24. Early Beethoven?

Beethoven: Sonata for piano in G minor, Op. 49, No. 1 (January 21, 2007) Beethoven: Sonata for piano in A Major, Op. 2, No. 2 (January 21, 2007) For years, music historians have fixated on dividing Beethoven’s works to fit neatly into three distinct periods: early, middle and late. In this program we’ll listen to two “early” sonatas for piano. Beethoven’s earliest music is about learning, in a lot of ways. He seems to be mastering the music around him, the style he’d grown up hearing, inherited from composers like Mozart. But there are also germs of the middle and late Beethoven: the composer revered for his musical discipline and structure, that architect of symphonic music.