Hi everyone!
I've decided to post another old work here. The Piano Sonata no.2 in A-flat major (2015) is composed right after the completion of the first Piano Sonata in A major, Pastoral. It's a work in five movements and I will say it's the quickest composition ever for me since I finish the 1st draft of the first three movements within a week and the whole piece within three weeks. For me this is a free flowing one after the strictly cohesive first Piano Sonata, and honestly I love this one more since it displays more real emotions here. The style overall is still very Beethovanian and I am sorry Vince!
I choose to post the 2nd movement first because I am really happy to make a fairly good recording in 18th February and I really want to post this even without having a good recording for the 1st movement first. For me this Sonata is not that motivically cohesive as my other pieces is, so the order is not really too crucial here.
The 2nd movement itself acts as a counterpart to the serene and motivational first movement with its fiery denial power to the beauty of the previous movement (you will get it when I post the first movement!). I take the inspiration from the finale of Chopin's 2nd Piano Sonata since I am always fascinated by how Chopin wrote with two unison lines and produced such excitement and fury. I also use Sonata form for this diminutive movement as I want to experiment using it within a small time span as in Chopin's movement:
00:00 (b.1) 1st Subject, Exposition, in c minor
00:16 (b. 21) 2nd Subject, Exposition, in f minor
00:27 (b.35) Development
00:47 (b.61) 1st Subject, Recapitulation, in c minor
00:54 (b.70) 2nd Subject, Recapitulation, in c minor
01:11 (b.93): Coda, based on the motive in the first movement (yet to be posted). That D flat minor surprise, muahaha, is to prepare the Fourth movement which is in C sharp minor, my favourite movement of the piece.
I also take much inspiration from the first movement of Beethoven's op.111 since it's one of my favourite Beethoven Piano Sonata. I even quote exactly in b.85! (From b.25 of that movement)
The overall planning of the movements will be disclosed after the completion of this post, and I will keep practicing those movements (as well as the movements of the First Piano Sonata), so stay tuned!
Here is the pdf score and the mp3:
Piano Sonata no.2 Second mov.pdf
Piano Sonata no.2 2nd mov.mp3
Here is the youtube video if you are interested!
P.S Thanks Vince for suggesting me to upload the movement first!
P.P.S my favourite recording of Beethoven's op.111 is by Igor Levit since he's a god especially playing late Beethoven sonatas:
Hope you enjoy the music and the day!!
Henry