When Immortal was published last October, I made a playlist to go with it on Apple Music. This was originally intended for the subscribers to the novel. As they've now had exclusive access to it for quite a few months, I'm happy to open it up to interested readers. It's a substantial quantity of music, lined up in the order you'll need it. Below is a list of which pieces go with which chapter. Hope you enjoy it.
The pieces are by Beethoven, unless otherwise indicated: I have included pertinent works by Mozart, Marianna Martines, Schubert and Schumann. Wherever possible they illustrate events in the book. In the instances where they are not directly connected to the narrative’s timescale, they should illuminate particular points, such as the “Josephine” motif, a similarity between two different works, or a dedication e.g. to Count Razumovsky.
Mostly I’ve chosen one movement of a work - in the hope that you’ll want to source and listen to the rest as well. For some of the crucial piano sonatas, however, I’ve included the whole piece. It was, after all, by playing the piano sonatas that our narrator, Therese, would have best known Beethoven’s music. I’m sending herewith a list of which works go with which chapters.
There’s a lot of piano music here, so I’ve selected several different recordings. For the early sonatas, we have András Schiff’s live recording - not least because he is one of few to play the entire first movement of the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata as indicated, in one long pedal. For the ‘heroic’ period and the final trilogy, we have Daniel Barenboim and for the ‘Hammerklavier’ the magnificent recording by Murray Perahia. In the Andante Favori I picked Mari Kodama for her clear, Josephine-like phrasing.
The utterly splendid Takács String Quartet perform all the quartet extracts - and as I’ve named the Brunsvik family coachman after them, it seems only fair. The Cello Sonata in A major is played by Miklós Perényi (cello) and András Schiff (piano). The symphonies are variously represented in a classic recordings by conductors including Carlos Kleiber, Iván Fischer and Claudio Abbado; the latter also conducts the Piano Concerto No. 3 with the one and only Martha Argerich. The Beethoven songs are from a recording by baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Jan Lisiecki in a recording released for the Beethoven 250th anniversary in 2020. As for Fidelio, from which extracts appear at various points, this is conducted by Abbado with Nina Stemme as Leonore and Jonas Kaufmann as Florestan, a performance filled with ‘namenlose Freude’.
I hope you enjoy the mix of reading and music.
IMMORTAL: Playlist
CHAPTER 1
24 Variations on ‘Venni amore’ by Righini
CHAPTER 2
Marianna Martines: Cantata ‘Il nido degli amore’ - aria ‘Sarà più dolce assai’
CHAPTER 3
Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 1
Eleven Dances WoO 17 No.1 - Walzer
CHAPTER 4
Piano Sonata in D, Op. 10 No. 3, 2nd movt
Mozart Fantasia in F minor for mechanical organ, 3rd movt
CHAPTER 5
Piano Sonata in E flat, Op. 7, 1st movt
Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 13, ‘Pathétique’, 2nd movement
Variations for piano duet on ‘Ich denke dein’
CHAPTER 6
Septet in E flat, Op. 20, 1st movt
String Quartet in F, Op. 18 No. 1, 2nd movt
Piano Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2, Moonlight, 1st movt
CHAPTER 7
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, 1st movt
Piano Sonata in E flat, Op. 31 No. 3, minuet
CHAPTER 8
Symphony No. 3 in E flat, ‘Eroica’, 1st movt
Andante Favori
Sonata in C, Op. 53, Waldstein, complete
CHAPTER 9
‘An die Hoffnung’, Op. 32
CHAPTER 11
Fidelio - ‘Abscheulicher’
String Quartet in F, Op. 59 No. 1, 1st movt
CHAPTER 12
Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 57, ‘Appassionata’, complete
CHAPTER 13
Cello Sonata in A, Op. 69, 1st movt
CHAPTER 15
Piano Sonata in F sharp, Op. 78 ‘A Therese’, complete
CHAPTER 16
Für Elise
Fidelio - ‘O namenlose Freude’
Piano Sonata Op. 81A ‘Das Lebewohl’, 3rd movt
CHAPTER 17
String Quartet Op. 95, 3rd movt
CHAPTER 20
Symphony No. 7, 2nd movt
CHAPTER 21
Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastoral’, 2nd movt
Fidelio - ‘O welche Lust…’
Fidelio - ‘Gott, welch’ Dunkel hier’
CHAPTER 23
Piano Sonata Op. 90
String Quartet Op. 59 No. 2
CHAPTER 24
Schubert: ‘Erlkönig’
Piano Trio in B flat, Op. 97, ‘Archduke’, 1st movt
CHAPTER 25
‘An die ferne Geliebte’ - No. 6, ‘Nimm sie hinn denn, diese Lieder’
CHAPTER 26
Piano Sonata in B flat, Op. 106, ‘Hammerklavier’, 1st movt
CHAPTER 27
Schubert: ‘Death and the Maiden’
Piano Sonata Op. 109 3rd movt
Piano Sonata Op. 110 (complete)
Piano Sonata Op. 111 (complete)
CHAPTER 28
Symphony No. 9 4th movt
Grosse Fuge
CHAPTER 29
Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op. 17, 1st movt
