Beethoven's 4 most sought-after piano sonatas, pianist Wu Muye want to challenge them

The Paper's reporter Liao Yang intern Zhang Zihan

Every year, pianist Wu Muye will carefully excavate a set of works of the same genre of a composer and assemble them into a special concert. From Schubert, Chopin to Beethoven, three sets of tracks are switched in three years. This time, the 35-year-old will approach Beethoven.

On May 28th, Wu Muye will present the four piano sonatas "Pathos", "Storm", "Moonlight" and "Passion", which are most sought after by music lovers and are also Beethoven's most famous piano sonatas, at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall, where he lives.

Playing at the home field he is most familiar with, Wu Muye said that he will do something more "emotional". The concert will launch a live live version, quickly launch the music platform in 72 hours, and be released in a limited edition worldwide in the form of vinyl records.

Music historians have regarded Bach's 48 average piano pieces and Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas as the "Old Testament" and "New Testament" in piano music, which shows its difficulty.

Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas were completed in 1795-1822, a period of 27 years. Among them, No. 8 "Pathos", No. 14 "Moonlight", No. 17 "Tempest", No. 23 "Passion", known as Beethoven's Four Piano Sonatas.

The four works were born in the early and middle of Beethoven's creative career, during which Beethoven experienced the frustration of love, the torment of illness and the trouble of loneliness.

"Pathos" is familiar to the world for its dramatic and beautiful melody. German poets once described the dream-like "moonlight" as "like a swaying boat on the moonlit lake of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland." At the time of the creation of "The Tempest", Beethoven was experiencing a period of auditory decline and mental crisis. Born in the mature period of Beethoven's creation, "Passion" shows a courageous "superman" strength, which Roman Rolland praised as "a great current of flames in the channel of granite".

"Music performances need to be complete with the participation of the audience, and I want the audience to feel that they are invited, and I don't want to have an invisible wall on and off the stage." Wu Muye said, for example, the "Pathos" third movement of the melody, since its inception has been very popular, from the background music of film and television dramas to music games can be seen, "I hope that audiences who are not familiar with classical music can suddenly realize: some of the melodies that are often heard are from Beethoven!" Thus taking this as an opportunity to enter classical music. ”

If ordered according to the creative period, it should be "pathos", "moonlight", "storm" and "enthusiasm", in order to balance the performance effect, Wu Muye put "Storm" at the end of the first half, "If you put 'Storm' and 'Enthusiasm' together, it may be too warm." ”

"Beethoven's works are like the pulse of life to me, I will follow the pulse when I was a child, but now, I will follow my heart. The way of playing is also different from before, and it is updated every moment. Speaking of Beethoven in his eyes, Wu Muye described, "Everyone sees the side of his strength, but in fact he is a representative of poetry." ”

When preparing for Beethoven, Wu Muye will also change some works to regulate emotions, and sometimes he does not necessarily play the piano, but walks on the street and feels a handful of nature. In his spare time, he also likes to go to art galleries, movie theaters or self-driving trips to replenish his energy.

Wu Muye's tour traveled to many places, in addition to the concert halls in big cities, he also went to the seaside library, and even loaded the concert hall into the cotton spinning factory for the cotton textile workers in Xinjiang.

The aura and inspiration generated by piano performance in different environments are different, "The piano is different, the audience is different, the altitude is different, the humidity and temperature are different, every time it is a new life experience, I will try to do the best." He said.

Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai

Proofreader: Luan Meng