We are told that Beethoven was possessed by passion and logic, by angels and demons, by tenderness and fury, by the tragic sense of life— that his last five piano sonatas, the greatest music written for that instrument, were metaphysics translated into sound. Though Beethoven was a virtuoso of the piano and knew the precise function of the notes he set down on paper, we are told that passages in the sonatas are unplayable—a belief that Ferruccio Busoni dealt with half a century later in the paradox that “everything is possible on the piano, even when it is impossible to you, or really so.”
Yet in contemplating those overarching works—scores that pushed the instrument to a point beyond which no other composer would go—it is wise to remember that for Beethoven form transcended unbridled inspiration. As one critic has noted, even where the poetic idea suggested a sacrifice of form, Beethoven resisted the temptation. At no time was he massaging his psyche. This is something to bear in mind when considering the performance of the last sonatas.
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