Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas

The thirty-two Piano Sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven form one of the most important segments of piano literature. In this accessible, compact, and comprehensive guidebook, renowned performer and pedagogue Stewart Gordon presents the pianist with historical insights and practical instructional
tools for interpreting the pieces.

In the opening chapters of Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas, Gordon illuminates the essential historical context behind common performance problems, discussing Beethoven's own pianos and how they relate to compositional style and demands in the pieces, and addressing textual issues, performance
practices, and nuances of the composer's manuscript inscriptions. In outlining patterns of structure, sonority, keyboard technique, and emotional meaning evident across Beethoven's compositional development, Gordon provides important background and technical information key to understanding his
works in context. Part II of the book presents each sonata in an outline-chart format, giving the student and teacher ready access to essential information, interpretive choices, and technical challenges in the individual works, measure by measure, all in one handy reference source. In consideration
of the broad diversity of today's Beethoven interpreters, Gordon avoids one-size-fits-all solutions or giving undue weight to his own tastes and preferences. Instead, he puts the choices in the hands of the performers, enabling them to create their own personal relationship with the music and a more
powerful performance.

"The thirty-two piano sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven comprise one of the most important parts of the piano literature, yet true mastery of these works can be elusive to even the most seasoned performer. With years of experience performing and teaching the literature and intimate knowledge of the works, their history and context, renowned pianist and pedagogue Stewart Gordon guides today's pianist performer through each of the thirty-two sonatas in stunning detail."--Page 4 of cover.

"Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas: A Handbook for Performers is an excellent reference book, which helps any reader to understand Beethoven's creative genius, his innovations during the time in which he lived, and unusual facets of his personal life and character. For serious piano students and
performers, Gordon's Handbook is an inspiration for teachers and performers to play more of Beethoven's sonatas and to have more knowledge about each one to play them better for an audience. It also helps students who hope to be performers. Kudos to Stewart Gordon for a book that deserves to be in
every library of musicians who love Beethoven and his compositions." --American Music Teacher

"This friendly, helpful, refreshingly nondoctrinaire guide to performing Beethoven is quite far from what appears to be a hornet's nest atmosphere in American musicology today. It is addressed to thinking pianists who wish to make up their own minds about what Beethoven may have wanted in his
sonatas. It is a book of choices, reasonably argued." -- International Piano Magazine

"Although there are moments, here and there, that synthesize research and approaches to the sonatas (especially chapters 1-3), the rest of the book presentsan expanded version of the author's excellent and thoughtful critical edition combined with Romantic commonplaces
about the universality of music, debatable claims about Beethoven's intentions, and peripheral background information. In order to appreciate Gordon's observations about
Beethoven, performers and readers would be best served by paying careful attention to the extensive commentary" --Notes