Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas: A Handbook for Performers by Stewart Gordon (review)

In spite of the author's claim that this handbook should not be a collection of his ideas about playing the sonatas, the bulk of this volume (especially when paired with Gordon's critical edition) catalogs the impressions left by the sonatas on the pianist after years of investigation and practice. A more accurate title for this handbook would be Stewart Gordon on Beethoven: Observations and Reflections.

The author divides his study into two parts. The first half of the book examines five contextual areas that might inform or challenge a pianist seeking to learn a piano sonata by Beethoven: "Sources" (i.e., scores/editions), "Beethoven and the Piano" (keyboard models that Beethoven would have known or used), "Performance Practices" (e.g., ornamentation, pedaling, tempo), "Beethoven's Expressive Legacy" (distinctive qualities found in the sonatas), and "The Windmills of Beethoven's Mind." The first three of these chapters are both useful and informative, especially for those new to playing Beethoven's music. They provide a well-written description of some of the challenges that come with trying to decipher various editions within the context of early instruments and early styles of performance. A productive theme—and reminder—that emerges regularly and necessarily from Gordon's narrative is that modern-day pianos and styles of performance do not readily fit with those of Beethoven's time; moreover, our evidence for past practices is not always clear. Thus performers interested in how historical practice might influence their own interpretations are encouraged to make informed choices and present their own creative and personal solutions. It is a credit to the handbook (and likely the author's pedagogy) that Gordon does not simply present replicable solutions to various quandaries, but instead frames the problems that performers might consider. Indeed, the author does not sweep ambiguity or controversy under the rug even while he makes a case for his preferred interpretations. These three sections are, perhaps, the most beneficial for performers.

The exploration of Beethoven's mind and expressive legacy is more problematic. The author presumes conclusions (and makes assumptions about his audience) that undermine the value of his analysis. He begins chapter four with the following series of questions:

"Why is Beethoven's use of common harmonic practice more expressive than those of other composers? Is not Beethoven's dominant-to-tonic harmonic progression the same as that used by countless of his contemporaries? Why can a Beethoven slow movement transport us to higher realms of consciousness so effectively, while the slow movements of others are merely pleasing? Why do Beethoven's sonorities call up the elation of man's victory over cosmic adversaries, while the sonorities of others merely suggest earthbound excitement?" (p. 51)

If these questions (which are reminiscent of antiquated or Romantic histories from the early 20th-century) are the author's starting assumptions, any subsequent analysis that serves to prove these claims is little more than a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other words, if the reader is to assume from the start that Beethoven is great and that his music is a reflection of the composer's genius and perfection, any observation about connections or details in the score, however profound or insignificant, can only be understood as evidence of Beethoven's genius. By hiding behind the curtain of Beethoven's greatness, Gordon is able to avoid reflecting on the value or historical origins of his analytic or aesthetic criteria. In short, while chapters four and five provide interesting collections of data (e.g., lists of sonata movements having recapitulations that occur in an unexpected key), the connections between sonatas or the composer's "manipulation of tonality" (p. 61) are no proof of Beethoven's genius (especially when there is no discussion of Beethoven's predecessors or contemporaries to whom he is compared).

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