Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 30-32

Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his last Piano Sonatas Op. 109, 110 and 111 between 1820 and 1822. They are the last three of thirty-two different solutions pro- vided by the composer in this category, which began with the first sketches for his Sonata Op. 2 in 1790. Listeners and perform- ers alike – of whom literally everything is demanded – find these sonatas to be highly individual works, expressive in gesture and attitude as well as aesthetically independent. The last piano sonatas represent one of the greatest legacies in musical history and are considered an enigma to this day. For they have the ability to rise above the purely musical text, raising deeply human ques- tions and entering into realms that cannot be fathomed by means of any analytical tool. For they present a certain mindset, which is far from any kind of “Gebrauchsmusik” (= functional music): not only do they offer solutions to the technical and structural compositional problems of their time, they also drag the human as an individual into the spotlight. With his last three sonatas, Beethoven bequeathed to posterity – and thus also to the listeners of today – an exten- sive field, cultivated for us by interpreters such as Mari Kodama. For otherwise it would lie fallow forever.