Climbing the Beethoven Mountain: Cynthia Perry MacCrae to Perform All 32 Piano Sonatas

By Michael Huebner | mhuebner@al.com 
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on August 20, 2013 at 4:05 PM, updated August 20, 2013 at 4:09 PM

   

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- For many pianists, playing all 32 of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas is a career achievement, a monumental test of strength, endurance, emotion and intellect. The feat has been compared to scaling Mount Everest. Collectively, the sonatas have been called the New Testament of piano playing, the Old Testament being both volumes of J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

The idea has been tugging away at University of Montevallo piano professor Cynthia Perry MacCrae for three or four years. On Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 26-27, she will take her first steps from base camp in the first of 10 recitals -- actually 20, if you count repeat performances. She will play them at LeBaron Recital Hall in Montevallo and the Alabama Piano Gallery in Hoover.

"It had been mulling around in the dark recesses of my mind," said MacCrae, a Huffman native who studied at Alabama School of Fine Arts, Indian Springs School, University of Alabama and Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. "Would anything ever come of it? I didn't know. It kept popping back up. In the last decade or so, I've grown to love the sonatas more and more. They just called to me."

The Beethoven cycle has been completed in many ways. Fine recordings are available from the likes of Murray Perahia, Wilhelm Kempff, Richard Goode, Artur Schnabel and Vladimir Ashkenazy; Arthur Brendel, Daniel Barenboim, Seymour Lipkin, Claudio Arrau and Emil Gilels. But performing them all live adds a new dimension for performers and listeners alike. Cycles range from multi-year stints to a single day.

Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear recently performed them all in three installments on a single day -- June 22 -- in Philadelphia. It was his third time to do so following sessions in Ottawa and Toronto. Richard Goode's two-week, seven-recital cycle in 1987 in Kansas City was an exhausting and memorable extravaganza. In 1994, Birmingham-Southern College's William DeVan completed them in a two-year cycle.

'HAMMERKLAVIER' AT THE SUMMIT

For the Beethoven cycle, MacCrae is planning the 10 programs over a five-month period.

"I toyed with the idea of doing eight recitals, but I thought shorter programs would work better," she said. "After awhile, the brain can't absorb as well. I also wanted to go easier on the audience, as well as myself, to keep the audience coming back for future performances. If they are exhausted by the end of a recital, they may not look forward as much to the next one."

Although MacCrae is still unsure whether to include intermissions, but each recital is expected to last about an hour and have between two and four sonatas.

The most intimidating part of the series?

"The Fugue of the 'Hammerklavier,'" she said without hesitation, referring to Sonata No. 29 in B flat, Op. 106. "I tell you, if I could trade any four sonatas for the 'Hammerklavier,' I would."

At 45 minutes, the length of the "Hammerklavier" is unprecedented for Beethoven's time, and from the outset it projects the composer's inner struggles and psyche.
"The third movement is almost like you're looking too deeply into someone's subconscious," she said. "To sustain the attention, plus the listener's attention, for that length of time, is an awesome task."

In planning the order, MacCrae was more concerned with key relationships than chronology. The first recital, for example, includes the keys of E major, F sharp major, C sharp minor ("Moonlight") and A major, all keys with sharps in the key signature.

The final three recitals will include Beethoven's last three sonatas -- Opus 109, 110 and 111, but the final recital will also include, appropriately, Sonata No. 26 in E flat major, Op. 81a -- "Les Adieux" (Farewell).

"I really admire someone who does Op. 109, 110 and 111 in one recital, but you need contrast of styles and moods, too," she said.

Although the performances will not be memorized, MacCrae will be turning to a high-tech device for assistance. In place of a printed score, pages have been loaded onto an iPad that will be placed on the music rack. Page turns will be controlled remotely by foot pedals -- right pedal for forward, left for reverse.

"I had seen Christopher O'Riley use a computer monitor, so I knew there was something out there," she said. "I read that Jeremy Denk uses this and has had a lot of success with it."

TWO PIANOS, TWO CITIES

Every recital will be performed on a nine-foot Steinway, but each was built in a different city. A Hamburg Steinway has resided at UM since 1983. MacCrae, who has been on the UM faculty for 20 years, is intimately familiar with its moods and peculiarities.

