Rage?

I just looked at the on-line list of his complete works. In keeping with my intent for the blog, I was intentionless. I mean, I intended to find what to listen to next, but with so little forethought it that felt intentionless.  I reconsidered hunting down Op. 1, Piano Trio No. 1 in E-flat major, then my mind bucked that as no fun and my eyes went wandering up and down the list. I finally stopped on Op. 129, "Rondo a capriccio", "Rage Over a Lost Penny".

As soon as I read the title, an entire elementary school worth of questions shot up their hands in my head.

"Rage? That's a strong word - why?" "How much was a penny worth back then?" "What was Beethoven like when he lost it?" "How did he lose this penny and why did he care enough to write a rondo?" "What exactly is a rondo?"

I played the Youtube video eagerly, expecting the 19th century equivalent of Rammstein.  Up came a pianist sitting in what looks like her study. She's wearing a fancy blue blouse, but otherwise looks like she's at home, submitting this video for a competition or a grant or her parents. It's very civilized and calm. And I'm thinking, "this has to be a trick. She's just baiting us into feeling comfortable before releasing the rage." She began to play. Fast and urgent, not remotely angry, but I knew it would come. Just when we felt cozy - pow. I waited. Knowing Beethoven was just building up to it - easing us into complacency before rage-punching us. I waited and waited and waited and then...it was over. The rage stayed home. It was a great performance of a nimble lovely piece of music, but a total rage let-down. I wanted piano-biting rage. Rage visible from space. But what did I get? Barely irritation. Not even pissy. Maybe, at the most, lightly miffed.

Which means the title might be a self-aware joke - from deafness and isolation and solitude, a joke.

Here it is. As in some of the Diabelli Variations, you get the sense of tremendous power capable of the lightest touch (a quality I admire in my favourite actors as well):

Robert Schumann wrote this of the piece: ""it would be difficult to find anything merrier than this whim... It is the most amiable, harmless anger, similar to that felt when one cannot pull a shoe from off the foot". 

I agree, Bob. Shoe pull anger. 

And by the way, a rondo is  "an instrumental composition typically with a refrain recurring four times in the tonic and with three couplets in contrasting keys".

This is also a Rondo:

So is this:

 

 

March 20, 2017: FOOTNOTE

 

In looking for details about something else, I came across this, explaining the title, "Rage Over a Lost Penny": "People complained he kept odd hours and played the piano too loudly, and, worst of all, he had a habit of shouting at his servants for stealing from him – the Rondo a capriccio of 1795 later gained the nickname Rage Over A Lost Penny because on the night he was writing it, the composer was sure a maid had stolen his gold penny and he turned his entire apartment over looking for it."