By Holland Garcia
Showing what a consummate professional he is, pianist Hans Boepple gave a stellar piano recital this afternoon for a small intimate audience in the home of Lyn & Renee Bronson, despite being under the weather with severe vertigo that caused a disturbing dizziness while he was playing. He opened his recital with Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in F Major, Op. 10, No. 2, playing with grace, charm, and great clarity. This sonata showed how Beethoven was a bridge between the classical and romantic period, being composed in classical forms while yielding to romantic extroversion in its emotionality.
Cyril Scott, the author of “Music: Its Secret Influence Throughout the Ages,” claimed that Beethoven’s music brought about a more compassionate society. He was convinced that Beethoven expressed emotion so overtly that it encouraged Europeans to display their feelings and become more humane and empathetic towards others. It is certainly true that even in the early Sonatas, Beethoven displayed emotions in a more forceful manner than any composer who preceded him.
