Beethoven: Sonata Op.81a "Les Adieux / Farewell" - Historical Tempo Reconstruction - Wim Winters

Beethoven's Piano Sonata Nr.26, his famous "Les Adieux" (Farewell or Das Lebewohl) was on the top wish list of many of you for a very long time. I took my time to record it, I know, and there is a particular reason for it. Or more than one even (read further below)

0:00 Das Lebewohl - Adagio (8th = 66)
2:34 Allegro (H = 116)
15:54 Abwesenheit (Andante espressivo) (8th = 66)
22:54 Wiedersehen (Vivacissimamente) - Im Lebhafesten Zeitmaase (Dotted Quarter = 116)

Tempi after Czerny in WBMP (   • How Fast did Beethoven and Chopin really P...  ) / Pedal use limited to Beethoven's indications
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The "Les Adieux" was the first "big" Beethoven sonata I was asked to put on my program for the coming year, when I was studying piano in Amsterdam. It must have been my second year I believe. And so the entire summer I worked on that sonata with proud (of course) and a joy that is hard to describe. I absolutely LOVED every note of it, and I couldn't wait to share the result with my teacher (at the time still Jan Huizing, later I moved to Willem Brons' class).
And so I started the first lesson in September of the year 1993 (yes I'm getting old) with high expectations. But all those feelings of joy lasted for exactly 45 seconds in the first Allegro. As I was presenting my teacher my two months work and interpretation of this sonata, he started to laugh and made me stop, saying "yes, but we don't play that sonata like that. You play it much too slow, here take this tempo". And than he made me play the piece in a way I not only hadn't prepared, but totally ripped the beauty and deeper meaning of this incredible piece of art in a zillion pieces.
I delivered the sonata at my exam at the end of the year as requested and closed it, to be never opened till... last year.

It is a particularly dangerous sonata to "destroy" in terms of tempo. Most importantly because it is - certainly the first movement, the allegro, exposing a side of Beethoven we don't get to see often. The music is highly experimental, using both complex harmonic structures in fast runs as long notes, simulating the farewell gestures of the two friends leaving each other for a long time. The long notes are taking up the entire scene with absolutely no other assistance than... silence. It is one of those moments musicians today seem to be so afraid of of going really deep into the moment, letting the audience enjoy those signs of a dimension almost outside the scope of time.

Anyways. That "feeling" (or effect) Beethoven has put into that first movement needs to be "there", it all comes down to tiny little elements as dynamics, accentuation, sound, and ... timing. A LOT of timing. When it works it is ... pure magic...

The entire sonata is an incredible piece of art. But it is the first movement that gives the sonata this unique position in the entire piano-oeuvre Beethoven wrote. I don't recall another work as we speak that goes really that far in "describing" a scenery full of pure emotions.

Having said all of that, the second movement is incredible as well, opening the way for the later sonatas and much later music than the date of composition (1809/1810) suggests.

And the last movement? What's there to say...? "What a nice song is that?" my daughter asked this afternoon when the music was run a last time to check. "I really like that".
I smiled. What else can a father do when his 15 year old daughter gives a compliment to... Beethoven?
I didn't say to her that I'm playing about 9 notes a second here in the fastest spots. In other words, that movement alone would be enough to indeed ban the Single Beat Reading to fairytale world... I didn't say that because... if music speaks, the performer has to bow his head in humbleness and be... thankful.

Enjoy!
w.


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