Still in the Game
Faced with encroaching deafness, Beethoven embraces his career as a star performer, while he still can. Presented by Donald Macleod.
Beethoven had faced his encroaching deafness first with desperation and then with a new resolve: to live for his art, and make art that really counted. That meant not only making strides as a composer but embracing his life as a star performer, while he still could.
All this week, Donald Macleod traces Beethoven’s story through the momentous years of 1802 and 1803. It was a time that saw remarkable developments in Beethoven’s creativity as he pursued a self-declared ‘new path’ for his music. He undertook his most ambitious works yet, pouring his whole self into his art. At the same time his personal life was reaching a crisis point that would plunge him to the darkest depths of despair and threaten to ruin all his carefully laid plans for the future.
Composer of the Week is returning to the story of Beethoven’s life and music throughout 2020. Part of Radio 3’s Beethoven Unleashed season marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.
Piano Sonata No 17, Op.31 No.2 ‘The Tempest’, II. Adagio
Khatia Buniatishvili, paino
Quintet for piano and winds Op 16. III. Rondo
Robin Williams, oboe
Maximiliano Martin, clarinet
Peter Whelan, bassoon
Alec Frank-Gemmill, horn
Pavel Kolesnikov, piano
Andante Favori WoO 57
Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano
Violin Sonata in A major Op 47 ‘Kreutzer’ I. Adagio sostenuto - Presto
Veronika Eberle, violin
Oliver Schnyder, piano
Piano Sonata No 21 in C major Op 53 ‘Waldstein’, I. Allegro con brio
Igor Levit, piano
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Music Played
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No 17 in D minor, Op 31 No 2 'The Tempest' (2nd mvt)
Performer: Khatia Buniatishvili. -
Ludwig van Beethoven
Quintet in E flat major, Op 16 for piano and wind (3rd mvt)
Performer: Alec Frank-Gemmill. Performer: Pavel Kolesnikov. Performer: Maximiliano MartÃn. Performer: Peter Whelan. Performer: Robin Williams. -
Ludwig van Beethoven
Andante in F major, WoO 57 'Andante Favori' for piano
Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy.- Decca 4119022.
- Decca.
- 4.
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata in A major, Op 47 'Kreutzer' for violin and piano (1st mvt)
Performer: Veronika Eberle. Performer: Oliver Schnyder. -
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No 21 in C major, Op 53 'Waldstein' for piano (1st mvt)
Performer: Igor Levit.
Broadcast
- Fri 22 May 2020 12:00³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 3
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