Celebrating Beethoven
On an unknown date in December, 250 years ago, a baby was born in the town of Bonn, Germany. The son and grandson of musicians, the child, named Ludwig after his grandfather, would grow to be one of the most celebrated artists in history.
Across the globe, musicians are celebrating Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th birthday in a variety of ways. At Chadron State College, the occasion is being marked with a series of performances of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas. Saturday, guest artist Jonathan Sokasits, professor of piano at Hastings College, will continue the celebration from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Sandoz Center Chicoine Atrium.
The pianist will perform sonatas No. 2 in A major, Op. 2/2; No. 13 in E-flat major, Op. 27/1; and No. 28 in A major, Op. 101.
Motivation for choosing the three pieces comes from Sokasits having played them at various points in his life – the first piece as a faculty member at Hastings and the second piece as part of his doctoral recitals.
“The last piece I played too young during my undergraduate years,” he said. “So it’s been neat to go back and restudy the pieces and in some cases try and do them more justice because they’re such wonderful works.”
Further motivation comes from the tie in of the first and last pieces being the only Beethoven sonatas in A major. “It’s a very ‘sunny’ key for Beethoven,” he said.
To the audience’s potential delight, the chosen pieces are also difficult, according to Bobby Pace, accompanist at CSC. Sokasits doesn’t necessarily disagree.
“My piano teacher at (the University of Wisconsin-Madison) Howard Karp was a lovely, generous soul – a phenomenal pianist – and he played Beethoven extremely well,” Sokasits said. “Anytime we were playing a Beethoven sonata he’d say, ‘Oh, he didn’t write them for us, he wrote them for himself to play.’ (Karp) had such reverence for their difficulty. They’re all hard. I don’t know if there’s an easy Beethoven Sonata, but these are certainly challenging pieces.”
The recital series was developed by Brooks Hafey, associate music professor at CSC, who in 2018 performed five concerts to honor the centennial of composer Claude Debussy’s death. As of today, three recitals have been held as part of the ongoing celebration of Beethoven. The performances will continue into the spring semester.
Playing all 32 sonatas is an accomplishment reserved for only a select group of pianists, according to Pace. Instead, Hafey chose to collaborate, performing five recitals himself, and inviting guest artists to play the remaining. Pace will give two performances.
The sonatas will not be played in any particular order, instead, each pianist has made a selection of pieces to play.
“The nice thing is, for the artists that chose their program, they chose sonatas that work together and have contrast,” Pace said. Having been composed throughout Beethoven’s life, the 32 sonatas, taken in order, represent the three commonly observed periods of his work – early, middle and late. Playing the pieces out of order allows each recital to offer music from different points in the composer’s life, Pace said.
“You can really hear how he progressed and that’s one reason that we regard his 32 sonatas so highly,” Pace said. “It really shows his development as a composer across his life. Everything he did, everything he tried, he did it first in his piano sonatas.”
Prior to each performance Pace records and distributes video program notes for those wishing to learn more about Beethoven and the sonatas being played for each recital. To receive the 10- to-15 minute videos, those interested should contact Pace to be placed on a mailing list.
In addition to the in-person performance, the recitals are also being streamed by CSC Live and some past performances can be found on the college’s YouTube channel.