Beethoven and the Piano : Philology, Context and Performance Practice

Abstract

Together with the symphonies and the string quartets, Beethoven’s piano works constitute the core of his output both in terms of their compositional ambitiousness as well as their reception. This book reflects the state of the art for research on these topics on the occasion of the Beethoven jubilee year 2020. Beethoven’s piano works are considered from three main perspectives: performance practice, philology, and the technical development of the piano. The relationship between the notated score and its realisation is a key issue in performance practice studies: how much and what kind of information is implied in the presence or absence of certain notational signs ? If no indication is present, the performer is expected to resort to common standard practice. But what was the standard practice in the time of deep transformation in which Beethoven lived? And was the composer himself not constantly unsettling the rules and consciously working against expectations of all kinds?