Haydn English Sonatas, Beethoven Piano Concerto 2

The early Beethoven, the late Haydn… Where is the borderline between these two – what is the connection, what differentiates them? Although their ways of life and characters were clearly different, both masters lived in a time during which it was as important to obey the prescribed musical rules as it was to connect the artists intellect with his creativity, personality, and emotional world.

I make express use of the word artist here, because nowadays it is customary to divide the word artist into the composer and the interpreter. It is a known fact that the young Franz Liszt, when playing before Beethoven, was only able to satisfy the older master when he had transposed a Bach fugue into another key and, in addition, had improvised for a half hour! How, indeed, would Beethoven react today, when, instead of an own cadenza, the performer offers Beethovens cadenza exactly as planned and, moreover, carefully prepared? We forget all too easily that the cadenza is a free space for the soloists personal inventiveness and expertise in improvisation, as well as his technical brilliance…..