"It has had good years and less wonderful years as the hammers get to a certain usage point," she said. "It's probably at 75 percent of its prime now -- it sounds really good. There have been times when it is jaw-droppingly good. It's the best piano I have ever touched."

At the Piano Gallery, a Steinway dealer, the newer New York-built Steinway has received fine treatment, she said.

"It is in really good shape," said MacCrae. "It's a lovely instrument and it's being maintained very well. It gives me everything I need to work with. For every recital I do, I have to get used to the piano. I'm accustomed to playing on a lot of different instruments."

"This music has the ability to feed the soul and speak to the spirit."

Technical issues, instruments, iPads and stamina aside, taking on the project means tapping into the soul of a genius who died nearly two centuries ago.

"He was such a brilliant mind and composed such a wealth of material," she said. "This music has the ability to feed the soul and speak to the spirit. The sublime is always referred to when you're talking about Beethoven."

To illustrate the technical versus creative aspects of the project, she recalled a story from her childhood about two bricklayers.

"If you ask one of them, 'What are you doing?' he says 'laying bricks.' If you ask the other one the same question,  he says, 'I'm building a cathedral.'"

THE 32 PIANOS SONATAS OF BEETHOVEN  Cynthia MacCrae, pianistMonday nights at the University of Montevallo, LeBaron Recital HallTuesday nights at Alabama Piano Gallery, 1425 Montgomery Hwy., HooverAll performances start at 7:30 p.m.
Admission: Free.

1. Monday, Aug. 26; Tuesday, Aug. 27

Opus 14, no. 1 (1799), Piano Sonata No. 9 in E majorOpus 78 (1809), Piano Sonata No. 24 in F sharp majorOpus 27, no. 2 (1801), Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor "Moonlight"Opus 2, no. 2 (1796), Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major

2. Monday, Sept. 9; Tuesday, Sept. 10

Opus 27, no. 1 (1801), Piano Sonata No. 13 in E flat majorOpus 10, no. 1 (1798), Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minorOpus 53 (1803), Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major "Waldstein"

3. Monday, Sept. 23; Tuesday, Sept. 24

Opus 90 (1814), Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minorOpus 10, no. 3 (1798), Piano Sonata No. 7 in D majorOpus 109 (1822), Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major

4. Monday, Oct. 7; Tuesday, Oct. 8

Opus 7 (1797), Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat majorOpus 2, no. 1 (1796), Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minorOpus 26 (1801), Piano Sonata No. 12 in A flat major

5. Monday, Oct. 21; Tuesday, Oct. 22

Opus 31, no. 1 (1802), Piano Sonata No. 16 in G majorOpus 49, no. 1 (1792), Piano Sonata No. 19 in G minorOpus 79 (1809), Piano Sonata No. 25 in G majorOpus 28 (1801), Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major

6. Monday, Nov. 4; Tuesday, Nov. 5

Opus 31, no. 3 (1802), Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat majorOpus 22 (1800), Piano Sonata No. 11 in B flat majorOpus 57 (1805), Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor "Appassionata"

7. Monday, Nov. 18; Tuesday, Nov. 19

Opus 10, no. 2 (1798), Piano Sonata No. 6 in F majorOpus 31, no. 2 (1802), Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor "Tempest"Opus 101 (1816), Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major
8. Monday, Dec. 2; Tuesday, Dec. 3

Opus 2, no. 3 (1796), Piano Sonata No. 3 in C majorOpus 13 (1799), Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor "Pathetique"Opus 110 (1822), Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major
9. Tuesday, Jan. 7 (Hoover)*; Monday, Jan. 13 (Montevallo)*

Opus 54 (1804), Piano Sonata No. 22 in F majorOpus 106 (1818), Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major "Hammerklavier"

10. Monday, Jan. 27; Tuesday, Jan. 28

Opus 49, no. 2 (1792), Piano Sonata No. 20 in G majorOpus 81a (1809), Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major "Les Adieux"Opus 14, no. 2 (1799), Piano Sonata No. 10 in G majorOpus 111 (1822), Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor
*Note reversal in venue order, this program only



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