• for piano opus 81B

   

  Review

  “In his grosse Sonate (Great Sonata) for piano solo, Casteels incorporates themes from every movement of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. Casteels did not add a single note of his own, nor did he need to transpose any passages. Instead, he skillfully stitched together "bleeding chunks" which cohered surprisingly well as it works its way from Beethoven's Op. 2 No. 1 to Op. 111, a musical journey spanning some 27 years. Purists will balk at this "Frankenstein's monster", but listening to it was an illuminating experience. Familiar measures sat comfortably with some which made one wonder, "Was this really Beethoven?". More importantly, it displayed Beethoven's wealth of expression and inexhaustible creativity”. 

   

  Chang Tou Liang, Singapore

• Duration: 55'
• In 4 movements
• Composed in 2015
• First performance: 20.08.15 Leslie Theseira, Muhammad Nazzerry and Choon Hong Xiang Recital Hall, Esplanade, Singapore
• ISMN 979-0-9016526-0-6
• Parts: pl email <rc@robertcasteels.com>
• Downloadable scores for inspection:
  Grosse_Sonate_-_2015_Version_Final_A4__4pp___50pp_.pdf.html

This score is a revised and corrected version of the Grosse Sonate score that was first published in 2012. Große Sonate is a journey through all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas in the form of a collage. The first movement quotes the first movement of each piano sonata by Beethoven. The same procedure is applied to the second, third (with trio or menuet) and fourth movements. Only harmonic patterns known and used by Beethoven were used to « glue » the quotations. The word collage comes from the french coller, to glue. Collage is a technique used in visual arts to create a new artwork from assembling pre-existing bits and pieces. In his own piano prelude opus 39 Beethoven journied through all tonalities. Beethoven composed thirty-two piano sonatas, from 1795 until 1822, from age 25 to 52, 5 years before his death. These sonatas are the pinnacle of piano music, awesome, inspired and inspiring. The brilliant ingenuity of their formal structures transcended Beethoven's own physical limitations as well as his keyboard's limited range. These sonatas are colossal cathedrals, towering mountains, vertiginous cliffs, implacable glaciers, green clearings, mellow valleys, sun rises, sun sets, sidereal storms. Their changing moods, sudden outbursts comprise a whole rainbow of human expressions: defiance, boldness, anger, sarcasm, humour and tenderness. This work of labour and admiration is humbly dedicated to all pianists who play all of Beethoven's thirty-two piano sonatas. Pianists Leslie Theseira, Muhammad Nazzerry and Choon Hong Xian premiered Grosse Sonate in 2015 in the Recital Hall of Singapore’s Esplanade during a piano recital entitled Piano++. The reviewer of the Strait Times wrote the following: “In his grosse Sonate (Great Sonata) for piano solo, Casteels incorporates themes from every movement of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. Casteels did not add a single note of his own, nor did he need to transpose any passages. Instead, he skillfully stitched together "bleeding chunks" which cohered surprisingly well as it works its way from Beethoven's Op. 2 No. 1 to Op. 111, a musical journey spanning some 27 years. Purists will balk at this "Frankenstein's monster", but listening to it was an illuminating experience. Familiar measures sat comfortably with some which made one wonder, "Was this really Beethoven?". More importantly, it displayed Beethoven's wealth of expression and inexhaustible creativity”. Casteels thanks pianist Leslie Theseira for his thorough editing comments.