Beethoven: Sonata in F minor, Appassionata ( Pletnev, Gilels, Horowitz)

The Appassionata needs no introduction, and besides its impossible to explain everything significant about it here, so Ill just point out a few relevant features (see below). The extraordinary expressiveness of the work. It was never played in Beethovens lifetime: critics found it incomprehensibly abrupt and dark. The stark minimalism of the 1st movements opening theme, which consists of an arpeggiated F minor chord followed immediately by the Neapolitan, Gb major. The importance of Neapolitan harmony to the entire work. (Note its repeated and dramatic use in the 3rd movement, and the transpositional opportunities it offers. ) The high degree of similarity between the 1st and 2nd themes in the 1st movements (a big step away from the classical form) The way the 2nd theme of the 1st movement absorbs the tone of the 1st theme over the course of the 1st movement. The unorthodox modulation (in major thirds) in the development 3:30, and the preceding section of the 1st mo