Week 1: Beethoven Birthday Challenge – Choose Your Piece! 🎶

I will be working on the sister sonata to Moonlight- another sonata quasi una fantasia- Op 27/1 in E flat major. I was drawn in by the simplicity and calmness of the opening melody. This sonata is dreamy, warm, romantic and of course dark and turbulent at times as well. I am sure I will be playing it long after this challenge is over.🎶

I’ve selected Op. 28 because it has simply been on my bucket list for ages.  

I’m mesmerized by the incessant heartbeat of repeated D’s in the first mvt , morphing into the Andante A’s that carry the listener through to the minor key second mvt.  You almost feel like you’re hypnotized into hearing Beethoven’s own pulse propelling you through the whole sonata.  
 

And who wouldn’t like a nice Scherzo before a Rondo that wraps things up with a faster-than-a-speeding-bullet Presto ending?

I'll be playing a German Dance in C Major (WoO 8). I've selected it because I want to participate in the challenge - I've missed the fun of working alongside all my Tonebase Buddies - and it's one option my teacher offered to me. He said Beethoven's works aren't great pedagogically for me right now. 🙂 That will change soon enough, I hope! 

I have selected Beethoven’s Sonata No. 24 in F sharp Major (Opus 78). As Henle points out in the description “this work strikes a new and lyrically cantabile tone” - I guess that’s what made me fall in love with this sonata when I heard it for the first time.

Besides, F sharp Major is very unusual, so it will for sure make me practice scales again. And the sonata has only two movements, therefore making it a shorter work with the second movement - Allegro vivace - only around 3 minutes long.
Today, I started to work with my piano teacher on the first movement: so kind of a perfect start for this challenge.