Beethoven: The Last Sonata and the Scottish Songs

Description

Orlando Alonso, piano
Solange Merdinian, mezzo-soprano
Special guest: Jan Swafford, author of Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph

An evening of striking contrasts — and unexpected connections.

Around 1820, as Beethoven composed his final Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 111, he was also completing a series of Scottish Songs commissioned by a publisher in Edinburgh. The sonata — his last piano sonata — astonished his contemporaries with its radical design: only two movements, one of fiery defiance and the other of luminous transcendence. It stands as the culmination of his monumental journey through 32 sonatas, a spiritual testament in sound.

At the same time, Beethoven was fulfilling a much more modest commission — to arrange popular Scottish tunes based on poems by Robert Burns and others. These Scottish Songs, which he once dismissed as “trifles,” were meant for amateur musicians, yet even in their simplicity they reveal Beethoven’s wit, grace, and humanity.

To place these two works side by side is to witness the vastness of Beethoven’s creative world — from the cosmic to the domestic, from the profound to the playful.

The evening features pianist Orlando Alonso and mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian, with special guest Jan Swafford, acclaimed biographer and author of Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph, offering reflections on these works and on the life of the composer who could, within the same year, write for both eternity and the drawing room.

Presented in the intimate setting of the Steinway Gallery in Coral Gables, performed on a magnificent Steinway concert grand — a rare opportunity to experience Beethoven’s genius up close, where heaven and earth meet.
 

 Wine and Refreshments will be provided 

Date & Time

Wed, Oct 29, 2025 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Venue Details

Steinway Gallery

4104 Ponce de Leon
Coral Gables, Florida 33146

OAMusic