My friend Aaron over at WQXR sent me some ques­tions regard­ing Sunday’s Beethoven orgy. And here is what I answered:

1. How did you meet Beethoven? 

When I was eight, I came home from having oral surgery to find volume I of Beethoven’s sonatas waiting on the piano—a conva­les­cence gift from my parents. I sat down and started to sight-read them, starting with Op. 2, and I haven’t stopped.

2. Why did you pick this sonata(s)?

The two sonatas I picked are a study in oppo­sites: the Wald­stein is grand, virtu­osic, popular, boldy exper­i­men­tal, and in the bright, familiar key of C major. It’s Beethoven at his most joyous—the joy of playing the piano, and of being alive.

Op. 78 is tiny (just ten minutes), little-known (unde­servedly), and in the exotic key of F sharp. The first movement is an oddly textbook sonata form (two repeats!), the mature composer demon­strat­ing his facility through humble, almost ascetic means. Appar­ently it was one of his own favorites of the 32, and I can under­stand why; it has the contained bril­liance of a preco­cious child.

There’s some overlap, though. Both sonatas have a certain sense of melodic ease that didn’t always come natu­rally to Beethoven. They mostly forgo the char­ac­ter­is­tic mood­i­ness of the Tempest or Appas­sion­ata, and lack the contra­pun­tal rigor that marks the later sonatas. And they have that endear­ing Teutonic sense of humor; the fake-out at the reca­pit­u­la­tion of the Wald­stein, the goofy chro­matic flights in Op. 78’s scherzo.

3. What does Beethoven mean to you today?

I think pretty much the same thing Beethoven has always meant to everyone: a composer who wrote fasci­nat­ing, strange, amazing music.