LDV78.9

22 BEETHOVEN How do you view the stylistic evolution of Beethoven’s sonatas? I think that a fundamental breakthrough occurs with the so-called ‘Waldstein’ Sonata op.53, completed in 1804. The opening of this work – with its rumbling in the bass – has a somewhat impressionistic atmosphere. It is certainly not Debussy, but I advise my students at the Paris Conservatoire to convey this droning effect while preserving clarityof texture.This is anexample that leadsme to think thatwe shouldn’t talkabout phrasing in Beethoven, but about articulation and accent. The notion of phrasing only appears with Romantic composers. Beethoven remains above all a ‘Classical’ composer, and his early sonatas are influenced by the style of Haydn.