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MENAHEM PRESSLER
By choosing Beethoven’s Bagatelles, you provide a spiritual link
with Mozart . . .
Beethoven was influenced by Mozart’s style. He would have liked to study with
him, and he is thought to have met him in 1787. But his mother’s death forced him
to give up the idea in order to support his family. Later, he worked with Haydn.
Mozart’s influence is felt even in the DiabelliVariations, which is a latemasterpiece,
but dates from before these Bagatelles.
Do you think Beethoven conceived a new musical form in his
Bagatelles, a freer form that prefigures Schubert?
No, I don’t believe so. Beethoven didn’t invent new forms, and I don’t think that
Schubert knew these Bagatelles. But we know that Schubert was conscious of the
importance of Beethoven’s sonatas. It was only after the older composer’s death
that he wrote his final sonatas, which are incredibly daring harmonically.