2020, but was cancelled due to COVID-19.
After almost two years, the concert will finally be held Sunday at 3 p.m. in Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church, Orwigsburg. Admission is free but donations are recommended. Maurer and Pan will perform Beethoven’s Sonata No. 9 (“Kreutzer”) in A Major, Romance in F Major and Sonata No. 8 in G Major. The Romance is not part of the sonata cycle, but Maurer, who lives in New Ringgold and founded Schuylkill County’s Gabriel Chamber Ensemble, included it as “an encore.”
“It is meant to entertain, really,” he said. “I have played all these pieces all my life, but have never presented a complete cycle before.”
Pan, Director of Keyboard Studies at Millersville University’s Tell School of Music and artistic director of the Lancaster International Piano Festival, is currently performing and lecturing about all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. At Sunday’s concert he will give background information on the history of the sonatas and Beethoven’s life.
“I mainly focused on how I look at them from the perspective of a performer and educator regarding the history of the piano developments, publications and editions,” Pan said, “and what Beethoven originally wanted.”
According to Maurer, the “Kreutzer” sonata is arguably the most important of the ten.
“Its scope is by far the largest and the ideas most extravagant,” he said. “It has only three movements but is longer than any other of his violin and piano sonatas. The work is marked by extraordinary outbursts of passion, especially in the first movement.”
Sonata No. 8 was written when Beethoven was sent to Heilingstadt, a neighborhood of Vienna, in a last effort to treat his hearing loss. When he arrived at Heilingstadt, he wrote three sonatas, No. 8 being the third.
“The third one in particular is very jolly, super happy music,” Maurer said. “As if there were no problems in the world at all.”
Why have Beethoven’s works endured over 250 years after his birth?
“Perhaps the most simple answer to why that is so is that his music is enjoyable,” Maurer said, “even and perhaps especially when you have heard the works many times before. It just does not get old. His creative spirit still inspires.”
Comentarios