Gilles Vonsattel first performed with Camerata Pacifica in 2017 and is now their principal pianist. He has played many Beethoven piano sonatas, but has been “genuinely” surprised by some that are rarely performed, like No. 15, which he calls “a treasure to discover.”
Gilles Vonsattel first performed with Camerata Pacifica in 2017 and is now their principal pianist. He has played many Beethoven piano sonatas, but has been “genuinely” surprised by some that are rarely performed, like No. 15, which he calls “a treasure to discover.” Credit: Camerata Pacifica photo

Adrian Spence does not pussyfoot around when talking about the relevance of Beethoven. The founder and artistic director of chamber music collective Camerata Pacifica is emphatic. 

“Beethoven single-handedly changed the direction of classical music,” he says, blue eyes blazing and Irish accent echoing his County Down childhood. “He was a radical, a revolutionary of his time. At premieres, people would leave thinking, “What the $@#! was that?’ These days, he’s on a ringtone, to his detriment.”

Spence is also radical by initiating a rarely attempted feat – over the next three seasons, Camerata principal pianist Gilles Vonsattel will perform all 32 of the great composer’s piano sonatas. 

“Beethoven 32” is presented in dedicated solo recitals and integrated into chamber music concerts. Eleven sonatas are performed this season. 

He and Vonsattel come out swinging, beginning not with Beethoven’s early sonatas composed when he was in his mid-20s, but with the demanding Sonata No. 29, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier,” penned when he was nearing 50 and totally deaf. 

Adrian Spence founded the chamber music collective Camerata Pacific in 1990 and serves as its artistic director.
Adrian Spence founded the chamber music collective Camerata Pacific in 1990 and serves as its artistic director. Credit: Camerata Pacifica photo

This performance comes at the Camerata Pacifica concert on Wednesday at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, and also in venues in San Marino, Thousand Oaks, and downtown Los Angeles. Visit www.cameratapacifica.org for ticket information. 

“Hammerklavier” is considered the most difficult of the 32 sonatas and is the longest, often exceeding 45 minutes. (The sonatas’ average length is 20 to 25 minutes; the shortest is the nine-minute Piano Sonata No. 25, Op. 79, nicknamed “Sonatina.”) 

Vonsattel first performed with Camerata in 2017. A 2019 review in “Bachtrack” stated, “He worked as if revealing music out of sound the way Michelangelo revealed figures in stone. He had a wonderful light touch, but one was always aware that he could unleash formidable power at any moment.” 

Why undertake this titanic task? Spence was met for coffee, and Vonsattel checked in from Manhattan via Zoom to explore the project.

What makes Beethoven’s piano sonatas special?

Spence: This is how Beethoven revolutionized classical music: with the idea of “self” and the confusion of the human experience. He attached emotion to form and beauty. The music became personal.

Beethoven was a pianist and wrote piano sonatas throughout his life, so in a way, they trace his creative life and document the man and the composer. 

You don’t have to be musically educated as a listener; you can hear yourself in the music. The best classical music expresses the universal nature of our most personal expressions. 

Why start with Hammerklavier? 

Spence: It’s like a movie that starts with the climax. Boom! We want the audience to lean in. It is such dense writing, and has such virtuosity and beauty. 

You can’t program it with other sonatas; it is that different from them. It’s man against a 9-foot-long Steinway piano, and the arena is Hammerklavier. Gilles is like a gladiator with this material.

We reset after this first concert. March and April bring two piano sonata recitals back-to-back. The January concert has two sonatas, along with works for piano and viola by Schubert and Schumann. It all makes sense programmatically. 

The season’s final concert in May includes Piano Sonata No. 2, an early masterpiece that helped cement Beethoven as an important composer, along with works spotlighting percussion. 

I’m now programming the next season and have some sketches for the third year. 

As a performer, how do you view Hammerklavier?

Vonsattel: It was such a subversive idea by Adrian to start with the most complex musical language that Beethoven developed. This is the biggest and boldest of the sonatas, almost volcanic. It’s an abstract work of total genius. 

Beethoven used pianos as his laboratory. In Hammerklavier, he works out musical ideas and goes wherever they lead him. It’s a physical and intellectual maze and an epic journey. It’s like the solar system expanding. 

The Hammerklavier Adagio is one of the greatest of all time, and seems to (predict) composers who come later, like Chopin, Schubert, and Brahms. 

Adrian Spence (right) at a Camarata Pacifica rehearsal with violinists Paul Huang and Jason Uyeyama. This is the chamber music collective’s 36th season, with performances at four Southern California venues, including Santa Barbara’s Music Academy.
Adrian Spence (right) at a Camerata Pacifica rehearsal with violinists Paul Huang and Jason Uyeyama. This is the chamber music collective’s 36th season, with performances at four Southern California venues, including Santa Barbara’s Music Academy. Credit: Mathew Imaging / courtesy photo

What is the biggest challenge in preparing for the sonatas? 

Vonsattel: Beethoven requires such concentration; nothing is taken for granted. Even “easier” sonatas are all really hard, in their sound, rhythm, fingering, and how they hang together. 

I started work on Hammerklavier a year ago. It is a different animal from the other sonatas, and takes so much more time (to prepare for) than anything else in the cycle. Nothing else is like it. 

It’s a stamina issue. By this time in his life, Beethoven makes no concessions; he stopped caring about the mechanics of playing the piece. I worry, is my right hand going to cramp in the fugue? 

But as Beethoven famously said to a musician complaining about the difficulty of his works, “Do you think I give a damn about your pathetic violin when the spirit speaks to me?” 

On the other hand, my 8-year-old son learned one of the sonatas before I did. I used to walk by and listen to him play the piece. 

Were there surprises?

Vonsattel: I’ve played a lot of the sonatas, but I was still genuinely surprised. It’s 11 hours of music.

There are so many amazing early ones that you don’t hear on the concert stage. Some are funny, others operatic, dramatic, or with different energy. 

I will perform Piano Sonata No. 7 at the April recital. Beethoven put a lot of effort into it and was so proud. He tried to give it the name “the Grand Sonata,” but it didn’t stick. Though written in 1798, it feels like he was looking into the future, as it sounds like Schubert. 

The Sonata No. 15, “Pastorale,” is a real sleeper. We all know the “Pastorale” Symphony No. 6, written in 1808, but this earlier sonata is a treasure to discover.