John O'Conor: Hearing the Human Behind Beethoven's Piano Sonatas 

He would be such an amazing teacher🥹 He truly loves his craft

O’Conor’s complete Beethoven Sonata recordings are terrific! Have enjoyed them for years…

Wonderful insights. More from John O'Connor please

In the early nineties, back when I was 12 or something like that, the CD of John O'Conor playing Beethovens Pathetique, Moonlight and Appassionata, was the very first CD of Classical that I have listened and it was love from the beginning.

Beethoven's beauty in music is the best ever and so overlooked.

It's been said that, whereas Beethoven went to heaven, Mozart came from heaven, as witnessed by the latter's ability to write such heavenly music with such ease. This is hinted at in this conversation which I thoroughly enjoyed. But I couldn't disagree with that sentiment more. Here's my take on Beethoven: after him no composer would write 104 symphonies or 20-some piano concertos or 60+ string quartets. And not because Beethoven and those who came after him were any less talented. Or Mozart had divine inspiration. Beethoven's music is a watershed in Classical music; it would change how music was written. What Beethoven did was broaden and deepen the emotional range and content expressed in music. Whereas Mozart would always write music pleasant to the ear even when expressing sadness or anger, Beethoven would write the late string quartets and piano sonatas. Just listen to the great first movement of his last piano sonata. This could not have been written in the era of Haydn and Mozart. One consequence of this, each work became an individual expression. And that' by its very nature makes each composition harder to write. Don't get me wrong. I don't elevate Beethoven above Mozart or any of his predecessors, but I do recognize that music evolves, that it has a history, and Beethoven was History's means to transform the music of his time, as others had done before and after him.

I loved O’Connor’s version of Fields Nocturnes amazing artist

I am German, and this guy is really good in explaining lebewohl and Beethoven. Superb.

Love this guy. I looked him up here after listening to a record of him playing a couple short Beethoven sonatas in the 70s. He looked VERY different then!

What a privilege to listen to this beautiful conversation.

This is what quality discourse looks and sounds like amidst all the weeds on social.

Mr. O'Connor reminds me so much of my late piano teacher. I would give a lot for a single additional lesson. Sometimes the universe is cruel. I miss him.

This interview is wonderful. I have such a new understanding of Beethoven and a refreshed interest in the man and his work.

These interviews & insights are great to share tonthe world

This is fantastic! Thank you John O´conor ❤💖

Many thanks for your observations, very illuminating. Regarding what makes Beethoven’s sonatas such a towering achievement I think it’s their humanity. They take you to places of human experience that words cannot describe. If they could, Beethoven might have been out of a job which is simply unthinkable. Not a day passes that I don’t think about Beethoven or listen to some of his music. Thanks for uploading.

So much insight into Beethoven Thank you for the inspiration

Such great interviews from this channel!

The opening motif "Lebewohl" is also based on a horn call that would get sounded when a carriage would depart.

Thank you so much that I knew this great maestro.

Love it!

For me, Beethoven is a master of the ancient Greek Trivium - grammar, logic, and rhetoric - coming from Plato, though the term "Trivium" is from the Middle Ages. The piano sonatas are full of rhetorical devices (that require much musicianship to pull off). And the logic requires that you remember everything that that has happened so far so that you understand exactly what's happening now, as well as being able to set up what's going to happen next. The grammar starts with Mozart and Haydn, and using that grammar Beethoven ends up pretty much inventing a new language.

Loved it

An amazing historian. Merci beaucoup.

Great video. Thanks John. Kevin price.

Awesome 👏

great talk! I'd recommend Schubert's Beethoven Project by John M Gingerich (especially about the importance of 'memory' that you talk about around 12:56)

Bravo!!👌Que interesante!!🎶💞

Completely agree that Beethoven had always been “the same” in the sense of pushing the boundaries and stubbornly breaking conventions. That did not only start in his middle period as one might have believed.

13:48 WOW

After defeating the Terminator John Connor dedicated himself to the piano then? Good job

@11:38 exactly.

Could you put spanish subtitles please? The channel is amazing but there are some phrases that i don't understand, thanks

In terms of origin, Napoleon was a descendant of a (lower) noble family, so he was certainly not a nobody!

Beethoven was a giant, as Brahms would say "I hear the footsteps of the giant" when asked about his own compositions. And Brahms was a giant also.

This is what I want to do for the rest of my life when I have the time and money.

Great discussion - whilst Beethoven did live through some turbulent times (to say the least) - there was nothing "being beamed" into his "personal space" - by means of a tv or radio - about the "latest developments" in Napoleon's campaign or whatever - so his enormous creative powers could operate without the constant intrusion of the "latest news", tv images, etc - with the exception of the advent of the "steam engine" and some additional creature comforts, the state of affairs just described pertained during the lifetimes of later composers like Brahms and Tchaikovsky - do any of our contemporary piano composers wish they could revert to those days - and leave the "social media noise" behind ????

Enjoyable, but VERY short on the subject of humour in Beethoven's music. It's there, and LOTS of it - not just the sonatas. Quartets, symphonies, other chamber music. Not in every piece - I'll allow (as examples) that there really isn't any humour in the "Appassionata" sonata, or the op. 95 quartet. Was Beethoven frequently unhappy? Of course. But he was not lacking in a sense of humour. He CELEBRATED that humour (and joy) in music throughout his life. (Don't get me started on the Diabelli Variations). Don't be fooled by the iconography!

Could you please give my the name of the interviewer?

I think the ops 111 he was feeling regret and anger

Read Sullivan on Beethoven

Op. 111 suspends the listener higher and higher......then just leaves you there.

Beethoven 's stubborness and innovation are apparent as early as op.2 . What did Hadyn think . This kind of sound . Did Hadyn's letters talk about this phenomenon. The early A M sonata must have made the whole of Europe look up . A privilege O'Conor says .Yes . I luv how O'Conor shows op.10 FMajor Sonata . I must read his(Beethoven) letters . Do we have Hadyn's letters . Imagine what Mozart would have done if he had Beethoven and the 19th century to experience !!!

I don't believe this interviewer was very resourceful in his questioning. To interview John should be a pleasure and this interview extracted very little.

Mozart was a demi-God...he came with the music written on his DNA. Beethoven was a super-human who fought for every note through his pain and honest heart.

Such a brilliant mind, insightful on many different levels

I also think Beethoven believed in God - more specifically in Jesus Christ - cf his variation in the Eroica Variations that is from that famous Christmas carol. Schubert then used it, of course, as the theme for the first movement of his d 960.

nice video, even though personally I prefer Mozart and Haydn sonatas. Beethoven's just a bit too moody and dense for me.