Beethoven: The Final Sonatas in Bloomington, MN

There is hardly a crying need for another reading of
Beethoven
's last three sonatas, which are often described with superlatives. They do indeed deserve those, but there is more than one kind of superlative.
Thomas Mann
called the
Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
, a "farewell to sonata form," and there is a tendency to describe the works, which are among the most impressive examples of piano virtuosity before
Liszt
, in ultimate terms. However, what if that is not how
meant them? Much of his later music has an intimate, intellectual quality, and that is how pianist
Melvyn Tan
, known as a fortepianist but here playing a modern grand, approaches the three sonatas -- as cousins to the late string quartets, perhaps. Even in the Maestoso opening movement of the
C minor sonata
, he is measured, forceful but not loud, and he keeps the music generally on an even keel. In a note, he stresses the roots of
's writing in these works in the music of
J.S. Bach
and his son
C.P.E. Bach
. These roots are clear enough in the fugal finale of the
Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110
, but
Tan
goes further, shining the light on the contrapuntal intricacies and formal irregularities found in all three works. It is a fresh approach, and it really comes into its own in the later variations of the big
Op. 109
and
Op. 111
sonatas, which, in the latter case, achieve a remarkable delicacy as the music moves into the distant key of B flat major and stays there. Some may find that this approach lacks a certain late-Beethovenian ecstasy, but stick with it in these two variation sets; it is there, but one has to focus and have a little patience. This is an unorthodox set of
late sonatas, but it is one very much worth listening to, with fine Menuhin Hall sound that fits
's ideas. ~ James Manheim