Quote:
Originally Posted by FAX
Beethoven was a true genius, Mr. Bugeater, but ultimately a traditionalist, don't you think? Not, perhaps, as courageous as others of his contemporaries such as Mozart or even Haydn who, although also considered formal in their approach, explored highly non-contemporary compositional expression.
FAX
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Our dear late (but never forgotten) friend Mr. Glenn Gould would argue differently
Cases can be made for all three (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven) advancing compositional expression. Particularly with Haydn, since both Mozart AND Beethoven were pupils of his. What they did, however, was moreso advance the Italian school of Baroque expression established by characters such as Monteverdi in the 16th century and inject it into the large symphonic forms. Additionally, both figures played a large part in cementing those as the firm forms. Sonata-allegro 1st movements, if not previously firmly established, were certainly done with Haydn (104 symphonies will tend to influence music that way). Also, Haydn is considered by most musicologists to be the father of the string quartet in the way they were composed. Mozart and Beethoven had to be deeply inspired in their quartet compositions, especially Beethoven, who took Haydn's work and added one more step.
However, it's what Gould talks about in that video that seperates Beethoven from the lot. As he lost his hearing, he appears to also have lost his patience for established sonata-allegro forms. Beginning with middle piano sonatas in 1810, he worked in the 2-movement form, and as this Op. 109 shows (from his last 5 piano sonatas) he was nearly CONSTRICTED by what was expected from good music those days. Because he was the first composer to really be a private journeyman, and not compose under the patronage system, he was allowed to create these incredibly complex works after he had established himself in Vienna, the music capital of the world. And he appears to have done marvelously for himself.
Here are the first two movements of the Op. 109 sonata Glenn Gould discusses. You'll see it's very unconventional. Serkin's a master at his age, at any rate.