Although I’ve been enjoying having my computer perform classical music, I didn’t know the word Zyklus. It was only after my musical advisor pointed it out to me that I learned such a term exists. Zyklus (German for cycle) seems to refer to a concert where a series of works by a particular composer are performed consecutively. Since this blog has been sequentially covering Beethoven’s piano sonatas through my digital performances, it seems fair to say that this, too, could be considered a Zyklus.
Since New Year’s Day last year, I had the idea of burning all the Beethoven sonatas I’ve programmed so far onto CDs, and I’ve been gradually reviewing and revising them as I go. In other words ? it’s a Zyklus. However, for some reason, I had never sequenced the 27th Sonata. Perhaps because it has a somewhat different character from the others, I may have put it off. But since this was a good opportunity, I decided to go ahead and program it now.
This piece was written four years after the previous Sonata No. 26, Les Adieux, and for some reason, Beethoven didn’t compose any piano sonatas during that interval. You can probably find detailed accounts of Beethoven’s circumstances, physical condition, and the historical context of that period in other resources. Personally, I felt that the character of Sonata No. 27 was quite different from his earlier works, with performance instructions in each movement resembling those of a vocal piece. It seemed to me as if Beethoven was aiming for a new style of composition. The work itself is truly wonderful, but perhaps it was precisely this difference that made me hesitate to program it until now.