Clement Lo wondered:

>>When I had to play the Beethoven Sonata Op. 31 no. 2 in an exam, I
>>was quite amazed at the amount of contrast that Beethoven got within
>>just 3 movements.  I have tried to understand how it became the "Tempest" ...

And Walter Meyer replied:

>As I recall reading, Beethoven, impatient at some listener's asking him
>the meaning of the sonata, fobbed the person off by telling him (or her?)
>to read Shakespeare's *Tempest*.

Yes, that's correct and the listener was famous impostor Schindler,
so why should we take it seriously? Schindler's lines on the birth of
the name of the sonata are vague.  He asked Beethoven for the meaning
of two sonatas, op.31 #2 and op.57.  And Beethoven replied (according to
Schindler): "Lesen Sie Shakespeares Sturm." Period.  No explanation which
of the sonatas was supposed to be stormy.  But since the Appassionata had
already received its name (by the publisher, not by Beethoven) the storm
was added to op.31 #2.  The problem with Schindler is that it's very
dangerous to believe him without confirmation by another, more reliable
source.  And in this case we don't have that source.  And yes, it's not
impossible and maybe even likely that Beethoven simply joked.  His disdain
for his "secretary without payment" is quite on the surface.

Clement continued:

>>This might seem a trivial issue and I don't mind people telling me I'm
>>wrong but pieces' names has been something that's interested me for quite
>>a long time (ever since I started playing the piano).  I remember when my
>>Dad played me the Pathetique sonata, I used to ask, "Dad, why is it called
>>the Pathetique? It's not a bad piece, it's really, really good!  It's not
>>sad either, or not really."

No, it's not bad.  On the contrary.  And it's also not really sad,
though I hear some "stress" in the first movement and melancholy in the
second.  However, the name is Beethoven's own.  How to explain? Maybe by
understanding that he used the word "Pathetique" in the original sense,
common in his days, not in the modern American one: full of emotion.

Joyce Maier
www.ademu.com/Beethoven